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All the steps that we take to battle COVID, including masks, social distancing and vaccines, are band aids. We tackle the symptoms but not the root cause. Our thoughtless abuse of nonhuman animals and nature is the fundamental issue at stake.
Photo collage by Marc Perlish
A recent United Nations report, Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic
diseases and how to break the chain of transmission, warns us of the rise in
emergence of animal-borne diseases due to exploitation of wildlife and
habitat destruction, a result of our increased demand for animal protein.
The report recommends to reduce this demand.
At the time of writing this, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed 3.57 million
people and over 172 million have been infected with the virus. It has
disrupted the economic, social, and many other aspects of life. We discuss
it constantly, everything from masks and vaccines to its massive impact on
our lives. Yet, isn’t it bizarre that there is no thorough, consistent and
constructive conversation about the root cause of most pandemics and how to
prevent the next one?
Scientists estimate that three out of four emerging infectious diseases
originate in nonhuman animals.[1] Those infections caused by pathogens that
jumped from animals to humans are called zoonotic. Excluding COVID-19,
they’re responsible for an estimated 2.5 billion cases of illness and 2.7
million deaths worldwide each year.[2] Zoonotic diseases include avian flu,
Ebola, HIV/AIDS, Mad Cow Disease, MERS, SARS, swine flu, Zika, and now
COVID-19.
What is the reason for deadly zoonotic disease outbreaks? Researchers have
determined that the destruction of wildlife ecosystems and their conversion
to animal farms and to animal feed croplands, have led to the emergence of
those infections. Pandemics are also the result of exploitation of wild
species, as HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 demonstrated. Wild animals harbor
different pathogens that may not affect their health, but when human society
encroaches upon their environment and gets too close to them, it’s
inevitable that life threatening germs will spillover.
“Pathogens do not respect species boundaries,” said disease ecologist Thomas
Gillespie, an associate professor in Emory University’s Department of
Environmental Sciences who studies how germs jump between wild animals,
domesticated animals and people, and how shrinking natural habitats and
changing behavior add to the risks of diseases spilling over from animals to
humans. “I am not at all surprised about the coronavirus outbreak,” he says.
“The majority of pathogens are still to be discovered. We are at the very
tip of the iceberg.”
Not only conversion of natural habitats to animal farms, and croplands to
feed animals, is the reason for zoonotic outbreaks, farmed animals
themselves serve as an epidemiological bridge between wild animals and
humans, the UN report notes. Crowded and often sick animals create perfect
conditions for the emergence of epidemics due to the physical and genetic
proximity of the billions of animals.[3] “The meat that we eat today
overwhelmingly comes from genetically uniform, immunocompromised, and
regularly drugged animals lodged by the tens of thousands into buildings or
stacked cages – no matter how the meat is labeled” noted the Guardian. It’s
no wonder that deadly animal-borne pandemics, such as avian flu and swine
flu, originated in animal farms.
According to the UN report, the expansion and intensification of
agriculture, the resulted increased proximity between humans, wildlife and
farmed animals, all are getting us too close to the zoonotic pathogens. To
add insult to injury, both the encroachment on wildlife and their abuse
cause a chronic stress to the animals and lowers their immunity, making them
more susceptible to deadly pathogens.[4]
What’s more, all those threats are amplified by global warming to which all
animal agriculture contributes greatly. In fact, animal based products
account for an estimated 82 percent of a typical American diet emissions
comparing to 18 percent from a plant-based diet. Those include products
originated in small and big animal farms, as well as those labeled “local”,
“grass fed”, “organic” or the oxymoron “humane”. They were all created on
pristine habitat where wild animals used to live. They took away the home of
its natural inhabitants–the wild species, and polluted our water, air and
land.
Just one heartbreaking example, a new study finds that air pollution from
animal agriculture is responsible for the vast majority of more than 17,000
deaths in the U.S. annually. This is mostly due to the toxic ammonia in the
huge amounts of manure that all animal farms produce.
You’d think that animal farming, a source of deadly pandemics, global
warming and pollution, would provide us with worthwhile and healthy
nutrition. Quite the opposite, animal agriculture is extremely wasteful and
inefficient. A study, published in the journal Science, states: “meat,
aquaculture, eggs, and dairy use 83% of the world’s farmland . . . despite
providing only 37% of our protein and 18% of our calories.” Not to mention
the high price animal sourced foods have on our personal health.
The increased appetite for animal based food, and the resulting stresses on
the ecosystem–dwindling habitat, pressures on wildlife and climate
change—will lead to more zoonotic spillovers. As the executive director of
the UN’s Environment Programme, Inger Andersen, said: “The science is clear
that if we keep exploiting wildlife and destroying our ecosystems, then we
can expect to see a steady stream of these diseases jumping from animals to
humans in the years ahead”.
“The science is clear that if we keep exploiting wildlife and destroying our
ecosystems, then we can expect to see a steady stream of these diseases
jumping from animals to humans in the years ahead.”
All the steps that we take to battle COVID, including masks, social
distancing and vaccines, are band aids. We tackle the symptoms but not the
root cause. Our thoughtless abuse of nonhuman animals and nature is the
fundamental issue at stake.
The rise in pandemics is driven by the demand for animal protein and the
utilization of animals for a wide range of products we don’t really need. If
we stop for a moment to heed the experts and scientists, we’ll find that we
risk our lives and the lives of future generations by consuming unhealthy
and unnecessary animal products for no good reason.
So what can we each do to prevent the next pandemic? The best single action
that each one of us can take is to stop consuming animal based
products–flesh, milk and eggs. Switching to a plant based diet would help in
curbing the next outbreak, reduce global warming and environmental
pollution. It also will improve your personal health, as science tells us,
there is nothing more healthy for your body than a plant-based diet!
Millions of people have switched to a plant-based diet and businesses have
taken steps in the right direction. One of New York’s top fine dining
restaurants, Eleven Madison Park, is switching to plant-based because the
current food system is “simply not sustainable”. The popular and
award-winning foodie website, Epicurious, announced it would not publish new
beef recipes, due to beef’s role in climate change. They cited the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that said 14.5 percent of
global greenhouse gas emissions come from farmed animals.
We consider ourselves the most intelligent species. If we are, shouldn’t we
ensure our future and coexistence with all animals on our shared earth? You
have the power to change course, stop our decline and destruction by
ditching all animal products. For yourself, your family and all earthlings,
go vegan.
References
Return to Food Hazards in Animal Flesh and By-products
Read more at COVID-19/Coronavirus Articles Directory
We began this archive as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a whole food vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you have a health problem, see your own physician.