A group of British doctors has backed a call for the end of factory farming to prevent future pandemics like COVID-19.
Dr Gemma Newman from the non-profit Plant-Based Health Professionals is leading a plea for the public to give up eating meat as part of the ’No Meat May’ campaign. A record number of people are taking part this year with 33,000 sign-ups compared to 10,000 in 2019. Of those who have signed up this year, a survey carried out by the campaign found that 38 per cent did so because of concerns surrounding the meat industry and diseases like Covid-19.
Hannah Bradshaw, one of the 23,000 new participants, says these concerns were certainly a part of her decision to give a plant-based diet a go. ”There is more information about the meat industry causing diseases than ever before and stronger links between the impacts on our health compared to a meat-free diet.”
It is hard to say whether the pandemic has had a direct impact on people’s pledges, explains campaign co-founder Ryan Alexander, but “it’s clear that people are making the connection between intensive factory farming and public health concerns.”
Zoonotic diseases, like Covid-19, are those that can spread between animals and humans. Worldwide they have been the cause of many historic outbreaks including H1N1 and Ebola. There is little evidence, however, to suggest that eating less meat directly reduces the occurrence of deadly disease outbreaks.
The most important factor, according to the UN Environment Program, is instead an increased amount of close contact between humans and animals like pigs, bats or birds which allows pathogens to jump between species. In 2016 it identified increasing encroachment of animal agriculture into natural ecosystems as a driving factor of zoonotic diseases warning that the “livestock revolution” could lead to a potential disaster.
The whole article can be read here.
Source: euronews.com
Photo: pixabay
