Factory farms; breeding grounds for pandemics

[Lilith7]

A thought provoking article - slightly scary too. I think its clear that we need to make changes, & soon.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...fAkmycpDkM

"Imagine that while your country practised social distancing, your neighbouring country responded to Covid-19 by packing citizens into gymnasiums by the tens of thousands. Imagine if, in addition, they instituted genetic and pharmaceutical interventions that helped their citizens maintain productivity under such adverse conditions, even though this had the unfortunate side effect of devastating their immune systems. And to complete this dystopian vision, imagine if your neighbours simultaneously reduced their number of doctors tenfold. Such actions would radically increase death rates not only within their country, but yours. Pathogens do not respect national boundaries. They are not Spanish or Chinese.



The meat that we eat today overwhelmingly comes from genetically uniform, immunocompromised, and regularly drugged animals lodged by the tens of thousands into buildings or stacked cages – no matter how the meat is labelled. We know this, and most of us would strongly prefer it be otherwise.




But we would prefer a lot of things in the world that aren’t so and, for most of us, the future of animal farming is low on our list of priorities, especially now. It is understandable to be most concerned with oneself. The problem is, we aren’t doing a good job of being selfish.


It is on chicken factory farms that we have most frequently found viruses that have mutated from a form found only in animals into a form that harms humans (what scientists call “antigenic shift”). It is these “novel” viruses that our immune systems are unfamiliar with and that can prove most deadly.

Imagine if our military leaders told us that almost every terrorist in recent memory had spent time in the same training camp, but no politician would call for an investigation of the training camp. Imagine if we knew that those terrorists were developing weapons more destructive than any that has been used, or tested, in human history. This is our situation when it comes to pandemics and farming.

The fact that we know our food system is partly to blame can empower us. We know how to strike at the single greatest risk factor for pandemics. We know how to make ourselves and our families safer. The very uncertainty that unsettles us also reminds us that everything can change for the better, too."

[C_T_Russell]

Well that's how bird flu came about in Asia, we have doged a bullet with chicken farms to be honest, but obviously the conditions of ours is still better than theirs.
All over this nonsense that it's less carbon intensive, they are trying to get rid of farms and everything will be farmed this way, next thing it will be insects if we are not careful.

[SueDonim]

It's an old article but still a good reminder of how good we have it here. We can learn from the problems caused by over-intensification elsewhere and continue farming our healthy grass-fed stock.

[nzoomed]

It's an old article but still a good reminder of how good we have it here. We can learn from the problems caused by over-intensification elsewhere and continue farming our healthy grass-fed stock.

We are very lucky indeed.
Give me grass fed any day. I remember watching a video of a butcher comparing the same cuts of meat between grass fed and indoor grain fed beef, there was quite a clear difference.
I dont think many people in NZ actually appreciate this.
In the US, I believe that the majority of their beef is still farmed outdoors, but it is slowly changing. In Europe however, particularly the UK, we are seeing much more beef produced from indoor farms.

[harm_less]

It's an old article but still a good reminder of how good we have it here. We can learn from the problems caused by over-intensification elsewhere and continue farming our healthy grass-fed stock.

We are very lucky indeed.
Give me grass fed any day. I remember watching a video of a butcher comparing the same cuts of meat between grass fed and indoor grain fed beef, there was quite a clear difference.
I dont think many people in NZ actually appreciate this.
In the US, I believe that the majority of their beef is still farmed outdoors, but it is slowly changing. In Europe however, particularly the UK, we are seeing much more beef produced from indoor farms.

"Farmed outdoors" is irrelevant to a large extent if they're fed grains as a large portion of their diets, as is the case in Feedlots (CAFOs). Cattle are designed to condume herbs (AKA pasture) and feeding them predominantly grain destroys their health leading to acidosis, increased E-coli contamination and unhealthy meat products. Our pasture fed meats reign supreme for this reason with dietary advantages in the meat they produce.

Pasture fed beef is far higher in omega 3 and has a deeper flavour profile. Worth noting too that the 'healthier' chicken meat is raised as rapidly as possible in heavily controlled environments with tailormade feed supplies with maximum growth in mind.