The Other White Meat

No offense taken, redeye. (4.00 / 2)

I believe that when a farm becomes a factory, in which the animals are given the same consideration as the nuts and bolts in an auto factory,  those factories become immoral and usually - if not always- terribly destructive to the environment.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead  

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by: piggieheart @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 17:35:04 PM CDT

No more Swine for me (4.00 / 1)

That's fer sure.

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 18:24:47 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Oh? (0.00 / 0)

What do you mean by "The Other White Meat"? Is that some kind of subtle undertone that the "white man" is responsible? Why does it always have to come down to race?

"Speak when you are angry--and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret." - Laurence J. Peter

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by: jarrod @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 20:01:52 PM CDT

Pork is known as the other white meat jarrod (0.00 / 0)

And you ask me why it always has to come to race?  Why indeed.

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 21:27:54 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Come on, jarrod, pork has been marketed as "the other white meat" for years (4.00 / 2)

The Pork producers council was trying to convince people that pork is just as low cholesterol etc. as chicken.  Not sure how true that ever was, but I definitely remember the marketing campaign.

Although it wasn't near as catchy as the "Beef - It's what's for Dinner" campaign, with the Aaron Copland tune.

"The War in Iraq is not the disease. The War in Iraq is a symptom. Arrogance is the disease" - Bill Richardson

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by: herding old cats @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 22:42:52 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You are too well-read to not know the genesis of that phrase. (4.00 / 2)

Disingenuous is definitely the word that describes you.  A very special kind of dishonesty.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead  

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by: piggieheart @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 22:59:23 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Pretty Sad (0.00 / 0)

All my attempts at humor seem to fail on you guys. Apparently because I disagree a lot, it makes you defensive. I thought I was known better than that here but I guess not.

It was more of a jab at Redeye than anything else, all in good fun of course. I'm sure other's got it.

"Speak when you are angry--and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret." - Laurence J. Peter

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by: jarrod @ Wed Apr 29, 2009 at 08:30:56 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Jab at Redeye (0.00 / 0)

What ever floats your boat jarrod.

Back to the topic; CNN/ Dr. Sanjya Gupta reported briefly on the Smithfield slaughterhouse in Mexico last night on AC 360.

"In this case, there's a patient who turned out to be positive for the swine-flu virus, with the exception that at that time in no region of the world it had been established as an etiological, epidemic cause," said Mexico Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova.

Edgar has managed to bounce back from his symptoms and playfully credits ice cream for helping him feel better.

His mother blamed the virus on a huge pig farm in the neighborhood. Officials have conducted tests at the farm owned by U.S. company Smithfield Foods, and those tests came back negative.

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Wed Apr 29, 2009 at 09:03:54 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I got it Jarrod... (0.00 / 0)

And I laughed histerically. I'm sure the few people on this board that can think saw the notorious Redeye prefix -- "what do you mean by..." -- to your outlandish Redeye-sounding yell-racism-when-a-penny-drops post and realized the content of your post was completely out of character. I certainly did. But perhaps I am biast since I personally know you. I also noted how the OP was quick to respond to your troll post, but completely ignored my legitimate question and point. Why is that Redeye?

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by: Jason @ Wed Apr 29, 2009 at 09:22:18 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Jarrod, it's ok. (0.00 / 0)

I also have a dry and subtle sense of sarcasm that people often don't get.

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by: bluebearcat @ Wed Apr 29, 2009 at 14:43:39 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Swine flu (0.00 / 0)

The hate mongering conservative commentators are using swine flu to promote racism.

Radio, TV and newspaper personalities have jumped on the illness as a platform to attack "illegal aliens" for being responsible for carrying the disease across the Mexican border and infecting innocent Americans.

Despite the fact that there is no evidence to support such claims, talk radio hosts Michael Savage and Neal Boortz, radio and Fox TV personality Glenn Beck, and columnist Michelle Malkin are spreading them faster than the contagion. 

But I digress.  During my daily blog stroll and and via satellite talk radio, I'm learning that the other white meat (no offense piggieheart), specfically Smithfield Farms, might be responsible for the outbreak.

Is Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork packer and hog producer, linked to the outbreak? Smithfield operates massive hog-raising operations Perote, Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated. The operations, grouped under a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carroll, raise 950,000 hogs per year, according to the company Web site.

 

You are inferring that the Mexican population has absolutely nothing to with this outbreak, but yet you've sited and credited a source that says otherwise. If the pigs were raised in Mexico, and contracted the swine flu as a result, how is it inappropriate to bring Mexico and illegal immigrants into the picture?

