Take action to prevent future pandemics: Our Health over Profit

“If you actually want to create global
pandemics then build factory farms.”

(Dr Michael Greger, Bird Flu:
A Virus of Our Own Hatching)

This epidemic has already impacted many lives, and is affecting the poor and marginalized groups the most. We cannot afford a future pandemic.

In the past, AIDS, swine flu, Mad Cow, MERS, SARS, avian flu, and Ebola have already caused immense harm to the population worldwide. Today, even though Covid-19 is still devastating us, a new strain of avian flu is already spreading through Europe and Asia…

It is apparent that the government is lacking in consistency here. Are we committed to fighting pandemics or not?

Firstly, while the government spends large sums of money trying to find effective vaccines for the population, it is funding the very industries that may spark our next pandemic: animal agriculture.

Secondly, the meat and dairy industry does not have to adhere to any additional health guidelines, unlike us, citizens who receive a fine for sitting on a bench alongside 2 of our friends. Meanwhile, thousands of animals are crammed snout to snout in small areas and transported all over the country, freely.

In order to overcome pandemics and promote a clean and safe future for all beings, we urge our officials to press the government to create a National Pandemic Prevention Center which would, as a small first step, force all public institutions to provide plant-based diets.

Make yourself heard!

Simply complete the information below to send an email with the text below to your MP.

Hello [deputy],

As a resident of [district] and a constituent of yours, I am writing to ask for your support in helping to prevent future pandemic outbreaks by calling on the Canadian government to take concrete steps including the creation of a task force and the support for a food system that moves away from intensive animal farming.

It has been just over a year since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak and it is still underway. We are struggling to maintain our health, keep our jobs and feed our families.

If Covid-19, with it’s median fatality at 0.27% is able to severely impact our economy and our lives, what will happen if a potentially even more deadly and infectious strain emerges?

Yet if we don’t act now to reduce the likelihood and impact of further pandemics, we can be sure that similar, even deadlier scenarios will occur in the future.

A new workshop report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) claims that there may still be anywhere between 540,000 and 850,000 unknown viruses out there. The viruses could infect humans, causing deadlier, more costly and more frequent pandemics if we don't seek out the appropriate solutions to eliminate their emergence and spread. These include addressing deforestation (promoted by the extensive land use required to feed cattle) intensive animal agriculture and the wildlife trade. (https://ipbes.net/pandemics,  https://ourworldindata.org/yields-and-land-use-in-agriculture )

But instead of working to combat the causes of pandemics, the Canadian government is throwing billions of dollars at one of our biggest public health threats and potential sources of pandemics: factory farms.

About 60% of known infectious diseases and up to 75% of new and emerging infections have a zoonotic origin. By keeping animals under poor conditions, confinement and stress, not only does the factory farm industry cause huge suffering to animals, it creates the conditions for the emergence of new diseases.

In the past, the consumption of infected cow's meat exposed us to mad cow disease. Other highly pathogenic diseases developed in industrial farm complexes, such as swine flu and avian flu. Other cases that come from wild animals such as MERS, SARS, Ebola (from fruit bats) and AIDS (from chimpanzees) stem from the destruction of the habitats of wild animals by human activities, one of the very important ones being intensive animal agriculture (because of the magnitude of the deforestation and biodiversity loss).

The risk represented by factory farms isn’t a distant threat: it is incubating right here, right now. For example, less than 2 month ago, new strains of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus were surfacing in animals living in factory farms in more than 12 countries across the globe (Europe and Asia). The virus is more contagious and more lethal than the Covid-19 virus. (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-birdflu-asia-idUSKBN29J00D)

In addition, the use of antibiotics in mass factory farming is creating antibiotic resistant bacteria, which it is estimated will cause more than 10 million deaths a year by 2050, surpassing cancer as the leading cause of mortality worldwide, according to a high profile report. WHO estimates that 80% of antibiotics are administered to farmed animals in Canada and worldwide, and that poses a “serious and deadly security threat if an unexpected disease outbreak occurs.”

The risks due to animal farming are largely due to them being crammed together by the thousands, often in their own waste, sick, injured or exhausted, from birth to death. But there is also a risk when they are transported across the country and abroad, bringing with them not only their bodies but potentially highly pathogenic viruses.

