After reading many comments, I feel forced to note that, while I have no problem with vegetarians or meat eaters, I do have a large problem with self-righteous vegetarians or meat eaters.
If you want to change someone's mind, it helps to talk to them, not down your nose at them.
If you want to change someone's mind, it helps to talk to them, not down your nose at them.
7
Sadly, but profoundly, Maryn McKenna's genius here is devoted to avian flu.
Avian flu is a clear and present danger. A short term disaster that threatens. Books have been written on what China has done to address the mess there. But nothing China does will eliminate the threat. Avian flu is here to stay. It can blow up anytime. It's affect will be limited to those exposed. Period.
Of far greater risk to mankind is McKenna's first subject - MRSA. See SUPERBUG. Published 2010.
MRSA may make us forget EBOLA: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It is also called oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Humans may be heading to a point where antibiotic is all but useless to some or even all of us. Many have died of MRSA. How often have you read of MRSA in an obituary? I have not seen one. There are hundreds of deaths from MRSA.
McKenna makes it clear. I will make it clear. Humans are the cause of MRSA. Over use of antibiotic can all but destroy the use of some antibiotics. It time, this can render antibiotic all but useless. The microbes are smarter than we are.
Feeding tetracycline and others to the steer or cow will assure rapid growth in less time. Fatter faster means short term gain risking long term disaster.
Maryn McKenna knows the questions. Many do.
Government must act. The individual can follow ethic, but the clients must do the same... or the good guy goes broke.
Avian flu is a clear and present danger. A short term disaster that threatens. Books have been written on what China has done to address the mess there. But nothing China does will eliminate the threat. Avian flu is here to stay. It can blow up anytime. It's affect will be limited to those exposed. Period.
Of far greater risk to mankind is McKenna's first subject - MRSA. See SUPERBUG. Published 2010.
MRSA may make us forget EBOLA: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It is also called oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Humans may be heading to a point where antibiotic is all but useless to some or even all of us. Many have died of MRSA. How often have you read of MRSA in an obituary? I have not seen one. There are hundreds of deaths from MRSA.
McKenna makes it clear. I will make it clear. Humans are the cause of MRSA. Over use of antibiotic can all but destroy the use of some antibiotics. It time, this can render antibiotic all but useless. The microbes are smarter than we are.
Feeding tetracycline and others to the steer or cow will assure rapid growth in less time. Fatter faster means short term gain risking long term disaster.
Maryn McKenna knows the questions. Many do.
Government must act. The individual can follow ethic, but the clients must do the same... or the good guy goes broke.
9
"So far almost all the victims have been farmers or people who live in proximity to chickens, but virologists fear its spreading to the global population."
So, what are they really afraid of? Virologists fear it's spreading to the global population, or virologists fear it spreading to the global population? Currently, I think is likely the latter, unless sustained human-to-human transmission has been documented elsewhere.
So, what are they really afraid of? Virologists fear it's spreading to the global population, or virologists fear it spreading to the global population? Currently, I think is likely the latter, unless sustained human-to-human transmission has been documented elsewhere.
I suspect that the ultimate economic cost of cruelly mass-produced birds is the same or more than what consumers would pay if only humanely-treated, roaming birds from small farms were the norm. The moral equation seems very clear to me: sustainable, local, small-farm, genetically diverse birds are the answer.
5
Much Thanks to this article for definitively showing how the cause of the spread of avian flu was not due to migrating birds.
It would be great if the true cause hiding in plain sight was fingered here: the mega-scale industrialized animal and poultry ECONOMIC production units called Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. Guess what -- closely confining hogs and poultry cheek-by-jowl; beak-to-beak by the thousands in windowless barns is inherently unhealthy and totally disregards animal welfare! Further, antibiotics are required to keep the animal "units" alive -- and growing quickly to market weight -- jeopardizing human health safeguards.
It's no surprise, then, that due to their unhealthy, crammed rearing conditions CAFO's are immensely susceptible to disease outbreaks -- and are an "accident" waiting to happen.
