Letters | Will what’s on our plates cause the next pandemic? Stop raising animals for food
- The animal farms, meat markets and slaughterhouses that support our taste for animal flesh must be closed down if we are to break the cycle of recurring outbreaks of animal-borne diseases
The latest coronavirus outbreak is giving me a dreadful feeling of déjà vu. Seventeen years ago, when the severe acute respiratory syndrome first made headlines, I locked myself in a cage in Hong Kong to illustrate the way our taste for animal flesh contributed to animal-borne diseases.
That same year, I wore a hazmat suit to the Asean Plus Three summit in Bali, Indonesia, where officials were discussing ways to prevent killer diseases. I explained that the most effective way to stop the spread of animal-borne viruses like the ones that cause Sars, avian flu and swine flu was to stop eating animals.
All in all, I’ve spent more than two decades warning people that it’s unhealthy – and downright dangerous – to raise animals for food.
Seeing people get sick and die from the latest coronavirus has only strengthened my resolve to persuade everyone to stop eating animals. We need to learn from past pandemics and go vegan, before wearing face masks becomes as commonplace as wearing clothes.
The high demand for animal-based foods means that animals must be mass-produced in crowded, faeces-ridden farms and slaughtered on killing floors that are contaminated with blood, vomit and other bodily fluids. Pathogens flourish in such conditions. And when an outbreak does occur, the animals, who have already suffered so much, are slaughtered en masse in horrific ways.