Additionally, have you done a google search on "Smithfield Foods illegal immigrants"? The number of hits that came up suggests they've had more than a couple of occurences with U.S. authorities on the subject over the past two years. Coincidence? 

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by: Jason @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 20:38:19 PM CDT

Have you done a google search on "swine flu New York City students"? (0.00 / 0)

Here is just one of many results:

 ...nearly all the St. Francis patients were improving and none were getting worse. He and Bloomberg said the New York cases do not appear anywhere near as serious as the deadly outbreak in Mexico, where churches and discos have closed to the public and most residents walk the streets with paper masks. The strains between New York and Mexico match, but the symptoms are far more mild here.

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States stands at 42. The outbreak also has sickened people in New York, Kansas, California and Texas. Health officials in Michigan said they have one suspected case and five are suspected in New Jersey.

Many of them had recently visited Mexico, including several students at St. Francis who had recently come back from a spring break trip to Cancun.

Flu doesn't check passports. Anybody who inhaled the wrong air at the wrong time in the wrong place is a potential vector.

Unfortunately, facts like this do not fit in the right-wing anti-Latino narrative.

"The War in Iraq is not the disease. The War in Iraq is a symptom. Arrogance is the disease" - Bill Richardson

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by: herding old cats @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 22:35:55 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

sooooey (0.00 / 0)

Former supervisor ordered to fire workers When workers at the Tar Heel, N.C., Smithfield Packing plant tried for a second time to form a union with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 204 to have a voice on the job, Sherri Buffkin, a supervisor, was ordered to fight her friends and neighbors.

Buffkin was instructed to give more favorable treatment to workers who didn’t support the union and to deny benefits—such as overtime— to union supporters.

 She and other supervisors were forced to report every morning to the consultants who were orchestrating the campaign to defeat the workers. The company held forced meetings to intimidate and threaten workers for supporting the union. Smithfield held separate meetings for black and Latino workers to pit worker against worker based on race.

 The company fired numerous union supporters. Buffkin supervised two of the workers who were illegally fired for union activity. Buffkin refused to lie for the company at the NLRB trial and was fired.

She testified at the trial on behalf of the workers. On the day of the election, deputy sheriffs, dressed in riot gear, lined the driveway to the plant. As workers went into the plant to vote, they saw deputy sheriffs standing side by side with company management.

Company representatives stormed the counting area on the day of the vote and, in the ensuing conflict, two union supporters were physically assaulted and arrested.

The NLRB found the company guilty of violating federal law and ordered a new union representation election. The magnitude of the violations of federal law led the judge to order extraordinary remedies—including union access to the plant and allowing the union equal time to address the workers—to counter the pervasive illegal conduct of the company. Smithfield has refused to abide by that decision, and workers still face brutal working conditions without a voice for change.

Smithfield? Don't me started. The above excerpt is a short, mild version from 2005.

 

When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.---Mark Twain

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by: julie @ Wed Apr 29, 2009 at 08:10:56 AM CDT

Pigs in slop (0.00 / 0)

Looks like the slop is flowing downhill for Smithfield. Thanks julie.

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Wed Apr 29, 2009 at 09:26:38 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Here piggy piggy! (0.00 / 0)

Not you piggieheart.  The Secretary of Health and Human Services was on TeeVee yesterday urging people to use the politically correct term of HN1 instead of the Swine Flu. 

Swine Flu, pigs and piggish politics

There is a lot  more to the swine flu outbreak than a virus and a vaccine:

The press in Mexico has been reporting that swine flu may have originated in the factory farming of pigs by Smithfield Foods (the world's largest pork packer and hog producer).

One week into the epidemic, not a single major American newspaper has reported even the possibility that factory farming may be implicated in swine flu.  

Swine Flu and Injustice breeding in factory farms' shadow

With the epidemic hurting its profits, the pork industry has asked health officials to rename the disease. However, the World Health Organization is sticking with the "swine flu" designation because the virus is the type that affects pigs, Bloomberg reports.

Back in Mexico, residents of La Gloria have long complained about conditions at the Smithfield subsidiary, saying they are bothered by foul odors, flies and problems with water contamination from the massive lagoons where hog waste is stored. After an outbreak of severe respiratory illness in February, health workers sealed off the town and sprayed chemicals to kill flies that were swarming in people's homes, the Times U.K. reports.

You won't hear about this on TeeVee.

 

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Thu Apr 30, 2009 at 17:26:39 PM CDT