It would be great if the true cause hiding in plain sight was fingered here: the mega-scale industrialized animal and poultry ECONOMIC production units called Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. Guess what -- closely confining hogs and poultry cheek-by-jowl; beak-to-beak by the thousands in windowless barns is inherently unhealthy and totally disregards animal welfare! Further, antibiotics are required to keep the animal "units" alive -- and growing quickly to market weight -- jeopardizing human health safeguards.
It's no surprise, then, that due to their unhealthy, crammed rearing conditions CAFO's are immensely susceptible to disease outbreaks -- and are an "accident" waiting to happen.
1
People stink in so many different ways. As a vegan, I consider myself to be somewhat less stinky ( in so many different ways).
I am a turkey farmer and proud to of it!! We have raised ABF and Organic turkeys. First of all these turkeys in the photo are crammed but if you know anything about being a turkey farmer you should know that when a person walks into a barn or even just within sight distance of a turkey, they all gather towards that person. If the reporter/photographer would have taken a picture at the rear of the barn where they were not standing, I would be willing to bet my life that there were no turkeys at the other end. That is the problem with reporters, they make things look and sound like the world is coming to an end to get people to buy their publications. If anyone has read the Bible they would know that animals were put on Earth for many reasons, one being they have the ability to sustain humans by food consumption. What comes next, vegetables aren't happy either so we have to stop eating veggies?? In our barns, our turkeys are happy. They have toys, plenty of food and water, good air quality. Yes they are living on shavings mixed with their own droppings but they don't have the luxury of flushing a toilet. They also aren't smart enough to dispose of their droppings properly. These are God's creatures and deserve to be treated as such but so are we and need meat to survive. There are many children in this world that are starving yet adults keep having children. Maybe we should assist in birth control rather than having to raise more animals to feed these people.
6
I would buy the argument the Times just wrote a trumped up expose to sell papers if it didn't ring true with the descriptions of animal life in industrial agriculture from journalists, scholars, activists, government agents, industry leaders, farmers, politicians, scientists, as well as religious leaders for over 30 years.
Also, the Bible tells people they can do all sorts of things and still be okay with God many of which are not acceptable in modern times- including rape, stoning, and slavery. Furthermore, people in the iron age did not consume animal flesh in any amounts comparable to what is consumed today. In fact, our consumption is on the level of gluttony, something that was definitely prohibited by the Bible.
This isn't about animals being happy; this is about animals being treated like widgets in a factory.
Also, the Bible tells people they can do all sorts of things and still be okay with God many of which are not acceptable in modern times- including rape, stoning, and slavery. Furthermore, people in the iron age did not consume animal flesh in any amounts comparable to what is consumed today. In fact, our consumption is on the level of gluttony, something that was definitely prohibited by the Bible.
This isn't about animals being happy; this is about animals being treated like widgets in a factory.
3
There is no mystery. Microbes are everywhere. There is no avoiding them.
When the disease-incubating, antibiotic-overusing CAFO's unleash a pandemic on humanity, many will say that nobody saw it coming. Paul Stamets and countless others have predicted it; many saw it coming. The most important asset to have in the future is a robust immune system. Like the immune system of a farm boy and of heritage breed livestock.
I live in NW Iowa and started keeping chickens in March last year. We're within a few miles of several CAFO's and within a few hundred yards of a river so we've all definitely been exposed to that exact virus. One of the ten died because it got rained on in the afternoon and the night was cold. An inevitable newbie mistake of mine; that was on April 19, 2015...or maybe it was the flu. Regardless, there's no need to panic; I had my own superb eggs throughout the high prices. My birds are free to eat fresh food- greens, bugs, etc.- at least a few times per week, and they're not too crowded so they're healthy. They're Red Rangers and Rhode Island Reds so they're already resistant to disease. Like my European ancestors who damn near took over the world, I live near animals so my immune system gets plenty of exercise. I eat fresh eggs n nettles nearly every day so I'm healthy. Maybe I'll survive any future pandemic, maybe I'll be one of the first to go just because I'm in Iowa. Doesn't matter- Microbes are everywhere. There is no avoiding them.
