The Yakama reservation in Washington, USA has been the ancestral home of the Native American Yakama tribe for hundreds of years. However, the recent nearby construction of a factory farm complex has turned their homeland and homes into prisons.
To understand the more widespread effects of animal farming operations on the people living nearby, Supreme Master Television recently met some of the residents who are forced to live with the reality of a factory farm environment.
(Interview in English)
Resident living near dairy factory farm (F): I live a fourth of a mile from a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) and it’s really affected my family. I’ve been there a little over 20 years. It’s the flies, the smell, the dust, everything. We’re just trapped inside of our house. In days it stinks, we don’t turn the air conditioner on because the air comes in, we can’t open the windows.
VOICE: As is common for many people living near concentrated farming operations, when measurements were taken over the course of a week for the presence of ammonia from waste and other air pollutants at this resident’s home, the particle levels were so high that the measurements were off the scale.
Interviewee (F): Then the trucks, pulling that manure out, and then when they drive by they don’t cover it. So it’s on our road and when the cars drive by, it picks it up, and it is in the air. My kids only go outside once in a while when it’s nice. I always wanted to have a nice yard and have my kids outside, playing. But it’s not like that.
VOICE: As the animal farming operations take away the happiness from their neighbors, the most recent virus to have passed from farmed animals to humans continues to gain a foothold across the globe. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), confirmed cases of swine flu have risen close to 20,000 people who are now afflicted, including a first-ever case in Saudi Arabia, with 117 who have lost their lives, most recently in the countries of Mexico, US, Canada, and Chile. WHO interim assistant director-general for health security and environment, Keiji Fukuda, stated that if cases continue to spread, the agency may declare a pandemic, the highest alert level.
We thank the World Health Organization and all other organizations working to alleviate the swine flu as we pray for the victims of this worrying trend, especially loved ones in mourning.
Our sorrow too for the unwilling neighbors of factory farms as well, and pray that the practice of animal farming will soon cease altogether, so that all may enjoy health and life to the fullest.
Reference:
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20090602/who-world-closer-to-swine-flu-pandemic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakama_Indian_Reservation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakama