Raging Viruses
The impact of livestock on climate warming has been clearly and thoroughly reported in many studies. Besides the problem of warming, intensive industrial animal farming will greatly increase probability of virus transmitting and mutating among species. The threat of raging viruses to humankind is much more rapid and severe than climate warming. The outbreak of various viruses can cause humans to completely disappear from the surface of Earth within a few years.
In the 2013 FAO report Tackling Climate Change through Livestock, researchers carefully evaluated the greenhouse gas emissions produced by different species. The report recommended reducing livestock with high emission values. It did not advise that livestock should be banned. Furthermore, in order to protect forests, agricultural department in many countries have turned to develop intensive industrial animal farming and technologies of recycling methane. These studies are fundamentally misguided, as the devastating consequences of animal farming are not a single independent event. Climate warming has caused the collapse of global ecosystem, and methane is not the only greenhouse gas should be addressed. All animals exhale carbon dioxide. Are we going to study breathless farming for the sake of our meat eating habit?
Due to these policies, research and the increase in population, the number of livestock, such as pigs, cattle and sheep, has not decreased. But the scale of poultry and aquatic farming has increased at an alarming rate. The ability to produce such a large quantity of animal products is attributed to the advancement of animal farming, automatic slaughter technology, and the huge scale of industry. Using human intelligence to develop these technologies is tantamount to speeding up the digging of our own graves.
Origin of Epidemics
We, human beings, really should deeply reflect on our relationship with animals, diet choice, and position and role in nature. That viruses in animals spread through the network of human food and water is the most likely way for outbreaks of all modern epidemics. Gathered animals is a breeding ground for diseases. This is the origin of many epidemics. Smallpox originated in cattle, plague in rats, AIDS in monkeys, and so on and so forth. But people still insist on farming animals intensively for meat.
The solution is not switching to farm poultry and aquatic, or developing technologies to recycle methane. There are already many dead zones in the ocean (see section 1-2), and avian flu has been prevalent for many years. Now COVID-19 has killed millions of people around the world. Scholars from UK and Brazil published a report in ResearchGate in May 2020. It is named Hypothesising on the Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 through Bats: Its relation to Intensive Pig-factory Farming and the Agro-Industrial Complex. This paper pointed out: The emergence of COVID-19 may be related to the agro-industrial complex of livestock farming.
According to the paper, Wuhan City in Hubei province is famous for intensive pig-factory farming. Wild bats moved to inhabit in pork factories because of habitat loss. And the virus was transmitted to the pigs by bats. The virus may have been circulating among pigs for years, and then infecting farm workers after mutating. Hence, virus entered human food chain. Or it may infect humans through drinking water contaminated by pig manure discharged into the environment. It has evolved into thousands of variant viruses now. Whether the vaccine developed effective against the variants is unknown.
Future of Humankind
In addition to COVID-19, the most likely viruses for an epidemic are: avian flu related viruses, swine fever related viruses, and ancient viruses released because ice sheets melt. The third is a a problem caused by warming. This will be discussed in Chapter 2.
Both avian influenza and swine fever have many mutated strains of virus. Viruses of swine fever may mutate into a strain that can infect humans. And some strains of avian influenza are already capable of infecting humans. Avian influenza is currently prevalent in Asia. Japan is the most affected. According to reports, more than 10 million chickens have been culled in Japan as of March 2021. Other places carrying out preventive culling are Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and etc., for avian flu is found in poultry farms. In response to the demand for meat, it is conceivable that chickens will be massively reproduced again. In February 2021, avian flu infected seven employees in a Russian poultry farm, but no human-to-human transmission has been reported.
Preventive culling of animals due to diseases is not counted in the number slaughtered for meat production. If humans continue to breed in such large numbers, slaughter in such large numbers, and kill in such large numbers, the consequence of extinction can be foreseen.
20220812_Supplementary Notes
I was asked questions about traceability of COVID-19. The article has been deleted after the website was rearranged, so the reply is simply added below this post:
At the time of writing this article, the more reliable source I can find about the virus traceability is originated in the outbreak of Wuhan. Internet rumors cannot be used unless there is a reliable source. As for the leak from the Wuhan virus laboratory, it is purely a smear rumor. Because unidentified lung diseases have been reported in various countries around the world since mid-2019. These cases all predate the massive outbreak in Wuhan in early 2020. In addition, COVID-19 has now countless variants, and the speed of mutation is much faster than the laboratory can produce. That is to say, the research report attached to this article has a high possibility of judging how the virus originated, but the location is not necessarily in Wuhan, China. COVID-19 should have evolved naturally in various places, and formed by continuous mutual infection and mutation.
Various new viruses have erupted in various places now, and it is difficult to record them all, so I ignored. The bird flu mentioned in the article has long been recorded to have infected humans. It is just that the symptoms are still mild, and the process of virus evolution has been limited due to a large number of culling.
Further Reading: 1-2 The Cost of Meat Eating Habit and Livestock ｜ 1-4 How Many Animals Are Slaughtered Worldwide Every Year?
Cited Report: The Corona Triangle
Relative Download: Diet and Environment Relative Download
