‘Contagion’ Movie Makes the Case for Modern Livestock Farming

I saw the movie, “Contagion,” this weekend with my daughter. I have to say, it’s a good flick, good actors, fast-paced and slickly shot. Without realizing it, the film makers may have inadvertently endorsed America’s modern hog farms. For one thing, raising hogs indoors protects them from disease-carrying wildlife, the very kind that caused the cross-species viral contamination featured in the movie.

(Spoiler alert!)

In “Contagion”, Gwyneth Paltrow (‘Patient Zero’) inadvertently acquires a deadly (spreads by touch) viral infection in Hong Kong by shaking the unwashed hands of a chef (note to all movie-goers: always wash hands before eating). She didn’t realize this chef had just prepared a dish from a hog that was exposed to a sick bat. This pig was apparently raised in an open-air pen, where a sick bat flew overhead, then dropped a piece of fruit it just grabbed from a banana tree. Pigs, true to nature, eat anything. And so the story goes…

But, what I find interesting is that the Humane Society of United States’ Wayne Pacelle is claiming “Contagion” actually makes a case for raising animals in the very conditions that put them at risk for contracting contagions from other species ( http://hsus.typepad.com/). I’m wondering if he saw the same movie.

I grew up on a Century farm in Iowa and have many fond memories. But, after seeing “Contagion,” I think Hollywood’s screenwriters could use a little ‘chore time’ on an actual, working farm to gain some perspective.

I saw birds, wild cats, stray dogs, raccoons and mice scrambling through our hog feedlot and roaming in the moonlight across our cattle pastures. I remember the year wild dogs got our rooster (so much for my dad’s egg-laying chicken farm idea), the year rabid skunks got into the hog lot (28 shots in the stomach for us, but the hogs were vaccinated, of course), and the daily roaming of a horde of much-loved, but unvaccinated feral cats.

Things were different back then. Today, it’s not just rabies vaccinations (three shots!) that have improved, so has hog farming (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid64340018001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAACMzGNIE~,z-fiweksx8NKGXiTGxVmXug1yWfMOUJx&bclid=69776058001&bctid=918490352001). Farmers who choose to raise their hogs in modern livestock barns say doing so protects them from exposure to wildlife, harsh weather and viruses that can be carried by any stranger who happens to wander onto the farm.

It’s a choice. Responsible farmers across Iowa work hard to give them to you. There are many options for raising animals, both indoors and out. But clearly, progress in American agriculture (versus overseas?) keeps our animals safer, our food safer and our families safer from the kind of Hollywood hysteria portrayed in “Contagion,” and the kind of ‘one size fits all’ food production model Pacelle and the HSUS hype machine condones.

Written by Laurie Johns
Laurie Johns is Public Relations Manager for the Iowa Farm Bureau.

Seeing through the hype as “food experts” carp about food choice

Had a carp steak lately? How about a helping of carp fillets or maybe a heaping basket of carp fritters?

I’m betting the answer is a resounding “no” for most of us. And we’d all be pretty surprised to discover that there was a government campaign launched about a century ago to get Americans to eat more carp. The ugly fish filled up lakes and streams at the time and were viewed as an economical source of protein.

Obviously the “Eat the Carp” campaign was a flop. Carp may be a delicacy in some parts of the world, but didn’t catch on here. There are just so many other delicious and affordable sources of protein, like pork, beef and lamb, which make a lot more sense for American palettes.

But the fishy food campaign of the early 1900s does show how food recommendations come and go over the years. It’s also a good example how American consumers over the years have been able to cut through the hype and use good common sense to choose a nutritious and balanced diet.

Nobody that I know of is pushing carp these days, but there is no shortage of people on television, in magazines and everywhere else who are telling Americans how to eat. Celebrity chefs take cheap shots at everything from eggs to chocolate milk. Activists falsely accuse corn sweeteners of being the prime source of obesity in America. And groups like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS continue to push their anti-meat agenda with events like Food Day, which is scheduled for this October. It goes on and on.

Basically, these folks are trying to shame consumers into giving up their choice of foods.

There was a recent cartoon that caught my eye. It showed a few poor consumers shackled in stocks, the kind the Puritans used to shame lawbreakers. The offenders’ crimes: eating salt, carbs and whatever else the food police determined was forbidden.

I chuckled at the cartoon, but there’s a lot of truth to it.

Today’s farmers are producing an almost endless variety of foods that offer consumers affordable, healthy choices: choices that our ancestors could hardly imagine.

Yet many so-called experts today seem determined to shame consumers into feeling guilty about choosing.

In the end, we’ve got to hope that today’s consumers see these food campaigns for what they are: attempts to keep consumers from making their own choices of nutritious foods for themselves and their families.

It didn’t work with carp, did it?

Written by Dirck Steimel
Dirck is the news services manager for Iowa Farm Bureau.