When the disease-incubating, antibiotic-overusing CAFO's unleash a pandemic on humanity, many will say that nobody saw it coming. Paul Stamets and countless others have predicted it; many saw it coming. The most important asset to have in the future is a robust immune system. Like the immune system of a farm boy and of heritage breed livestock.
I live in NW Iowa and started keeping chickens in March last year. We're within a few miles of several CAFO's and within a few hundred yards of a river so we've all definitely been exposed to that exact virus. One of the ten died because it got rained on in the afternoon and the night was cold. An inevitable newbie mistake of mine; that was on April 19, 2015...or maybe it was the flu. Regardless, there's no need to panic; I had my own superb eggs throughout the high prices. My birds are free to eat fresh food- greens, bugs, etc.- at least a few times per week, and they're not too crowded so they're healthy. They're Red Rangers and Rhode Island Reds so they're already resistant to disease. Like my European ancestors who damn near took over the world, I live near animals so my immune system gets plenty of exercise. I eat fresh eggs n nettles nearly every day so I'm healthy. Maybe I'll survive any future pandemic, maybe I'll be one of the first to go just because I'm in Iowa. Doesn't matter- Microbes are everywhere. There is no avoiding them.
2
Face it. The food system is severely broken from farm to table. Food is a market like any, and disclosure is almost forbidden by the food culture. USDA aids and abets with pseudo inspections that ignore what matters, and reward what harms. Example: USDA Prime is bathed in antibiotic and grain. Thus, USDA Prime is a ticket to MRSA and heart disease, obesity and cancer.
The best meat professionals know, and all remain silent. This is a money tree. Doing it right costs more - in time and out of pocket. Doing it wrong costs more in lives lost, lives shortened, in the nations deficit in health care, and in obesity and all the rest. The best know - and all remain silent. What professional talks?
Farm ethic, herd ethic, ethic of the farm DVM, slaughterhouse ethic, restaurant and grocery ethic, ethic at the food conglomerates that feed hundreds and hundreds of schools each, ethic at the schools that take food from the corporate goliath, this ethic is unspeakably compromised... and every single one of them knows it.
Some wonder why our teens self medicate and suicide is rising in society.
Some wonder why our youth is disgusted with us, why newspapers are in decline and government is hated by so many.
I do not wonder about any of this. I live with it - and fight it.
We fuss about ISIS and Islam, Mexican labor, illegal immigrants, corrupt politicians and addiction sweeping the nation, suicide in New Hampshire and Vermont. We fuss about Flint, Michigan.
What do we eat?
The best meat professionals know, and all remain silent. This is a money tree. Doing it right costs more - in time and out of pocket. Doing it wrong costs more in lives lost, lives shortened, in the nations deficit in health care, and in obesity and all the rest. The best know - and all remain silent. What professional talks?
Farm ethic, herd ethic, ethic of the farm DVM, slaughterhouse ethic, restaurant and grocery ethic, ethic at the food conglomerates that feed hundreds and hundreds of schools each, ethic at the schools that take food from the corporate goliath, this ethic is unspeakably compromised... and every single one of them knows it.
Some wonder why our teens self medicate and suicide is rising in society.
Some wonder why our youth is disgusted with us, why newspapers are in decline and government is hated by so many.
I do not wonder about any of this. I live with it - and fight it.
We fuss about ISIS and Islam, Mexican labor, illegal immigrants, corrupt politicians and addiction sweeping the nation, suicide in New Hampshire and Vermont. We fuss about Flint, Michigan.
What do we eat?
4
Strange how history repeats itself and no one seems to try and learn from it.
In the latter days of the USSR, I used to work there for a Western company, each and every aspect of life was analysed under a theme of national security, then ran by the KGB.
The USSR failed to understand and react to a number of health crises, economic crises and social crises as all it did was to try and understand their military and defence significance instead of simply trying to understand their impact on real life of real people.
This, among other issues, has led to the implosion of an entire country.
A very large and once rich and powerful country.
With the establishment of the US Department of Homeland Security the very same mechanisms have been implemented in the US.
Strange isn't it when a police state has progressed to the point at which it places ideology driven "national security" over real life?
Avian flu is a common occurrence all over the world and is usually treated by health agencies and agricultural agencies.
