Top Scientists Help Clear Up Confusion on BF

[moonstar]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12372921/

[Mother]

A LOT of info in that web site. I've been following it through there myself. They re supposed to have a simulated bird flu pandemic on Sunday night. Hope to see it.

 

We have set our own Family/Friends meeting for Sunday night the 30th of April. We will be discussing not only bird flu but also general uneasiness and the need to be prepared because our own family sees more threats on the horizons.

 

Thanks for the link.

 

 

[Becca_Anne]

I have a friend that works at a large insurance company in our town. She has been in Atlanta all week at a conference on the Bird Flu.

 

She works with Death claims.

 

 

Sobering, huh?

 

 

 

 

mommafitz

[chooselife]

OK- I am admittedly REALLY bullheaded about alot of things, but I read and saw some things in that article that just don't ring true to me.

-the picture of the 'chicken farm' in Iraq. They didn't say 'large company farm' or 'factory farm' so I'm assuming that it was one of those 'backyard family farms' we are supposed to be afraid of. It is NOT what we consider a 'backyard family farm' in these parts. You and I and most homesteaders have chickens for our own use, and some to sell. That picture had chickens shoulder to shoulder as filling the entire picture- it was a 'factory farm' pure and simple.

-they never said EXACTLY how the disease has spread from wild birds to chickens, or where their proof is of that even happening. Only that it's been 'found' in migratory birds. OF COURSE it's been found in migratory birds- they all carry it dormant in their guts, and they always have. And think about it- HOW does it get from the wild birds to chickens? Drinking the same water? Eating the wild bird poo? You can't tell me that a wild bird drools into the water, spewing germs. And most wild bird poo dries up pretty quickly- don't most viruses need a moist environment to live in? Or are our chickens carrying on illicit affairs with those dashing wild traveling salesbirds?

 

It appears to me (again- bullheaded and more than a trite paranoid) that the factory farms owned by the big companies have this little problem of a highly contagious virus that is spreading chicken to chicken in overcrowded situations. They need to

a) find a scapegoat (wild birds)

find a diversion (KILL ALL THE BACKYARD FLOCKS)

c) in spite of facts to the opposite, push their product as

our ONLY safe way to obtain safe chickens ("ours are

indoors under artificial light and pumped full of meds,

away from those nasty old wild birds" says benevolent

Mr. Pilgrim surrounded by clean healthy children)

Bo Pilgrim, Tyson and Hormel are scared silly that people are finally wanting healthy humanely raised meats. Their first line of defense was NAIS (which came on the scene at roughly the same time that we saw "organic free range chickens and eggs" packaged for sale in the big chain supermarkets next to the others)- and that's meeting with huge opposition. So they needed a REASON for NAIS. Enter Bird Flu.

Who is set to make ALOT of money off of Joe Public's fear?

The big farm corporations, the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies. Sounds like a big ol' Special Interest get together in DC to me...

Do I think that we could be in for some sort of pandemic?

Yes.

We have over-medicated ourselves and our food supplies for too long to avoid one.

I just don't think that Bird Flu is what's gonna get us.