Swine Flu Shows Agribusiness Needs Regulation…and Less Subsidies
The outbreak of the swine flu, now referred to as the H1N1 virus, most likely originated from a factory farm outside Mexico City where environmental and labor regulations are less stringent than in the U.S. Presumably, this is why U.S. based agribusiness, such as….have moved much of their production away from the U.S. In a globalized world, that’s great for the agribusiness. They continue to receive U.S. subsidies while sending jobs overseas. Blah, blah, blah, same old story, right? Well, not quite.
The problem comes in a new form of the tragedy of the commons. Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFO’s) create an environment in which disease can fester, mutate, and become virulent very quickly. The goverments of the world subsidize these CAFO’s and the externalities of their operations with tremendous spending on public health. In a previous post, I argued that these CAFO’s should be forced to pay the price for these externalities. Adam Smith, the father of modern economic theory, and a mainstay of Republican and conservative arguments about environmental versus economic issues, argued that the free hand of the market would level the playing field, and that if people didn’t want CAFO’s, they would choose to support small family farms. Unfortunately, the latter costs more…or does it?
If CAFO’s were held accountable for the obesity, disease, and other public health epidemics they cause, or for the unquantifiable cost of creating antibiotic resistant bacteria (did you know that more than half of all antibiotics administered in the U.S. are given to livestock in CAFO’s, and less than 10% of that total is actually used to treat infections in animals? The remaining 90% is given to animals to make them grow faster and put on more weight more quickly, creating fattier and less nutritious meats full of residual chemicals and hormones, and causing untold harm to the end consumer’s personal health).
A petition going around asks that more attention be given to this subject. Please sign it and pass it along.
Scott Cooney is the author of Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill).