It is one of many ways nature tells us that there is something wrong with industrial food production as outside those mass production places avian flu usually runs it's way and goes away after a while.
So a police state response will not help while a response by a society that understands nature's warning might help.
Even the Department of Homeland Security cannot fight nature while common sense may understand what is wrong with the food industry.
Time to reconsider.
In the latter days of the USSR, I used to work there for a Western company, each and every aspect of life was analysed under a theme of national security, then ran by the KGB.
The USSR failed to understand and react to a number of health crises, economic crises and social crises as all it did was to try and understand their military and defence significance instead of simply trying to understand their impact on real life of real people.
This, among other issues, has led to the implosion of an entire country.
A very large and once rich and powerful country.
With the establishment of the US Department of Homeland Security the very same mechanisms have been implemented in the US.
Strange isn't it when a police state has progressed to the point at which it places ideology driven "national security" over real life?
Avian flu is a common occurrence all over the world and is usually treated by health agencies and agricultural agencies.
It is one of many ways nature tells us that there is something wrong with industrial food production as outside those mass production places avian flu usually runs it's way and goes away after a while.
So a police state response will not help while a response by a society that understands nature's warning might help.
Even the Department of Homeland Security cannot fight nature while common sense may understand what is wrong with the food industry.
Time to reconsider.
1
Mass production of commodity gives rise to mass consumption that, in turn, means over production and the cycle repeats itself, eventually to uncontrollability. Also carbon-based agriculture is the partial cause of climate change. Cutting down food intake of human beings living in the developed world will help controlling both animal diseases and global warming calamity, not to mention obesity and early deaths.
1
Too crowded
1
Is there a reason that they don't breed the animals that survive rather than killing them in order to try and breed a more flu resistant strain of bird?
Does the use of antibiotics in feed prevent the normal development of a bird immune system making them more susceptible to viruses?
Does the use of antibiotics in feed prevent the normal development of a bird immune system making them more susceptible to viruses?
1
Bird flu! No, Ebola! SARS, Zika, name your disease! But more than anything, be afraid. The media is determined that one of these things is going to be the danger they keep predicting
1
After 16 years of vegetarianism, I know I will never eat meat again but I also know I'm tilting at windmills. Most Americans cannot fathom life without meat three times a day and I think that attitude is getting even more prevalent.
I don't think there's anything wrong with eating meat, for the most part. It's tasty and it can be good for you in moderation. There is something wrong with industrial animal husbandry but it is a necessary system in order to meet the demand for cheap meat. All of the small farmers at your local farmers market extolling the virtues of organic farming cannot produce enough meat to satisfy the market demand- they are not the solution. Eating less meat is a solution.
A lot of people secretly question the ethics of meat eating. I'm always amused by how defensive meat eaters get when I tell them I'm a vegetarian or how worried they get when they eat meat in front of me. You don't fight or fret over things when you're confident you're doing the right thing. That's why most people don't even know I'm a veggie and why I rarely discuss that choice.
I don't think there's anything wrong with eating meat, for the most part. It's tasty and it can be good for you in moderation. There is something wrong with industrial animal husbandry but it is a necessary system in order to meet the demand for cheap meat. All of the small farmers at your local farmers market extolling the virtues of organic farming cannot produce enough meat to satisfy the market demand- they are not the solution. Eating less meat is a solution.
A lot of people secretly question the ethics of meat eating. I'm always amused by how defensive meat eaters get when I tell them I'm a vegetarian or how worried they get when they eat meat in front of me. You don't fight or fret over things when you're confident you're doing the right thing. That's why most people don't even know I'm a veggie and why I rarely discuss that choice.
2
Maryn McKenna establishes that it's a question of when, not if. Disaster is a certainty; greed not common sense or decency drives management of some livestock in The United States.
Avian flu threatens annually. McKenna spells out the risk. She says we may have a national disaster. She implies human vulnerability to avian illnesses.
Looming Threat ignores SUPERBUG, McKenna's MRSA masterpiece. With MRSA, overuse of antibiotic use renders antibiotic useless to increasing numbers of us. We saw this with penicillin in the 1940s.
