The mainstream media has proven itself to be no friend of American agriculture. Not just the elitist press including Time, the New York Times and the Washington Post, but even local papers, television stations, and also the wire services. They have all cashed in their journalistic integrity for sensationalism.

They place fads ahead of facts and scare tactics above science. This is nothing new; as far back as the 1960s, the media has been deliberately misrepresenting agriculture in the name of a good story. The whole Rachel Carson Silent Spring campaign to ban DDT was a media whitewash.

In the 1980s, Alar was a hoax; and the BSE incident was made 10 times more disruptive and destructive than it had to because of the use of the term “Mad Cow”. Now it is H1N1 and the erroneous link to the swine industry.

From the moment people in Mexico started getting sick with the H1N1 virus, the phrase “swine flu” leapt into the headlines where it remains today.

Despite the efforts of public health officials to clarify the situation, the media continues to use the term swine flu. Despite requests from state and federal government officials, the phrase is still hanging around. As late as last week, the AP office in Indianapolis was still using the phrase in stories.

This is more than a matter of semantics: the unsubstantiated link between the virus and pork fostered by the media has caused an enormous economic impact of the pork industry.

It is a fact that pork producers are going out of business in part because of the H1N1 scare. Things have gotten so bad that the USDA Secretary was forced to do something very uncharacteristic.
Last week Tom Vilsack started acting like an advocate for agriculture rather than an apologist for the White House. In a national press conference he said, “The job of the media is to get it right and not necessarily to get it convenient. To get it [the virus name] right, it’s H1N1. It is fundamentally different [from swine flu], it’s unique, we’ve never seen it before.” The Secretary told reporters that calling the virus “swine” flu “upsets the markets, it upsets these producers, and it didn’t have to be. It’s just as easy to say ‘H1N1’ as it is to say ‘swine.’”

Vilsack acknowledged that some media outlets have made the switch and are reporting on H1N1 but, “There’s really not been a concerted effort by the media to do a good job, a correct job of making sure this is characterized properly.”

In a move that is much more insightful and proactive than we usually see from government, the USDA has worked out an agreement with other food and health agencies to keep pork in the food chain even if pigs contract H1N1. USDA officials stated that, to date, no U.S. swine has contracted the virus, but that such an infection was likely this fall.

According to Dr. John Clifford, USDA Chief Veterinary Officer, “Right now our plans are, as producers have influenza signs in their pigs and report those, we would be testing pigs we see with those signs. Also we would be helping investigate any cases where there might be known cases in humans on the public side that may have contact with swine.”

More importantly Clifford stated, “We are saying to producers and their veterinarians, when pigs are sick with influenza they should recover before they should be moved to other facilities or to slaughter. Then they’re perfectly healthy and fine to move on. Pigs recover from influenza and have very low mortality. So our message to the retailers and consumers is that pork is safe and they should not have concerns about consuming pork, relative to this influenza virus or other swine influenza viruses that may be circulating out there today.”

The probability is high that the first case of a pig with the sniffles will generate scare stories about flu infected meat. I would not be surprised if an unscrupulous anti-meat group planted such a story. While there is little that can be done to fix the past, there is plenty we can do to impact the future.

This is a clarion call for all of you to become H1N1 zealots. Even if you are not a pork producer, this misrepresentation of agriculture impacts all of us.

Whenever you see the phrase “swine flu” used instead of, or along with, H1N1, send a short firm e-mail to that media outlet.
No long speeches: just demand they start calling it what it is.
According to Google, there are over 48,000 news stories online that use the term swine flu. So get out there and tell the media that swine flu is hogwash.

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.