I was a complete vegetarian once. Born and brought up in a Hindu household, our diet mainly comprised of plant-based foods. Therefore, eating any form of meat, poultry, or fish was considered a strict taboo. More importantly, my family firmly believed that consuming any meat was cruelty against any other living and breathing form of life. These were the principles implanted in us. However, over the years, in my effort to lose weight, I started looking at cutting down on carbohydrates and increasing my protein intake. Being brainwashed to the idea that a plant-based diet does not have enough protein content, I started adding some fish and poultry into my existing diet. Ever since then, I have considered myself a flexitarian.
I have a confession to make, though. The Covid-19 outbreak across the globe has left me shaken and scared. It also now leaves me contemplating if being a vegetarian can genuinely help solve such fatal diseases. Time and again, we as humans have been exploiting animals resulting in such types of conditions upon ourselves. Should I go back to being a complete vegetarian? Were my parents right about vegetarianism being a better lifestyle choice? After all, Albert Einstein once said – “A clever person solves the problem. A wise person avoids it.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, “Approximately seventy-five percent of emerging infectious diseases affecting people began as diseases in animals“. Take swine flu, for example. This particular type of disease, linked to pigs, killed thousands of people worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), – “The Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa was a result of fruit bats, that spread in the human population through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials contaminated with these fluids.” SARS, was a corona virus linked to China’s wet markets. It was spread from bats to an intermediate animal host, the civet cats. The COVID-19 also spread from consumption of bats and pangolins kept along with other wildlife in unsanitary conditions in one of Wuhan’s wet markets in China. While all this is disturbing and upsetting, the bottom line is that it’s not just the wet markets across Asia and other countries that trigger such outbreaks. There are equally disease-ridden animal factories around the globe, including here in our very own US soil. These factory farms tend to be as disgraceful as the wet markets in other countries. Most meat-eaters in the US believe they usually buy humane products; however this is not the case. According to the latest Sentience Institute analysis – “99% of US farmed animals live on factory farms“.
Cruelty to Animals
Severe disease outbreaks arise because we as humans tend to house animals and birds, in unsanitary, crowded farms, and markets. According to PETA (Mar 17, 2020) – ” These animals and birds are transported in filthy trucks and slaughtered on killing floors soaked with blood, urine, and other bodily fluids. These crowded farms are nothing but a breeding ground for new strains of dangerous bacteria and viruses“. Every time we buy any type of meat products to satisfy our eating habits, we are setting in motion a chain of extreme events. We are not only encouraging the killing of more innocent animals for the replenishment of animal products but also unleashing the next lethal disease for afflicting humankind. Is this worth it?
Animal Consumption Cause Many Diseases
The consumption of meat and other animal-based foods contributes to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and even cancer. Further, foodborne pathogens such as salmonella and E-coli from harmful bacteria found in the intestines and feces of animals often cause outbreaks of food poisoning. Do we need to add more to this mix?
The emergence of Superbugs and Antibiotic Resistance
To keep animals alive in filthy, disease-ridden conditions, factory farms are consistently feeding vast amounts of antibiotics to them. Because of this, certain bacteria have become resistant to even the most potent ones, leading to the emergence of ‘superbugs’- new aggressive pathogens resistant to antibiotics. According to Euronews.com (Feb 4, 2020) – “The CDC has stated that antibiotic resistance is one of the world’s most pressing public health problems. Other experts predict that at our current rate, more people will die of diseases caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria than of cancer by 2050″. This is a serious problem!
Climate Change
Reduce Carbon: Eating a vegetarian diet can aid in stopping climate change. Replacing meat with plant-based foods can help reduce carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions. Did you know that eating one 8 oz. steak produces as much greenhouse gas as driving fourteen miles?
Land: There is more agricultural land being used to raise cattle than all other domesticated animals and crops combined. Take, for example, the Amazon Forest. 70% of the clearing of its area is for farming beef. A vegetarian diet requires two-and-a-half times less the amount of land needed to grow food, compared to a meat-based diet.
Water: Conserving water is equally essential. It takes enormous amounts of water to grow crops for animals to eat, clean filthy factory farms, and give animals water to drink. According to Vegsoc.org, – “It takes about 145 gallons of water to produce an 8-oz., chicken breast. That is enough to fill a bathtub 6.5 times“. Further, it takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef. In comparison, it takes far less water to produce plant protein.
Again, restoration of our oceans to their full natural balance can only happen if we go vegetarian. According to Vegsoc.org – “Around 85% of fisheries are overfished or fully exploited, causing a problem for our seas“.
Jim Robbins, in New York Times in 2012 was on to something when he said: “If we fail to understand and take care of the natural world, it can cause a breakdown of these systems and come back to haunt us in ways we know little about.” Pandemic outbreaks such as Ebola, SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, and the current Covid-19-did not just happen. They are a result of things we humans do to nature. Albert Einstein also said- “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” I am convinced that if we do not change course and make attempts to alter our food system as part of a plant-based economy, we will see more pandemics like these. We would be remiss if we ignored lessons from the Black Plague that decimated one-half of the entire population in Europe and the Spanish Flu that took 500 million lives worldwide. We can never underestimate the lethality of the next pandemic. Next time it may just wipe out our entire human race. It’s time to wake up and take action.
Citations
Allen, E. (Feb 4, 2020). The Best Way to Prevent Future Pandemics Like Corona Virus? Stop Eating Meat & Go Vegan. EuroNews. Retrieved from https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/01/the-best-way-prevent-future-pandemics-like-coronavirus-stop-eating-meat-and-go-vegan-view
PETA. (Mar 17, 2020). PETA Covers Myths & Facts About Meat & the Corona Virus. Retrieved from https://www.peta.org/blog/links-between-meat-and-coronavirus-facts-myths/
Sentient Media. (Apr 16, 2020). 99% of US Farmed Animals Live on Factory Farms. Retrieved from https://sentientmedia.org/u-s-farmed-animals-live-on-factory-farms/
Vegetarian Society. (n.d). Eat to Beat Climate Change. Retrieved from https://www.vegsoc.org/info-hub/why-go-veggie/environment/
WHO. (Feb 10, 2020). Ebola Virus Disease. World Health Organization International NewsRoom. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease
Life Is Like That! 