Our hospitals are fighting MRSA silently. It's worse than EBOLA, says McKenna.
Ebola is caused by virus. We can cure ebola. We cannot cure many forms of MRSA. People die a slow agonizing death with decay spreading across their bodies.
MRSA is caused by agricultural use and human use of antibiotic to prevent illness. Prophylactic use is proscribed in livestock. Cattlemen will cheat the system - because use of tetracycline with grain promotes weight gain. The weight gain is unhealthy for the cattle and the consumer. The DVMs cooperate.
Our boarding schools and colleges use companies that offer grain fed, antibiotic bathed livestock... in chicken to beef cows. The faculty rarely eats with the student in such schools.
When faculty does eat with the student, the school often buys locally. Such a school is Deerfield Academy. The academy knows where its beef is born and raised. Deerfield may be unique among boarding schools. Deerfield buys locally.
Avian flu threatens annually. McKenna spells out the risk. She says we may have a national disaster. She implies human vulnerability to avian illnesses.
Looming Threat ignores SUPERBUG, McKenna's MRSA masterpiece. With MRSA, overuse of antibiotic use renders antibiotic useless to increasing numbers of us. We saw this with penicillin in the 1940s.
Our hospitals are fighting MRSA silently. It's worse than EBOLA, says McKenna.
Ebola is caused by virus. We can cure ebola. We cannot cure many forms of MRSA. People die a slow agonizing death with decay spreading across their bodies.
MRSA is caused by agricultural use and human use of antibiotic to prevent illness. Prophylactic use is proscribed in livestock. Cattlemen will cheat the system - because use of tetracycline with grain promotes weight gain. The weight gain is unhealthy for the cattle and the consumer. The DVMs cooperate.
Our boarding schools and colleges use companies that offer grain fed, antibiotic bathed livestock... in chicken to beef cows. The faculty rarely eats with the student in such schools.
When faculty does eat with the student, the school often buys locally. Such a school is Deerfield Academy. The academy knows where its beef is born and raised. Deerfield may be unique among boarding schools. Deerfield buys locally.
2
There should be a minimal space per turkey required by law so farmers do not jam them up into a barn too small for such creatures. I like turkey but not after seeing the high density of turkeys jammed tight in such a tight space.
Boycott cruelty. Eat plants.
1
I thought plants liked to be talked to, not eaten. Maybe you should stop existing. Or eat cardboard, rocks, or dirt. I don't think they have feelings.
1
Animal agriculture is not only unhealthy and inhumane, it's also a leading cause of climate change. Stop eating meat and the problem will go away.
By all means, let us continue cutting the budgets for regulatory agencies, let us continue calling regulation a commie plot, let us continue to deny scientific best practices. That sure will help with problems of overpopulation.
3
Yeah, cramming 7,000 birds (or more) into a shed is just disgusting. Bird flu hitting these large operations is sad, but not a shock since they are so poorly treated. Photos like the one in this article are making me want veggie burgers for dinner tonight.
I feel sorry for animals subjected to the many stresses of factory farming, and this stress must compromise the animal's immune system in many ways.
Also, the contract farming model, which is controlled a a few big poultry companies, unfairly exploits the poultry farmers.
See YouTube - "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver: Chickens" (HBO)
"Many growers whose sole source of income is chicken farming, live below or near the poverty level."
Chicken farmers own everything that costs money, and the big poultry companies own everything that makes money.
Also, the contract farming model, which is controlled a a few big poultry companies, unfairly exploits the poultry farmers.
See YouTube - "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver: Chickens" (HBO)
"Many growers whose sole source of income is chicken farming, live below or near the poverty level."
Chicken farmers own everything that costs money, and the big poultry companies own everything that makes money.
The obvious response is, "well, stop cramming those birds together. Factory farming is unethical anyway". That was my initial reaction. But then again, with 7 billion people on the planet doesn't farming simply have to be efficient in order to keep up? Imagine industrial farming disappears overnight. Could small family farms feed the planet? I don't claim to know the answer but any solution would appear to have to answer the whole question: how do you keep the world fed without destroying the planet or treating animals badly?
