Sick as a Pig

摘要

It is a landscape of clinical efficiency. Flat, square fields, neatly interspersed with row upon row of anonymous factory units, greet the passerby. Behind the silent facades, every building contains thousands of farm animals. It could be veal calves,turkeys or chickens, but in this region of the Netherlands, close to Eindhoven, it is predominantly pigs. The Netherlands has a higher concentration of farm animals per square kilometre than any country on the planet, and these farms are now at the frontline of a new battle against MRSA. It has plagued hospital wards in Britain for years, picking off the elderly and infirm, but now another strain of MRSA is emerging from the factory farms of Northern Europe, and it is linked to the insatiable demand for cheap meat on our plates. The Ecologist Film Unit travelled to the Netherlands to investigate.