Gorgeous Girlie Girl Army Boy Sgt, Ari Solomon (creator of our absolute favorite green, vegan candle line A Scent of Scandal ) blogs his sexy little heart out about the creepy fact that many diseases come directly from factory farming and consuming animal products. He’s not just hypothesizing, homeboy backs it up. Read on;
Since the beginning of this year, everyone’s been abuzz about the swine flu or H1N1 flu. But swine flu has actually been around for quite some time. In fact, scientists have been following this virus for almost 100 years. Until recently, swine flu had only been limited to one strain, H1N1. But in 1997, new strains started showing up. There was H3N2, H1N2, and H4N6. I’m not a doctor, so I’m not going even going to try and explain what those different strains are. The point is that the virus started mutating.
Swine flu is a disease that started in pigs. But since non-human mammals are so physiologically similar to humans, diseases have been known to jump species. One of the most infamous of such “jumps” occurred in 1918, when a global pandemic of an originally avian strain of H1N1 killed between 50-100 million people, more than all the casualties of World War I, which ended that same year. Indeed, some researchers believe the 1918 strain may have originated from the Army base of Fort Riley, Kansas, where chickens and pigs bred for food may have infected soldiers, who, in turn became carriers of the disease. Others believe the virus jumped directly from birds. What is certain, however, is that human efforts at domesticating and breeding farmed animals have dramatically increased H1N1’s occurrence and resilience.
Swine flu though is only one example of deadly illnesses that have broken the species barrier: Tuberculosis actually originated in bison. The Bubonic plague was spread by rats. Salmonella lives in chickens. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is now known to be a mutation of the Simeon Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), which occurs in chimpanzees. While evolution has allowed many animal species to become carriers of various pathogens without themselves becoming sickened, strains can become deadly when jumping to humans, who have no such immunity.
In its most recent recurrence, swine flu has already infected over 1 million Americans and scientists fear that half the country’s population– 150 million– may be sickened over the next year. What’s particularly frightening about this is that doctors are still struggling to understand why, in addition to the very young, old, and immune-compromised individuals, unusually large numbers of healthy adults aged 20-40’s are dying from it. This pandemic is sure to cost billions in healthcare treatment, and thousands, if not millions of lives across the world.
The hard truth, and one that is rarely discussed in the news (though I have to give props to CNN’s Jane Velez Mitchell), is that this latest outbreak of swine flu began on a factory farm in Mexico. If you’ve never been to a pig factory farm, imagine football field-sized hangars filled with hundreds of thousands of pigs living their entire lives in their own excrement and urine in concrete pens so tight they’re unable to even turn around. There is no sunlight or fresh air. In some facilities, pigs live their whole lives in total darkness. Most go insane. (EDITOR’S NOTE: It is scientific fact that pigs have the EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE OF A 6 YEAR OLD HUMAN BEING. They are leaps and bounds smarter than dogs.) Factory farmers attempt to minimize “damage” by taking baby piglets and having their teeth cut off (without anesthesia) to prevent them from later goring other terrified and crazed animals as they frantically attack each other from stress and terror. This is the manufacturing process of not just pork and bacon, but also new and deadly diseases.
Because these horrendous living conditions cause pigs to have destroyed immune systems, they are more susceptible to illness. And the cramming of hundreds of thousands of animals together ensures that disease spreads like wildfire. This is well known by factory farmers. That is why over 70% of the antibiotics we produce in the US are used on farm animals. Cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and pretty much anything else that comes from a factory farm is doused with these powerful meds to keep them from getting sick.
Now, we all know that doctors tell us to be very cautious with antibiotics. Don’t take them unless it’s absolutely necessary, make sure to finish the entire dosage, etc. This is because bacteria can mutate. Scientists have been worried for years that super-strains of diseases resistant to our medications could emerge. Tuberculosis has already accomplished this task, showing up in three deadly forms that antibiotics can’t touch.
The CDC would have us take solace in a new swine flu vaccine that they say is safe. However, during the last swine flu outbreak in 1976, vaccines were responsible for thousands getting sick, some developing Guillian-Barre, a neuromuscular disorder.
But the real scary thought is this: how long before other deadly bacteria become antibiotic-resistant due to mass antibiotic dosing of farm animals, and jump? What if an airborne virus far deadlier than the swine flu breaks the species barrier? And, what are the ramifications of humans slowly ingesting unknown numbers of antibiotics though the animal flesh we eat?
Factory farming is the ensured breeding ground for these yet-to-be-encountered diseases. Perhaps it’s nature’s way of karmically kicking us in the ass for the way we treat animals. Perhaps it’s just human arrogance. But with no end in sight for factory farming we should all take pause.
It’s time for us to stand up to these heinous and dangerous practices. If you’re not going to do it for the animals, do it for your own health and the health of millions. Leave meat off your plate. Why support an industry so reckless and heartless? Because you like the way animals taste? Is it really worth it?
You don’t hear of humans getting deadly Panama disease… that’s because it only affects bananas. Maize Dwarf Mosaic virus has been known to wreak havoc… in corn. Plant diseases don’t jump to us because plants are nothing like us. The closer a being is in likeness, the easier it is for a pathogen to mutate. Plants can certainly be carriers for disease– we all remember the recent peanut butter and spinach scares. But these scares should more accurately be described as cross-contamination from animal feces widely thought to be from factory farm runoff or manure. Yes, that’s right: shit. Peanut butter and spinach don’t just naturally sprout E.coli and salmonella.
While swine flu is a pandemic of our own making, we should also have it be a grave warning of things to come. In the interim, there are steps we can all take to protect ourselves and others from the flu: make sure to get plenty of rest, eat a variety of nutritious plant foods that are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, sneeze away from other people and practice the “Dracula sneeze” (into your elbow and not your hands), and, most importantly, wash your hands often. Thirty seconds with soap and water ought to do the trick.
Ari Solomon is the President and co-creator of the celebrated vegan candle line A Scent of Scandal . After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Ari first worked as an actor in New York and Los Angeles, and later hosted the wildly popular ARI’S HOLLYWOOD UPDATE on Miami’s Y-100FM. Now a prolific activist and writer for animal and human rights, Ari’s letters have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, and The Advocate.
