Dare, help prevent another pandemic
Did you know that your diet can prevent the next pandemic? Let's look at the most well-known pandemics and their animal reservoirs. Please check out this table:
The United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has produced a report on biodiversity and pandemics, called Escaping the Era of Pandemics, which suggests that disruptive human activities and unsustainable meat consumption, as well as increased biodiversity conservation, are necessary changes to proactively address infectious diseases and prevent them from becoming pandemics (global epidemics).
The report highlights the urgency of preventing pandemics at their root causes, not just reacting to them.
The solution isn't to kill all the poultry, hundreds of thousands of chickens, pigs, and cows to prevent the spread of a disease, or to exterminate mosquitoes or insects so they don't bite us, or to create new drugs that only enrich a few, produce adverse effects in many, and perpetuate a cycle of illness and death. If we exterminate them, new ones will emerge, because we haven't learned our lesson.
Roots of Contagion
Wildlife trade and intensive livestock farming as drivers of pandemics. Animal trade and intensive livestock farming are at the heart of global contagion. These practices also accelerate climate change and biodiversity loss.
Pandemics are not accidents. They are consequences.
What if the next pandemic doesn't depend on vaccines, but on our food choices?
Isn't it obvious how humans use animals? Instead of seeing them as the beings they are, we see them as things and resources at our disposal, turning them into transmitters of new diseases? Doesn't the connection between so-called human abuse of animals seem obvious to you as the root of the problem? If we respected them, we wouldn't be exposed to the development of infections that could become pandemics? Wouldn't it be more reasonable to avoid infections due to the inappropriate handling of animals that aren't harming us or bothering us, instead of inventing artificial, expensive, experimental, and dubious vaccines that allow us to continue with these bad practices, as long as we don't change our habits and continue living as we are, at any cost? Don't you think it's time for humans to evolve and leave behind customs that should no longer exist and examine the effects they have on nature? It's time we learned to eat properly and live in harmony with the planet (and all the beings that inhabit it), which is now sick because of us. If we want a healthy body, we must strive to heal the planet. There is no individual health without a healthy planet.
There is a way out: a plant-based diet
Among the benefits of a plant-based diet are, for
People: Reduction of zoonotic risk.
Planet: Lower environmental impact.
Animals: Stop animal exploitation (especially if you love animals).
Conclusion
Faced with the bleak outlook of another pandemic, I invite you to reflect and to seriously consider changing your eating habits. If you eat less meat and replace it with delicious, healing, and sustainable plant-based protein, you'll not only be healthier, have more energy, better digestion, and prevent the risk of other diseases, you'll also help HEAL the planet by stopping your money from supporting the slaughter industry.
The next pandemic could be prevented with every meal we choose.