7
I hate to sound crazy, but there is a solution. We could just stop eating animals. Small family farms could never meet current levels of demand for animal products as food... but they could meet our needs for plant-based ones. A plant based-diet prevents harm to animals, protects the climate, and is good for our health as well. The only problem is how very upset so many people get when asked if they are willing to embrace such a solution.
1
Instead of thinking of how to feed the ever-growing world population, we as a human species should look at ourselves on population control, which is why the GOP attempt against contraception is so nonsensical and idiotic.
2
Diseases are extremely opportunistic when it comes to caged, farmed animals for all the reasons mentioned in this article and in the comments. Mr. Moline is not reassuring in his description of the problem: “The most frustrating part” of the outbreak “is there’s nothing that says, This is how we got it; this is how we can stop it," and “We think that [a chicken wire tunnel] might keep them out.”
Well, let's see. We could stop torturing and killing billions of birds--then there would be no reservoir in which avian flu could develop.
26
You know not of what you write.
1
Factory farming and mono crops leave us vulnerable to catastrophe, besides being immoral, shortsighted, and environmentally insane...
26
One look at all those birds crammed into that barn and you know that whatever diseases show up are going to race through the entire population.
21
The reason all the birds are dying is because they are raised on "factory" farms where they are treated like commodities instead of living beings. I have no sympathy for these farmers. Read "Project Animal Farm" to really get an eye opening.
13
If you have almost nine billion people sharing a planet who all want to eat every single day, you have industrial agriculture. The problem isn't stuffing too many turkeys into a barn.
15
Too many people with too many needs and not enough resources.
It can only end one way.
It can only end one way.
1
The biggest waste of food crops is feeding them to animals. If we ate only plants, we could grow a fraction of the crops we have to grow now.
1
To feed an expanding human population we will need to source the majority of our protein from plants not animals in future. The cruelty of industrial farming is abhorrent and the impact on the environment from animal greenhouse gasses is unsustainable. We need to start eating much less meat.
2
Not shocked given the treatment of farmers and farm workers over the last fifty years that we have reached a tipping point. There is an increasing lack of diversity in farm animals just as in farm crops, couple this with an ever increasing ignorant urban population in regards to all things natural especially farms, farming and farm life what else did we seriously expect? The average urban dweller gets their knowledge about nature from Disney, Disney like movies and shows that project human emotions onto animals or the steady stream of special interest propaganda who are more interested in pushing their own agendas be it vegan or corporate agricultural interests
There are plenty of men and women who wish to farm in a more traditional interconnected manner but, farming has been relegated to path of poverty instead of the honorable profession it once was. Look no further than the system that has been co-created by a trifecta of ignorance, incompetence and greed - commodity prices set by large international banks (many of the same as who brought about the 2008 recession), large scale corporations who have consistently colluded, lobbied and contributed to much of the government including the creation of the laws in existence and a consumer more interested with getting the cheapest deal at the supermarket so they can buy the latest expensive gadget they want.
There are plenty of men and women who wish to farm in a more traditional interconnected manner but, farming has been relegated to path of poverty instead of the honorable profession it once was. Look no further than the system that has been co-created by a trifecta of ignorance, incompetence and greed - commodity prices set by large international banks (many of the same as who brought about the 2008 recession), large scale corporations who have consistently colluded, lobbied and contributed to much of the government including the creation of the laws in existence and a consumer more interested with getting the cheapest deal at the supermarket so they can buy the latest expensive gadget they want.
11
The family farm of which you speak is unsustainable due to the high demand for meat and other animal products in this country. The small farms disappeared because they couldn't produce enough product to meet the demand.
Some people buy the cheapest meat because that's all they can afford to feed their family, not because they're saving up for an iPad.
Some people buy the cheapest meat because that's all they can afford to feed their family, not because they're saving up for an iPad.
1
Factory farming is directly responsible for the high mutation rate we have been seeing in the influenza virus over the last few decades. If we truly want to prevent avian flu and swine flu --we have to take a hard look at how we treat animals. Nothing short of that will provide any lasting solution.
31
I'm a vegetarian so I don't eat any animals, whether in ideal situations with ample space to roam (so-called "humane" farms) or the worst factory farm imaginable.
