ONE ROOT CAUSE OF PANDEMICS IS OUR "INSATIABLE DESIRE TO EAT MEAT"

[FBInCIAnNSATerroristSlayer]

HUMAN FILTH should be and must be FORCED to "reduce the consumption of
meat AND the number of animal species they eat".


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https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/one-root-cause-of-pandemics-few-people-think-about/?amp



One Root Cause of Pandemics Few People Think About

It’s our seemingly insatiable desire to eat meat

By Paul Shapiro on March 24, 2020

One Root Cause of Pandemics Few People Think About
Credit: Lester Lefkowitz Getty Images


It’s easy for those of us in the Western world to shake our heads at the
live wildlife markets in China that appear to be the origin of the
coronavirus pandemic now paralyzing the globe. Easy, that is, since such
a practice is so literally quite foreign to us. (In their defense, at
least, China has now banned such markets.)

But what’s more difficult is to be honest with ourselves about what
kinds of pandemics we may be brewing through own risky animal-use
practices. And while the new coronavirus, crippling as it is, might have
a somewhat merciful case fatality rate (proportion of those infected who
die) of less than 1 percent, we know that this catastrophe may be just a
dress rehearsal for an even more serious pandemic that could take a more
gruesome toll—akin to the 1918 global flu pandemic, which originated in
Kansas and killed at least 50 million people.

When that day comes, it’s very likely that such a virus will also have
its origin in humanity’s seemingly insatiable desire to eat animals,
whether wild or domestic. The conditions in which we often farm animals
today—crowding tens of thousands of animals wing-to-wing or
snout-to-snout—serve as “amplifiers” for viral pandemics.


Indeed, the H1N1 swine flu outbreak of 2009 appears to have originated
in a pig confinement operation in North Carolina. And while the H5N1
bird flu outbreak in 1997 evidently originated in Chinese chicken farms
(case fatality rate 60 percent), a similar bird flu in the U.S. just
five years ago led American poultry farmers to kill tens of millions of
their birds to contain the outbreak, which thankfully never made the
jump into the human population. And at this very moment, both India and
China have announced bird flu outbreaks among their chicken factories.
Similarly, these are not yet affecting human health.

But you can only play viral Russian roulette for so long, which is why
public health experts concerned about zoonotic diseases have for years
been ringing the alarm about the industrial farming of animals. Michael
Greger, author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, calls factory
farming a “perfect storm environment” for infectious diseases. “If you
actually want to create global pandemics,” he warns, “then build factory
farms.”

In fact, in 2007 an editorial in the American Journal of Public Health
was published on the topic, worrying that our mass-raising and
slaughtering of animals for food could be the genesis of the next big
global pandemic. Given the connection between industrial animal
agriculture and pandemic risk, the American Public Health Association
journal editorial observed: “It is curious, therefore, that changing the
way humans treat animals—most basically, ceasing to eat them or, at the
very least, radically limiting the quantity of them that are eaten—is
largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure."


In 2007 such a prescription might have seemed off the radar as it would
have appeared simply too unrealistic. Today, however, technological
progress has made it easier to imagine taking the public health experts’
advice more seriously.

Yes, we humans may crave meat, but our conception of “meat” is now
becoming far more diverse than in the past. Whereas “protein” was once
synonymous with a hunk of flesh from a once-living animal’s body, today
many Americans are embracing a type of protein diversity that celebrates
meat from a variety of sources.


There’s the success of plant-based meat alternatives, for example, which
are now a popular part of fast food chains’ menus across the country.
Many forward-thinking meat companies have even released their own
plant-based meat alternative offerings, too. Other smart meat companies
are starting to blend plant proteins into their animal proteins,
offering hybrid products that are better for the planet and public health.

And then there’s the “cultivated meat” field, where start-ups, often
backed by major meat companies, are growing real animal meat from animal
cells rather than from animal slaughter. This kind of meat isn’t yet on
the market, but already many people—including this writer—have enjoyed
it, and the federal government is preparing a pathway to commercialization.

Diversifying our methods of meat production would not only offer us a
chance to reduce pandemic risk by cutting down the number of live
animals we must raise for food, but it also could help mitigate numerous
other risks as well. Whether the concern is climate change, antibiotic
resistance, deforestation, animal welfare or more, the benefits of
broadening our protein portfolio are manifold.


As we hunker down and weather the corona storm now hitting the world,
let us take some of our downtime to contemplate that we have the power
to reduce the chance of the next pandemic. Yes, we should curb wildlife
markets, but let’s not stop there. If we have the will to shut down our
entire society for weeks on end, surely we have the will to slightly
change our diets.


Paul Shapiro

Paul Shapiro is the author of Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without
Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World, and the CEO of The
Better Meat Co.