Business

More and more people are using frugality to escape the economic crisis, and to reduce the amount of waste that our materialistic system is producing.

According to Wikipedia, Frugality is the practice of acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services, to achieve a longer term goal.

Common strategies of frugality include the reduction of waste, curbing costly habits, suppressing instant gratification by means of fiscal self-restraint, seeking efficiency, avoiding traps, defying expensive social norms, embracing free (as in gratis) options, using barter, and staying well-informed about local circumstances and both market and product/service realities.

Frugality in the context of certain belief systems, is a philosophy in which one does not trust, or is deeply wary of “expert” knowledge, often from commercial markets or corporate cultures, claiming to know what is in the best economic, material, or spiritual interests of the individual

The following article was published on Avaaz and puts an interesting light on the origin of the Swine Flu.

No−one yet knows whether swine flu will become a global pandemic, but it is becoming clear where it came from – most likely a giant pig factory farm run by an American multinational corporation in Veracruz, Mexico.)1(

These factory farms are disgusting and dangerous, and they’re rapidly multiplying. Thousands of pigs are brutally crammed into dirty warehouses and sprayed with a cocktail of drugs −− posing a health risk to more than just our food −− they and their manure lagoons create the perfect conditions to breed dangerous new viruses like swine flu. The World Health Organization )WHO( and the Food and Agriculture Organisation )FAO( must investigate and develop regulations for these farms to protect global health.

Big agrobusiness will try to obstruct and scuttle any attempts at reform, so we need a massive outcry that health authorities can’t ignore. Sign the petition below for investigation and regulation of factory farms and tell your friends and family and we will deliver it to the UN agencies. If we reach 200,000 signatures we will deliver it to the WHO in Geneva with a herd of cardboard pigs. For every 1000 petition signatures we will add a pig to the herd:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic/98.php?cl_taf_sign=48ef12813bec464ddeea4e37a89bda2f

Last week the flu was all that we talked about −− Mexico has been nearly paralysed and across the world leaders halted air travel, banned pork imports and initiated drastic controls to mitigate the spreading virus. As the threat shows signs of subsiding the question becomes where it came from and how we stop another outbreak.

Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world whose farm is being fingered as the source of the H1N1 outbreak, denies any connection between their pigs and the flu and big agrobusiness worldwide pays huge sums of money for research to argue that biosafety is ensured in industrial hog production. But the WHO has been saying for years that ‘a new pandemic is inevitable’)2( and experts from the European Commission and the FAO have cautioned that the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig production is in fact increasing the risk of development and transmission of disease epidemics. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that scientists still do not know the extent that infectious compounds produced in factory farms affect human health.)3(

Studies abound of the horrific conditions endured by pigs in concentrated large−scale operations, and the devastating economic impact on small farmer communities of bloated large−scale operations.)4( Smithfield itself has already been fined $12.6m and is currently under another federal investigation in the US for toxic environmental damage from pig excrement lakes.)5(

But even with all of this damaging evidence, a combination of increased global meat consumption and a powerful industry motivated by profit at the cost of human health, means that instead of being shut down − these sickening factory farm operations are propagating around the world and we are subsidising them )6(. In the wake of this swine flu threat, let’s hold industrial pig producers to account. Sign the petition for investigation and regulation:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic/98.php?cl_taf_sign=48ef12813bec464ddeea4e37a89bda2f

If we resolve this global health crisis boldly by reassessing our food consumption and production, and urgently calling for an inquiry into the impact of factory farms on human health, we could put in place tough farm practice rules that will save the global population from future animal borne lethal pandemics.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic/98.php?cl_taf_sign=48ef12813bec464ddeea4e37a89bda2f

in hope,

Alice, Pascal, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Ben, Ricken, Iain, Paula, Luis, Raj, Margaret, Taren and the whole Avaaz team

)1( Biosurveillance report tracing the disease to the Smithfields farm: http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine−flu−in−mexico−timeline−of−events.html
Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm and the flu:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life−style/health−and−wellbeing/health−news/for−la−gloria−the−stench−of−blame−is−from−pig−factories−1675809.html
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la−fg−mexico−flu28−2009apr28,0,1701782.story
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can−swine−flu−be−blamed−on−industri−09−05−01
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227063.800−swine−flu−the−predictable−pandemic.html?full=true
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david−kirby/swine−flu−outbreak−−−−nat_b_191408.html

)2( WHO pandemic information
http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19

)3( FAO, EC and CDC reports on the risks of industrial farming on public health
FAO and CIWF and http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/about.htm

)4( CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for animals in factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:
CIWF and PETA

)5( Reports on Smithfield’s animal welfare and environmental damage
http://www.independent.co.uk/life−style/health−and−wellbeing/health−news/for−la−gloria−the−stench−of−blame−is−from−pig−factories−1675809.html

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new−report−highlights−the−trouble−with−smithfield−article03132008

http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf

)6( Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farms http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers−forking−out−700−million−for−factory−farming−in−England.html

Avaaz.org is an international civic organization that promotes activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, and religious conflicts. Its stated mission is to “ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform global decision-making.” The organization operates in thirteen languages, and claims more than three million members from every country in the world.

At the 2007 G8 conference, Avaaz.org protested against the “U.S. administration (for its) ‘wrecking tactics’ and failure to agree to specific, binding global goals” when it came to the mitigation of global warming. At the event, Avaaz.org presented a petition signed by 355,000 people from 193 countries that supported its position. Avaaz is also a co-organizer of the Global Day of Action for Burma along with Burma Campaign UK and Amnesty International. It has registered more than 750,000 signatures to a petition to the Chinese President Hu Jintao and the UN Security Council, urging them to “oppose a violent crackdown on the demonstrators” and “support genuine reconciliation and democracy". Avaaz delivered this petition to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on October 15, 2007

Source: Wikipedia.org