I think most of us here would agree with the following:
Forcing animals to live in inhumane conditions is unethical.
The overuse/preventative use of anti-biotics in animals to compensate for the unsanitary conditions they are forced to live in is dangerous.
NAFTA and the mechanisms of globalization allow corporations to take advantage of countries where labor and safety standards are low for the benefit of countries where many many people enjoy high standards of labor and safety, promoting inequality.
The panic among the media and the public is disproportional to the actual probability of deathly illness from H1N1.

For me personally, it is a significant leap of rationality from these assessments to the conspiracy theory advanced in this diary.  I think we need some historical perspective.  Pandemics are neither new nor made-up media phenomena.  But they have been used by people to advance their own sketchy belief systems.  And to remember that correlation does not prove causation.  The idea that the media hype is some attempt to distract us from the issue of factory farming and NAFTA is something I don't buy.  I think the media hype is more about ratings, people - including journalists - not understanding, fear of the unknown, and authorities who would rather be safe than sorry.  

No doubt the conditions of factory farming create a petri dish for bacteria and viruses.  But so do hospitals and school cafeterias.  I have a feeling vegetarians are trying to use H1N1 the way a Christian Scientists would use MRSA to say "I told ya so."  I feel conflicted saying this because I don't support inhumane factory farming.  


"Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms." -Dostoevsky