As the evidence piles up that the current strain of swine flu did indeed originate in a Confined Animal Feeding Operation, AKA a factory farm (yesterday, the CDC confirmed that it came from a strain that was first identified in a North Carolina factory farm) Smithfield is doing damage control—by blaming the media. From Grist:

In a letter to employees, [CEO C. Larry] Pope wrote that the results of those independent laboratory tests will be available and made public in a few days.

He issued the letter, meant to assure employees that Smithfield is taking steps to ensure their safety and that of the company’s pig herds, after international media reports indicated a link between the outbreak and a jointly owned hog farm in Veracruz. Veracruz is located near La Gloria, home to a little boy some believe to be the original H1N1 case.

“Unfortunately, the media and bloggers have jumped to conclusions based more on fear than fact and have sensationalized a serious illness,” Pope wrote.

Meanwhile, Sustainable Table policy analyst Rebecca Weiss writes about factory farms' long history of breeding viruses.

It's well-established that hogs are highly susceptible to contracting viruses from other mammals and from birds. This makes them ideal vessels for breeding new virus strains, which can then be spread by the hogs, their waste, or the workers who come in contact with either.

None of this is news; it's been known since at least the early 20th century, when tens of millions of people died from swine flu in the span of just two years. For years, in fact, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been wondering just when a new pandemic would arise. [...]

Concentrated feeding operations - massive facilities where thousands of animals are closely confined - are ideal breeding grounds for new infectious agents. While workers at these huge hog-breeding operations are supposed to wear sterilized clothing to minimize the spread of disease, that hasn't diminished their exposure, judging by hog workers' elevated antibody levels and "self-reported influenza-like illness," according to the CDC. In fact, the threat is so well-known that, in 2004, the owner of a Nebraska factory farm told a reporter he seldom visits his own facility due to "bio-security" concerns.

The bottom line is: Our desire for cheap meat—our refusal to pay for quality—has helped produce the perfect breeding grounds for disease. We shouldn't be surprised that confined spaces filled with thousands of animals with compromised immune systems are breeding grounds for disease. The real surprise should be that it hasn't happened sooner.