It’s no secret, factory farms are being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, millions of people are in a panic.
“What will I eat? I am going to starve!” can be heard from geographic regions around the country.
“Food supplies are drying up!” is yet another panicked response to what is happening.
Politicians Running Scared
Coming to the rescue of the meat, poultry, fish and dairy industries, are politicians warning of major food shortages in the supply chain.
“This is an outrage,” cry men and women who rely on money from these very industries.
Is it really an outrage, or are they running scared because some of their funding is drying up? Do they really care about the very people who trust them to make the right decisions on their behalf? Or is it that they are simply thinking about the lining of their pockets?
Let’s explore this further.
Sustainability
Sure, there will be shortages of animal-based products, but with some foresight, we may be able to develop more sustainable food chains with much healthier options.
“But we need meat to survive!” yell those who refuse to give up hamburgers, chicken legs, or salmon steaks.
Then there are those who can’t imagine life without cheese. But I digress. Let’s look at the temporary shutdowns of factory farms. It’s likely the politicians who are yelling the loudest about the broken food supply chain are these ones who are getting funding from the very industries they are trying to protect.
Massive Industry
The truth is, factory farming is one of the largest industries in the world. It’s big money. The majority of the public has no idea what really goes on in factory farms. Many people don’t want to know. They turn their head away saying, “I don’t want to know. If I do, I’ll lose my appetite for meat.”
That’s the idea folks. The truth is much uglier than people realize. Policy makers want you to believe in the existence of compassionate practices, but the reality is very different.
“While policymakers and the factory-farming lobby use this legislation to reassure the public that their animal-welfare concerns are groundless, the reality is that many of these regulations are a façade, with no practical impact. In short, these abundant regulations often serve to protect the industry, rather than the animals trapped inside it.” Compassion in World Farming https://www.ciwf.org.uk/factory-farming/why-does-factory-farming-still-exist/
Meat Eaters in a Panic
Meat eaters are in a panic while plant-based life-stylists and vegans are finding the shutdowns align very nicely with their food choices. Without a doubt, the shutdowns of factory farms could be a huge step in the right direction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is more than enough proof that viruses are spread as a result of the millions upon millions of animals confined to tight quarters, forced to live in incredibly filthy pens. Animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds and cages, metal crates, and other torturous devices.
Dr. Michael Greger Had It Right Years Ago
This interview with Dr. Michael Greger is an eye opener for anyone who doubts where the spread of viruses, like COVID-19, originated from.
To think the meat that comes out of these filthy conditions can be healthy is to deny the truth.
The goal with factory farming is to minimize expenses while optimizing profits. All at the detriment to the animals. Yet, it’s not just the animals that suffer. Humans are suffering in untold ways.
The truth needs to be told and told and told.
Factory farming spreads disease. Factory farming is cruel. Factory farming is incredibly inhumane to animals.
“With more than nine billion animals raised and slaughtered for human consumption each year in the U.S. alone, modern animal agriculture puts an incredible strain on natural resources such as land, water, and fossil fuel. Factory farms yield a relatively small amount of meat, dairy, and eggs for this input, and in return produce staggering quantities of waste and greenhouse gases, polluting our land, air, and water and contributing to climate change.” https://www.farmsanctuary.org/learn/factory-farming/factory-farming-and-the-environment/
The bottom-line is this, factory farmed animals are NOT safe to eat. Period. End of story. Yet, there’s more to the story.
Antibiotics
The overuse of antibiotics is another big problem with factory farmed animals. Although detailed information about antibiotic use in animals is sorely lacking, the available data shows that approximately 70 percent of medically important antibiotics in the United States is sold for use on the farm.
According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), “Antibiotic resistance happens when the germs no longer respond to the antibiotics designed to kill them. That means the germs are not killed and continue to grow.”
Flourishing antibiotic resistance is just one of the many public health crises produced by factory farming. Other problems include foodborne illness, flu epidemics, the fallout from poor air and water quality, and chronic disease.
COVID-19 Risks
Some of the greatest risk factors to COVID-19 are obesity, diabetes, asthma and heart disease. All of these are impacted by food choices.
It has been proven, with science and lots of research, that a WFPB diet is an incredibly healthy choice to not only lose excess weight, but reverse, even eliminate many diseases we have come to expect as part of the norm.
What’s normal is health. Let’s get back to this normal.
The focus, moving forward, needs to be on sustainable food supplies.
Granted, right now, there is massive confusion of how to get food to those who need it most. Farmers are having to throw out surplus crops because restaurants are buying less or not buying at all.
There is a scramble to figure out how to get those crops out to locations such as food banks.
There is no easy solution, but again, when “the powers that be” claim something, look at where they have a vested monetary interest.
