Swine flu or factory farming flu?
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009
The recent outbreak of swine flu has led to numerous deaths and widespread international panic and media hype. Schools are closing, governments are stockpiling vaccines and people are avoiding crowded places - every effort is focused on how to manage, treat and cure this disease. But like many things in life, few are stopping to address the underlying cause. Why did this outbreak occur? How could it have been prevented..?
Down on the farm
In a recent article the Telegraph’s Philip Johnston argues that the way we keep and raise animals is at the heart of the cause of swine flu.
Johnston writes:
‘…it is our proximity to the animals that have sustained us for millennia that makes us so vulnerable to the diseases that can kill us in large numbers. Ever since man stopped being a hunter-gatherer and began to live cheek by jowl with his livestock, he has run the risk of pandemics. Many human diseases originated with domesticated animals: measles and tuberculosis from cattle; smallpox from cattle or other livestock with related pox viruses; flu from pigs and ducks; and whooping cough from dogs.’
Is this just a nasty and inevitable side effect of farming animals for food on such a large scale? Or could the frequency and prevalence of these zoonotic diseases be an indication, an early warning sign, that something is terribly wrong with this picture..?
Isn’t man an amazing animal?
Swine flu and other diseases that we contract from domesticated animals bring to mind this paragraph from the preface to Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm:
‘Isn’t man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife - birds, kangaroos, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes, and dingoes - by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them. This in turn kills man by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.’ - C. David Coats
Is there still nothing wrong with this picture?
While I have every sympathy for the families of those who have died in this recent outbreak of swine flu and I understand that preventative measures and precautions are necessary to stop the further spread of disease, I can’t help but reflect on our treatment of the animals we breed for food. As Philip Johnston has written, zoonotic diseases are ‘a heavy price to pay for a pork chop or sirloin steak’.
- Swine flu is a heavy price to pay for a pork chop - Philip Johnston, Telegraph (UK)
- Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm - C. David Coats
- The not so publicised side of swine flu - That Vegan Girl
May 8th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I have a question for you: let’s say all the world decides to become vegan right now … what would you do with all the farm animals? Or even, if not everybody decides to do it, but just one huge farm? It’s not like they can “set them free” … or can they? I’m really interested in your answer.
May 8th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Hi Maja, thanks for your comment!
This is an issue that I’ve addressed in my FAQ section (under ‘Plant-based living’ - FAQ#21: Won’t animals take over the world is everyone goes vegan?) if you care to have a look. It’s highly unlikely that the world will go vegan right now (or even over night!).. as much as I would like that to happen.
Many of the animals that exist on farms simply wouldn’t be bred into existence if there wasn’t a shopper at the supermarket willing to pay for a pork chop - it’s simple supply and demand. If more people were to adopt a plant based lifestyle, demand would gradually diminish and farmers wouldn’t be able to breed nearly as many animals as they currently do for our plates. So it’s highly unlikely there would ever be a situation in which we need to worry about setting farmed animals ‘free’.
I hope that goes some way to answering your question. I don’t have all the answers but I do believe that there is a better for us to coexist with other species in the world. That’s mostly why I’m vegan! If you want to chat some more feel free to leave a message or email me.
May 10th, 2009 at 5:19 am
wow.
it is amazing how misunderstood this virus is.
It did not and never was from any form of swine,
the boy who was dubbed case #1 lived/worked on a pig farm, thats where the term swine flu originated.
get the facts people…
not the hype and hysteria.
Oh… and my son and I BOTH tested positive for swine flu last week… it’s NO worse than any other flu. you know the “normal” flu that kills THOUSANDS each year? but no one freaks out about it? yeah.. THAT one.
and a side note…
2 people in the US die of H1N1 and everyone wears masks…
THOUSANDS die in the US of AIDS and no one wears a condom…. we are smart!
*shaking head and walking away*
May 10th, 2009 at 5:20 am
hehe I just noticed your ad at the bottom of the page for http://www.PorkIsSafe.com
LOL
May 10th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Hi Dana,
Thanks for your comments!
I’m very sorry about the ad - unfortunately I have no control over the comments in the google ads section; they are automatically generated based on what’s on the page.
I agree that things have been blown out of proportion with regards to this flu and yes - many other diseases claim lives more rapidly - heart disease, diabetes, aids, malaria, influenza to name a few.
I hadn’t heard the opinion that this wasn’t any form of ’swine’ flu though. I thought it was a combination of avian, swine & human flu? If you’d care to explain I’m all ears!
I hope you and your son are recovering well, take care!
Sarah
May 11th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Hi, Sarah,
What is your take on it?
thank you for your answer … i will check your sections out. Here’s an article from science-based medicine blog on swine flu, it bascically confirms that they think the flu is a combination of avian, human and swine flu, but that is not yet confirmed: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=479
As for your stand on coexisting with other species, i totally get it, i think it’s a lovely idea … but then i have some trouble with it, isn’t it also an idea that we in the developed world can afford because we’re not really in contact with other species, would we still smile at the thought of a peaceful coexistence if we lived somewhere where we had to fight for our lives? For instance, when bears come close to human habitats, we begin to watch them closely, if they lose all their fear we shot them as to prevent spreading of their habitat into ours and having to live with an animal that, had it been brought up by humans, could possibly be all for a peaceful coexistence (like the famous lion video on youtube, when a couple that brought up a lion come visit the lion years later and it recognizes them), but it was born in the wild and taught to be ware of dangers other species may pose. Or if we had a very limited diet because we lived somewhere in the desert or somewhere in Siberia and the only source of protein would be an occasional goat. I can not decide whether the idea of a peaceful coexistence is really very natural and right or really very un-natural and detached from the real world, where other species fight to live, the survival of the fittest and all that.
May 11th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Thanks for that link Maja - very informative.
The natural vs unnatural debate is a very interesting one and I’m glad you bought it up.
Generally we humans are very fickle creatures and will appeal to something as natural to justify it while it’s quite obvious that there’s very little of our lives that are natural at all. It can be argued for example that it’s not natural for us to travel in planes, cook our food or wear shoes yet many of us do so regularly and with very little ill effect. Basically - I think using the term ‘natural’ is a little tricky to use in discussions like this because it can mean very different things to different people.
But I see your point about living with other animals and about people in harsh environments who don’t have the luxury of eating vegan foods. To address the latter - I do agree that it might not be possible for all people in all circumstances to go vegan due to extreme poverty or environmental factors. But the reality is that most of the readership of this blog all have internet access and are living in relatively comfortable circumstances. I think these people, who are living in developed nations, are able to go vegan successfully and easily even if they are poor by western standards.
As for living with other animals - I should clarify that when I wrote ‘coexisting with animals’ I didn’t mean returning to the jungle and swinging from trees (although that might be fun!) but rather taking another look at the way we live with animals in the modern world. Currently the vast majority are shut away in appalling conditions and used solely for our own ends - their lives are cut short, their bodies are used for profit and they have no lives of their own. I think this is remarkably sad and that there must be a better way to treat these animals in our society. I believe we should protect their environments and natural habitats but also give them the freedom to live out their lives in their own way, with little interference from us.
Apologies for such a long winded comment - there are lots of issues there & I’ve probably been rambling. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts though if you’d like to reply. I think about many of these issues often and wonder what would be best for the animals, the planet and ourselves.
Sarah.
May 12th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Hi, Sarah, i’ll be busy until next wednesday but i will gladly talk to you some more about the topic when some must-do-stuff is over. All the best until then, Maja
May 16th, 2009 at 5:28 am
Great post on swine flu!
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Hey very nice blog!!