The Canadian government and our elected representatives should not allow the cost of the industry's dangerous public health and environmental practices to be transferred to us, the public.

An article published by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) stated, “The phenomenal rise of these giants [Cargill, Tyson, Smithfield, JBS, BRF, Vion] has been achieved with the explicit support of public funds from governments, through policies that allow these corporations to pollute land and water, and by governments absorbing the public health costs and risks generated by this industry.”

As a society, we must be capable of questioning our current practices with a view to a better outcome. This means providing people with nutritious, environmentally friendly food, while making sure that public health and safety are protected.

We don’t need beef but protein, we don’t need cheese but calcium, and all these nutrients are abundantly available in plant-based, animal-free products available today, as proposed by the New Canadian Food Guide.

The American Public Health Association journal stated in an editorial, “It is curious that changing the way humans treat animals—most basically, ceasing to eat them or, at the very least, radically limiting the quantity of them that are eaten—is largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure." And as reported on the BBC (Oct 2020), “Economic damage alone from the COVID-19 pandemic is 100x higher than the cost of prevention."

Considering all of the above, I ask for your support in calling upon the Canadian government to take steps to prevent future pandemics and address the threat that animal agriculture poses to public health:

1. Implement a task force for pandemic prevention.

It is imperative that the government take leadership in ensuring a safer, more just and more sustainable food system, both locally and internationally. We ask that the government collaborate on a multisectoral and multidimensional scale in order to adequately assess the problem of pandemics in relation to intensive animal farming. Public communications must not hide the link between intensive animal agriculture and pandemics, and also their relationship to increasing poverty, environmental damage and climate change.

2. Mandate the availability of at least one complete and nutritious plant-based meal option in all publicly funded institutions.

This would be an important step forward in supporting a shift away from our country’s dependence on animal agriculture and, in particular, the devastating impact of factory farms. This mandate would affect schools, universities, long-term care facilities, and daycare centers, among others.

Sincerely,

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Text message

Hello [deputy],

It has been just over a year since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak and it is still underway. We are struggling to maintain our health, keep our jobs and feed our families.

If Covid-19, with it’s median fatality at 0.27% is able to severely impact our economy and our lives, what will happen if a potentially even more deadly and infectious strain emerges?

Yet if we don’t act now to reduce the likelihood and impact of further pandemics, we can be sure that similar, even deadlier scenarios will occur in the future.

The Canadian government and our elected representatives should not allow the cost of the industry's dangerous public health and environmental practices to be transferred to us, the public.

As Canadian citizens, we are concerned that the Canadian government does not address the causes and risk factors of potential pandemics adequately. It is clear now that factory farming is at the heart of pandemics, and the government shouldn't leave that unchecked.
Considering all of the above, I ask for your support in calling upon the Canadian government to take steps to prevent future pandemics and address the threat that animal agriculture poses to public health:

1. Implement a task force for pandemic prevention.

2. Mandate the availability of at least one complete and nutritious plant-based meal option in all publicly funded institutions.

Sincerely,

This campaign is organized by Vegan Option Canada. We will protect your privacy and keep you informed about this and other campaigns.

Humane Society International outlined 5 pandemic risks linked with animal agriculture:

1. virus ‘spillover’: when expansion of farms into previously wild areas brings wild and domestic species together.

2. viral amplification: where novel viral strains are created through confining vast numbers of stressed animals indoors.

3. farm concentration: where dense geographic concentration of farms increases the risk of pathogens spreading.
.
4. global live animal trade: where huge numbers of live animals are transported between countries and continents, allowing pathogens to spread even further.

5. live animal markets, agricultural fairs and auctions: where “hubs” are created such that animals from many different places are brought into proximity with the public, where viruses can proliferate. ”

More resources

Intensive animal agriculture & pandemics:

Dr. Michael Greger on Pandemic Prevention |-Infectious Diseases, Aids, Influenza, Coronavirus

Taking a look at the worst pandemics in history, and how to treat the cause by preventing the emergence of pandemic viruses in the first place.

Vegan Option Canada

Prevent Future Crises-Action