With the H1N1 crisis fading from the headlines, it is time to assess the damage that was done to the pork industry and to the credibility of the media and World Health Organization.
The predictions of mass death and an international health crisis did not materialize.

This was a letdown for the media which had over-sensationalized the story. The “swine flu” outbreak of 2009 will go down in history as a “flash-in-the-pandemic.”

A group that suffered in the short term because of this panic, but may benefit in the long run, is the U.S. pork industry. Some of those who tried to use the panic to attack pork production have suffered a significant credibility loss.

One group that found themselves eating crow was the small group of nations who banned the importation of pork from the United States. There was never any threat to the meat supply and never any scientific justification for their embargo.

I would hope this would make them think twice next time there is a disease outbreak that is named after an animal. I am not optimistic, however, since these nations are acting more on economic concerns than safety.

Another group that was quick to try and profit from the virus scare was the radical animal rights movement.

The big daddy of this group, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), placed statements on their website and their leaders made comments in public that implied that modern pork production methods were at the root of the new virus. Many media outlets picked up on this insinuation and started reporting it as fact.

The pork industry was quick to respond with facts, and some producers even invited reporters to their farms to see for themselves what bio-security and herd health looked like. Dennis Avery, with the Center for Global Food Issues, wrote a scientifically valid and flawlessly logical explanation of why the HSUS claims were ridiculous.

Avery first pointed out the obvious, “If the HSUS is right, America’s big confinement farms should be the epicenter of the new virus outbreak. But, they’re not.” There is a big Mexican confinement hog farm near the village of one early flu victim but that farm has neither sick pigs nor sick workers, a fact conveniently ignored by those railing against “factory farms.”

Another fact that Avery points out is that world health officials are actually trying to increase the number of livestock raised on confinement as a health preventative, “The World Health Organization is trying desperately to get Asia’s poultry and pigs separated, and raised in confinement, to protect public health worldwide. Ask HSUS why the WHO feels this ‘factory farm’ campaign is so urgent?” It is ironic that the free-range concept advocated by so many animal activists poses a greater health threat to both the animals and humans.

While HSUS is wrong about many of the charges they make, they are right about one thing: people care about animals. HSUS claims that 1 out of every 30 Americans are members or somehow associated with their organization.

While I am not sure I believe those numbers, the point is that animal care is an emotional issue with the public. People like their meat, milk and eggs and have no problem consuming them, but they want to feel good about the way the animals were raised and processed.

The power of groups like HSUS comes when they make people feel bad about how farm animals are raised. They find the worst cases of abuse and exploit them. They use emotion to try to dictate how agriculture should raise and process animals.

Agriculture must not let these groups set the agenda or keep agriculture on the defensive. We must be aggressively proactive and clean up problems in our own industry.

While we should not shy away from exposing these groups for the radical extremists they are, we must also not let them become the focus of our message.

We must focus on gaining the trust of the public by crafting our image as the animal experts. We must take this issue seriously and devote more resources to it than we hitherto have. Humane and safe production must become part of our marketing message along with nutrition and taste.

The livestock industry must become as focused on animal care as HSUS is.

Only then can we win the trust and confidence of the American consumer.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.