I'm also a physician with a degree in bioengineering.
Nowhere does the article mention high mutation rates as endemic to the birds on the farms. In fact it implies the opposite- the high mutation rates occurs in the wild population and is spread to the farms via migrating flocks. The presence of similar viral samples (non-mutated) allowed them to suspect that the virus was also being spread by direct human involvement via workers turning up at multiple sites.
Your post along with your posted credentials as a medical doctor and masters in public health thus does a disservice to the readers as you're merely sharing undocumented conjecture. As per the initials after your name, if you have more detailed information to back up your claim, please share.
In the meantime this is just another in an incessant chain of stories about how human's desire for profits and cheap food inevitably backfires, and sometimes results in great harm to all of us- the captive animals, their homosapien overlords, and the environment.
I'm also a physician with a degree in bioengineering.
Nowhere does the article mention high mutation rates as endemic to the birds on the farms. In fact it implies the opposite- the high mutation rates occurs in the wild population and is spread to the farms via migrating flocks. The presence of similar viral samples (non-mutated) allowed them to suspect that the virus was also being spread by direct human involvement via workers turning up at multiple sites.
Your post along with your posted credentials as a medical doctor and masters in public health thus does a disservice to the readers as you're merely sharing undocumented conjecture. As per the initials after your name, if you have more detailed information to back up your claim, please share.
In the meantime this is just another in an incessant chain of stories about how human's desire for profits and cheap food inevitably backfires, and sometimes results in great harm to all of us- the captive animals, their homosapien overlords, and the environment.
1
I have written extensively on this topic and there is overwhelming research indicating the virus is undergoing high mutation rates and that this is attributed largely to factory farms. Yes, wild bird flocks do contribute-- but they are not the whole picture. There have been wild bird flocks forever- why are we seeing so many strains of bird and swine flus now? If you want to look into this, check out my book on Animals and Public Health.
1
An unknown, uncredited wit once said something like this: Higher life forms are the means developed by bacteria and viruses to ensure the survival of their species.
A cynical skeptic like myself takes the existence and occurrences of epidemics as yet another piece of evidence, if not outright proof, of the absence of anything in the universe resembling an omnipotent, loving, forgiving supreme being. Especially an invisible one.
A cynical skeptic like myself takes the existence and occurrences of epidemics as yet another piece of evidence, if not outright proof, of the absence of anything in the universe resembling an omnipotent, loving, forgiving supreme being. Especially an invisible one.
13
Bedridden with the flu right now, I empathize with the turkeys.
3
Is it any wonder that disease spreads when thousands of birds are crammed into inhumanely small spaces? Can't we see that there's something wrong when the destruction of millions of animals is described largely in terms of monetary loss?
Instead of prattling on about how many jobs are at risk because wild ducks fly over what are basically avian concentration camps, perhaps the NY Times should be warning that the concentration of tens of thousands of stressed animals is not only inhumane, but also a veritable petri dish for disease.
Instead of prattling on about how many jobs are at risk because wild ducks fly over what are basically avian concentration camps, perhaps the NY Times should be warning that the concentration of tens of thousands of stressed animals is not only inhumane, but also a veritable petri dish for disease.
19
If everyone would stop eating tortured animals these factories would be out of business and the suffering of defenseless animals would end.
Additionally, the consumption of meat is the number one cause of heat-trapping greenhouse gases -- more than transportation and industry.
Additionally, the consumption of meat is the number one cause of heat-trapping greenhouse gases -- more than transportation and industry.
18
I am 67 years old and struggled for years but the thing that finally made me a 100% vegan was recently seeing a steer running out of a Halal slaughterhouse and through the streets for his very life, the look of terror on his face. Come on folks, we do not need to eat meat, birds or any animals. It's selfish and totally unnecessary. Have you any idea of the suffering of animals raised for food? People shrug and say "That's the way things are" and "man's dominion over animals" and often don't even know about the horrific suffering of farm animals from birth to death. It's not true that we need to consume animals. Learn about it, even if you have to do it tiny bit by bit (due to the horrors you will see). Please, we don't need to do this. I am off all dairy, eggs, all animals of any kind, fish included and all of a sudden everything falls away and I can see what has been going on to animals at the hands of humans. Finally, I faced it. Sorry it took so long.
