As bad as the coronavirus outbreak is, I think we can all agree that the only thing that could be worse would be another one. Outbreaks of novel diseases like this come from animals and mutating genes in animals that can then leap from the animal to humans. Many come from pigs or chickens. COVID-19, which is not the first coronavirus, came from a bat in China, but it just as easily could have come from a pig in Idaho.
When a new virus emerges as a mutation of a virus in an animal like a pig, humans have no immunity or ability to fight it. This is the difference between a novel virus like COVID-19, and the seasonal influenza.
Reporting from Vox indicates that the meat that we eat that comes from factory farms could also cause a pandemic.
“When we overcrowd animals by the thousands, in cramped football-field-size sheds, to lie beak to beak or snout to snout, and there’s stress crippling their immune systems, and there’s ammonia from the decomposing waste burning their lungs, and there’s a lack of fresh air and sunlight — put all these factors together and you have a perfect-storm environment for the emergence and spread of disease,“ said Michael Greger, the author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching.
Additionally, the U.S. trades animals and meat from our factory farms around the world, effectively shipping potential pandemics everywhere.
One would think it would be easy to treat these viruses with antibiotics, but the fact is, in America we use them so much that many of the animals we give them to are actually resistant to their effects.
The conditions are prime for another pandemic that we are not equipped to fight. So how can we stop this cycle?
We need to stop factory farming.
This would allow animals to spread out a bit and grow normally.
Increasing biodiversity among animals like pigs would also slow the spread of diseases.
At the same time, we as people need to look at consuming more plant-based products and swap out meat whenever we can to decrease the need for factory farms.
There are many easy ways to cut back on meat while still getting your protein. Soy. based products like tofu are one option, but many companies sell meatless alternatives for things like chicken nuggets, beef crumbles, sausage, burgers and hot dogs. In place of milk, oat milk is a healthy option. You don't have to do this all the time, but small changes to your diet will help the cause. It could help to stop the next pandemic.
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