Are We So Addicted to Meat That We Can't See Where the Swine Flu Came From?Something to think about next time you bite into a Big Mac.
By Kathy Freston
Are we killing ourselves?
There has been a lot of talk in recent days about how factory farmed animals are the cause of the deadly hybrid virus that is eerily mutating, and some are calling it cosmic retribution, a sort of "chickens coming home to roost" scenario. I don't know about that, but an animal virus like swine flu is a completely predictable (and was a widely predicted) response to our modern horribly cruel and appallingly filthy factory farming systems...
...Here's a home run solution that I can't help coming back to: eat less (and eventually no) animal protein. A diet high in animal protein bloats us physically by clogging our bodies with saturated fat, growth hormones, and antibiotics; it has been proven conclusively to cause cancer, heart disease, and obesity.
And the meat industry poisons and depletes our clean air, potable water, and fertile topsoil almost more than any other sector of business. As just one example, the meat industry is responsible for about 18 percent of all global warming--that's almost half again as much as all cars, planes, and trucks combined.
And now it's become all too clear that factory farms are breeding grounds for viruses to mutate and become deadly.
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Happily, I never bit into Big Macs.
ReplyDeleteI have heard though that some people have been killing pigs because they think that will cure the swine flu problem. That is pretty sick, if true.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of that but it makes so much sense! My family and I have switched to eating grass-fed, free range meat, chicken and eggs. I think the next step for us is to cut back on the amount. Honestly, I don't know if we can cut it out altogether, but I do know that we eat too large a portion at each meal. My Italian great-grandparents served their family only a tiny portion of meat at a meal because it was expensive but also because they thought it was bad for their constitution to have too much.
ReplyDeleteThe mass production of animal food has led to a lot of unintended consequences!
Well, fortunately, I have stopped biting into Big Macs or any other meat....not primarily for health reasons but for compassion ones, but the health ones are certainly an added bonus. I think we are addicted to meat and have so distanced ourselves from how it gets into the supermarket that we don't even think about what we're eating. Yeah, I really hated that all those pigs were killed....I agree that's sick.
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