Factory farming a greater pandemic risk than consumption of exotic animals

Because factory farmed animals are reared in an enclosed space, where their freedom of movement is severely restricted, their resistance to disease plummets
This farming practice is also increasing drug resistance in humans

Danny Friedmann

Published: 8:15am, 18 Jul 2021

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What is the similarity between diseases such as Spanish flu, Ebola and severe acute respiratory syndrome? There is a high likelihood that all three diseases were caused by the spread of viruses from animals to humans.

However, humanity seems to have problems learning from historical facts. Those who have warned against the risks of a pandemic during the last 10 years have been ignored as modern-day Cassandras.

Certainly, the incursions of humans into nature and eating exotic animals are a serious cause of concern, not only with regard to endangering biodiversity but also exposing humans to new viruses. However, a bigger imminent and preventable risk of new pandemics is posed by factory farming.

The purpose of factory farming is to make farming more efficient: instead of going to the animals to feed them and catch them for slaughter, they are brought all together in one place. But because factory farming puts the animals in an enclosed space, often where their freedom of movement is severely restricted, their resistance to disease plummets and their susceptibility to viral or bacterial contagion shoots up.

This is amplified by the genetic uniformity of the animals, since farmers favour the same growth patterns and sizes. And thus, if one animal gets ill, they all get ill. International transport increase the risk of contagion further.

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Farmers today commonly use feed additives such as growth promoters and antibiotics, which cause drug resistance, not only in animals but in humans as well.

Besides the risk of pandemics, consuming meat, dairy and eggs tends to clutter the arteries of those consuming them and are also associated with increased risk of some types of cancer and type 2 diabetes.

Despite some efficiency gains by factory farming, the production of meat remains highly inefficient compared to plant-based and cell-cultured food. About 7kg of grain is needed to produce 1kg of beef in the US. In addition, factory farming produces more greenhouse gases than all modes of transport combined in the European Union. In the most animal-dense country in the world, the Netherlands, this had led to the call by the second-largest political party D66, to halve the livestock.

The problematic relation between humans and animals started with declaring animals as property, which led to the breaking of the integrity of their bodies (castration and cutting the tails of pigs, dehorning cows, burning the beaks of poultry, ear tagging pigs, goats and cows – all without anaesthesia) and lifelong incarceration, ending in the slaughter of over 70 billion animals each year.

The “veil of ignorance” proposed by the American moral philosopher John Rawls has been insufficiently applied around the world. This is a thought experiment in which you have to make laws for society, but you do not know in what form you will return to that society. Perhaps you will return as an animal, and therefore should consider more humane laws with regard to animals.

Cows are seen at a farm in Saladillo, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 20. Photo: Reuters

Since at least the Song dynasty (960–1279), China has a tradition of plant-based analogues for animal-based products. But as everyone who visits supermarkets have noticed, a revolution of plant-based foods, which look, taste and have the same function as animal-based products, has taken off in the last few years.

This innovative food entails no risk of contagion from animals or danger of antimicrobial resistance, is healthier for consumers, is produced with fewer greenhouse gas emissions and is cruelty-free.

Seafood, chicken products next for plant-based food entrepreneurs

A virtuous cycle of investment and supply has started for plant-based foods and cell-cultured meat, dairy, fish and seafood, especially in Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv in Israel and Wageningen in the Netherlands. In the case of cell-cultured meat, a few cells are taken from an animal that does not have to be slaughtered, and subsequently these cells will be multiplied and raised in tubes. Enormous efficiency gains can be achieved, since the cells can be fed directly, without the need to sustain a complex mammalian body.

Silicon Valley investors have likened plant-based and cell-cultured food to “software” and animal-based food to “hardware”, since the first is open to innovation and the latter is much more fixed.

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In the European Union, the negative effects of animal-based products on health and sustainability are recognised in the Farm to Fork Strategy, a policy advice document for the European Parliament. The European Commission points to the need for more healthy and sustainable food and more transparent labelling that can guide consumers towards this innovative food.

Animal-based food producers in the EU and US have insisted on “truth in labelling” measures to exclude innovative foods from using animal-based food names, even though empirical research demonstrates that few consumers are confused about the ingredients if they read “plant-based beef burger” on a label.

In 2020, the European Parliament approved an amendment to expand on a 2017 Court of Justice ruling than banned the use of dairy-related words such as “milk” with regard to, for example, “oat milk”, even though the amendment conflicts with the policy goals in the Farm to Fork Strategy to transition to a system of health, sustainability, clear information and the implied goal of ethical food production. While the amendment was withdrawn in May, the 2017 court ruling still stands.

This pushback is a rearguard action by the animal-based producers, many of whom have already hedged their bets and have started to invest in innovative food as well.

Humans have the opportunity to evolve into more ethical creatures who not only survive but thrive consuming innovative food. By not consuming animal-based food you can harness your health, help avert a new pandemic and climate change, and not become complicit in maintaining a system that is cruel to animals.

Dr Danny Friedmann is assistant professor at the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen