Times columnist Ben Macintyre agrees with my previous posts on swine flu and its origins [link]:
“I once worked on a chicken farm. Actually ‘farm’ is far too gentle a word for the way these chickens were raised, and ‘factory’ sounds too clinical. This was the seventh circle of chicken hell, a clucking, stinking, filthy production line with just one aim: to produce the maximum quantity of edible meat, as fast and as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality, cruelty or hygiene.”
“As swine flu spreads, and fear spreads faster, it is worth remembering that this, and other animal-to-human viruses, are partly man-made, the outcome of our hunger for cheap meat, the result of treating animals as if they were mere raw material to be exploited in any way that increases output and profits.
There is a tendency to see a flu outbreak, like the plagues of old, as an unstoppable natural event, a scourge visited on Man from above. But there is nothing natural about this form of disease: indeed, it stems from an abuse of nature.
Vast modern pig farms, like the huge poultry plants across the globe, are ideal incubators of disease, and many scientists believe that viral mutation can be directly linked to intensive modern agricultural techniques. With enfeebled animals packed into confined spaces, pathogens spread easily, creating new and virulent strains that may be passed on to humans. When dense populations of factory-farmed animals exist alongside crowded human habitations, the potential for disaster is vastly greater.”
Okay, LG, I saw your comment over on Marginal Revolution and came over for a looksee.
It appears that your major point is that infectious disease can come from animals, so let’s quit farming/eating them and our problems will be over.
I disagree with you that humanity would thrive by breaking its symbiotic, ecological relationship with animals. Disease is just part of the package, and it’s arguably worse if the food chain is wild animals and not farmed ones – see Africa.
Have you read Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond? According to him, most of our diseases – TB, polio, smallpox, rubella, plague, etc., originated in animals, and really took off when we started living in and among them as livestock. That is still the model in the developing world, but not in the US. A confined barn of pigs, from an epidemiological standpoint, acts as a single organism. Various species – some livestock, some wild, some human – which are mobile and interactive, are far more likely vectors for virus mixing. There are still lots of backyard pigs in Veracruz.
It’s easy to hate livestock farms. I guess we could kill off all the animals, livestock, pets, and wild, and that might cut down on disease.
brian
May 3rd, 2009
I disagree libertariangirl.
It is NOT due to people raising pigs as livestock, but is due to the WAY that livestock is raised and treated.
If all of the big industrial, multi-national, multi-million/billion dollar, agri-corporations factory farms are all outlawed & abolished and society returned to the humane, organic farming practices of yester-year, there would NOT be most (or any) of the health problems, environmental destruction, and other issues from raising livestock for food.
Despite what many claim, the problem is NOT meat-eating.
For THOUSANDS of years, all through history, from the Cavemen, to the Native Americans & Colonists, to the Pioneers and beyond, meat has been a part of most people’s diets – with NO problems!
The problem has been & continues to be caused by INDUSTRIALIZATION, ZONING REGULATIONS & MASS PRODUCTION!
We need to end or sharply curtail INDUSTRIALIZATION, and remove ALL zoning restrictions, so that anyone who is able to, can grow & raise their own food, in a clean, natural environment!
Instead of trying to raise as much livestock as cheap as possible for as high of profit as possible, these “factory farms” should be shut down, and have society go back to eating the way that the pioneers & the other forefathers did.
NOT by buying our food from corporate giants like Wal-Mart, but instead either growing & raising our own food or by buying organically & humanely grown food from the local small farmer down the road.
Amy
May 19th, 2009
“Disease is just part of the package, and it’s arguably worse if the food chain is wild animals and not farmed ones – see Africa.”
I’m arguing that the relationship is not “symbiotic”– (how is our relationship with pigs beneficial for them, by the way?) and disease doesn’t have to be “part of the package.” You’re right about Africa, though– humans first got AIDS by eating monkey meat. We are just now learning about the diseases we can get from our more “genteel” farming methods.
I’ll add Guns, Germs and Steel to my reading list. Sounds like you have already come around to my way of thinking
In vitro meat will solve the problem for good, anyway.
“If all of the big industrial, multi-national, multi-million/billion dollar, agri-corporations factory farms are all outlawed & abolished and society returned to the humane, organic farming practices of yester-year, there would NOT be most (or any) of the health problems, environmental destruction, and other issues from raising livestock for food.”
If that was done, there would not be near the amount of meat produced that there currently is. I would be fine with that, but if you are a dedicated meat-eater you may have a problem with that. You wouldn’t be able to get meat anyway, and it would be a great delicacy along the lines of how it used to be when no one could afford it and it was more of a delicacy.
There’s simply no way that organic farming can produce the same amount of meat, since there is simply not enough land (and most likely not enough water) in the world for this to be done. Already, 1/4 of the world’s land is used for cows to graze.
“For THOUSANDS of years, all through history, from the Cavemen, to the Native Americans & Colonists, to the Pioneers and beyond, meat has been a part of most people’s diets – with NO problems!”
LOL– for starters, do heart disease, high cholesterol and cancer sound familiar to you? Most of today’s major American health problems are directly linked to a diet high in red meat consumption. And as I just mentioned above, AIDS transferred to humans via eating meat.
A solution could be found in in vitro meat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat
Source for AIDS coming from monkey/chimpanzee meat:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/12/health/main558432.shtml
libertariangirl
June 8th, 2009