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Food poisoning
Bridget Walsh on 06 September, 2011 | 
We have been raised in this society to believe that our ‘wants’ are enough to dictate our choices. Never mind the impact these choices have on others, or ourselves. We are consumers, and what we WANT goes. The customer is always right, after all. Simple economics prevail and, in order to meet our high customer demand, production and supply have to be equally as high, if not higher. But again, never mind if we decide after all that we don’t that many packets of bacon this week, or 3 roast chickens this Sunday after all, once that demand is manifested, the industry must deliver. And deliver they do (cue: food wastage).
We all know of the horrors of sow crates, freezing works ,battery hen farms (and I know since you’re a yogi there is simply NO WAY you buy anything but free range, organic eggs). The list goes on. These animals have zero quality of life, and as we ourselves know, living bodies need certain nutrients and experiences to survive healthily, else we develop illness and disease.
Here’s where the economics no longer cut it. As well as being living, breathing beings with fears and feelings, these ‘commodities’ have what we like to call, immune systems. If they aren’t being looked after, they aren’t healthy. If they aren’t healthy, they get sick. And guess what? They aren’t healthy. Bacteria starts to emerge. The animals get sick. Their surroundings get infected. Their ‘peers’ catch their illness. Ultimately, their meat is contaminated.
You know how it’s a commonly accepted fact that chicken must be fully cooked? This isn’t just because bacteria can develop if it’s left underdone. No, no - it’s because the meat is probably already infected and the bugs need to be fried out!
Unless you know, in good conscience, the entire production process of the meat on your plate (which hopefully you are eating very sparingly, if at all...because you know it goes against our yogic, non-violence value, and it’s not really any good for you anyway), chances are it’s festering some sort of nasty bacteria that has the potential to make you very ill. The stats are high. Over 80% of the meat on our store shelves is likely to be infected with something, be it salmonella, e-coli or campylobacter. Yum yum, eat up.
What’s worse than food poisoning? At the time, it probably doesn’t seem like it could get worse. But I’ll tell you what would top it: Pandemic. Swine flu. Bird flu. H1N1 - where do you think these are coming from? We know they are derived from animal contact. And what is the most common, frequent and direct contact we have with animal species’? Why, on our plate, of course! For the most part, this is the link.
A pandemic is a disease that will likely wipe out a big chunk of our population. According to Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer, the World Health Organisation (WHO) have said: “We know another pandemic is inevitable.” Let me repeat that: inevitable.
Not only is it ‘inevitable’, it’s overdue! History has averaged a pandemic every 27 and ½ years, and it’s been over 40 since we last had one. WHO think that in our next pandemic there will be between 2 and 7 million lives lost, at least.
Our consumer-driven, omnivorous economy is the force behind these breeding grounds for disease (that is, the ‘farms’ for the meat we eat). If you are buying mass produced animal products, you are contributing to the problem. Even if you are try to make an effort, if you are consuming animal products at all, chances are you’ll be tipping your hat to the industrial agriculture sector in some way. You think bakeries are using organic butter in their pastry? You think the chicken in your pastie was free-range? How about the egg or whey powder in those packet biscuits? I highly doubt they were sustainably sourced.
When you think of deadly diseases, AIDS is probably up there on your list, and fair play: AIDS killed about 24 million people in 24 years, so the statistics are shocking, whatever way you look at it. To put things in perspective, the worst pandemic we’ve known in recent history was the Spanish Flu in 1918. The Spanish flu killed 24 million people in 24 weeks. 24 WEEKS. THAT is a pandemic. THAT is what we are facing if we continue to perpetuate this problem.