Eating Animals Is Pushing Us Toward the Next Pandemic

Experts say it could be 100 times worse than COVID

Photo credit: Andrew Skowron

There is good reason why animal agriculture is referred to by experts as an “infectious disease trap,” a “ticking time bomb for future viruses,” a “ticking pathogen bomb,” and a “hidden pandemic time bomb”.

In a recent article, I explained how animal farming drives pandemic risk, and I won’t go over it all again here. Today, I want to focus on the most important takeaway for us as individuals 👇

During the last pandemic, there was a lot of searching for the origin and someone to blame, with plenty of conspiracy theories and angry finger-pointing in all directions.

This time it’s different. If the bird flu becomes the next human pandemic, which is definitely possible, there would be no wet markets or Chinese laboratory to accuse. The responsibility would be clear and undeniable:

Those who, despite all warnings, continue to fund industrialized forms of animal exploitation, are the ones actively exposing us to the risk of another devastating pandemic.

A bird flu pandemic would be “one of the most foreseeable catastrophes in history”. And the consumption of animal products stands out as the main culprit. Intensive animal farming — the source of the vast majority of animal products — is the “single most risky human behavior” for pandemics.

And hell, pandemic risk is not the only urgent reason to avoid animal products.

“But the pressure needs to be on corporations, not consumers!”

There is a growing trend, even among celebrities, to deny personal responsibility for negative impacts of their consumption, instead placing all the blame on corporations.

Of course, it is crucial to hold corporations accountable, highlight their missteps, and demand they do better. No doubt, there is a lot of space for improvement!

But we must also remember that corporations do not create products for their own consumption. Every company, along with its ethical and environmental footprint, only exists because of purchase decisions made by individuals.

If you think that corporations should stop needlessly exposing us to pandemic risk, it makes little sense to pay them for confining animals to cramped barns and cages — which is the biggest avoidable driver of pandemic risk. 99 percent of U.S. farmed animals live on factory farms.

By giving these companies money, you’re contributing to their profits and their lobbying powers. And they will, logically, use this power to expand their operations.

Typically, corporations don’t change out of goodwill or because of criticism alone. Shifting consumer demand is what drives real change.

Epilogue

Perhaps in a not-too-distant future — when we’ve been hit by a pandemic that experts say could be 100 times worse than COVID — people will look back and ask themselves: Were meat, dairy, and eggs really worth it?

You don’t have to be a fortune teller to know what the response will be.

The most desperate wish of humanity will be to go back to a time when we still had the chance to act. A time like today.

Stay tuned

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