Sustainable agriculture in cities - 2

17,000 hogs housed in 18 barns surrounded by an electric fence. This line in an NPR story caught my eye a few weeks ago. Animals and humans have lived together in human habitats for thousands of years ever since agriculture began. Pathogens have jumped back and forth many times. The tuberculosis bug may for example have come to humans from dairy animals. The practitioners of 'modern' industrial agriculture and agriculture and food policy makers may seem to be separating us with electric fences and antibiotics from these terrible bugs. However, the swine flu breakout illustrates dramatically that this paradigm has failed miserably. Disallowing dairy animals, poultry and pigs from urban areas in the name of hygiene and health only forces these ancient companions of humans into 'concentration camps' like the one in La Gloria. There they are pumped with antibiotics and vaccines, again in the name of health. Mark Schlosberg describes in the San Jose Mercury News of 19 May how the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in factory farms is endangering our health.

Instead of factory farms we need integrated farms where pigs can be pigs as part of an overall multi-species ecology. This would be both environmentally and economically sane. Jatey pota, vatey rota goes an Indian proverb - where there is dung there is food. But the modern mind revolts, wants to separate and sanitize. And then it wonders why are these plagues still visiting me?