24
Wonderfully said, Martha. It took me too long, too.
5
Yes, thank you Martha
I was vegetarian and occasionally vegan for 6 years. I look and feel much better when meat and dairy products are in my diet. To each their own.
1
Not all poultry is raised in such horrific conditions. There are bits of poultry heaven where chickens and turkeys have happy lives. http://wp.me/p44c6k-3gI
2
This is how poultry should be raised if at all. Chicken was 4 times more expensive in 1960 than now, probably because the birds had almost natural living conditions and not crammed together like in a concentration camp.
The other day I read about a billionaire's plan to send a fleet of iPhone-sized scientific probes to a nearby star system. Although not a hare-brained idea it didn't strike me as a wise use of limited resources. I also thought it terrible because it revealed a blind spot in how he sees our world. He lacks any notion of how incredibly vulnerable our civilization is to environmental hazards.
AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) is usually the first threat that comes to mind, in the form of heat-waves, rising sea levels, droughts and other kinds of disruptive weather. But AGW also opens the door for all kinds of pathogens to migrate and expand their ranges, spread from the Tropics to the Poles. Given human overpopulation and our civilization's dependence on a diminished, badly damaged biosphere the potential for a civilization-ending catastrophe is very real. His money is badly needed here, invested in ways that improve Earth's ecology. Should it be squandered on a long-shot scientific mission to a distant star that won't yield discoveries for nearly a century, if ever?
But, it's his money. Most other commenters expressed enthusiasm for his daring. A few dismissed my reservations as alarmist quibbles.
Diseases have always afflicted birds. It's the way modern agriculture raises them and our dependence on them as a cheap protein source that makes us so vulnerable to famine should a domesticated species be wiped out.
We live in a Fool's Paradise. Enjoy it while you can.
AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) is usually the first threat that comes to mind, in the form of heat-waves, rising sea levels, droughts and other kinds of disruptive weather. But AGW also opens the door for all kinds of pathogens to migrate and expand their ranges, spread from the Tropics to the Poles. Given human overpopulation and our civilization's dependence on a diminished, badly damaged biosphere the potential for a civilization-ending catastrophe is very real. His money is badly needed here, invested in ways that improve Earth's ecology. Should it be squandered on a long-shot scientific mission to a distant star that won't yield discoveries for nearly a century, if ever?
But, it's his money. Most other commenters expressed enthusiasm for his daring. A few dismissed my reservations as alarmist quibbles.
Diseases have always afflicted birds. It's the way modern agriculture raises them and our dependence on them as a cheap protein source that makes us so vulnerable to famine should a domesticated species be wiped out.
We live in a Fool's Paradise. Enjoy it while you can.
10
Aliens, on their way from Alpha Centauri to colonize the earth will find those iPhones, become distracted, and crash.
1
I think it is really sad that Stephen Hawking is considered the greatest scientist in the world and not Fritjof Capra. One is about distant dreamy places that require no one to improve themselves or take care of the planet. The other has for decades presented a very detailed map of what humanity needs to shift in order to not destroy ourselves any further.
2
Surprised (well not really surprised) by the author's omission of any critique of these supra-industrial systems and its false logics of agricultural production. Agricultural production need not be situated within increased securitization and the anti-terrorism paranoia of post-9/11.
Maryn McKenna - what about agroecological alternatives? Diversified farming systems? A Marxian analysis of the "metabolic rift" and its consequences taking place?
Maryn McKenna - what about agroecological alternatives? Diversified farming systems? A Marxian analysis of the "metabolic rift" and its consequences taking place?
16
@Alex:
You don't understand. In many states it's now a crime to surreptitiously photograph the outrageous cruelty that routinely goes on inside abattoirs and disseminate it to the general public. That alone will give you some idea of just how powerful "Big Agra" is at the statehouse level. At the federal level it virtually controls Congress through Red State delegations, one reason why Big Agra receives eye-popping tax subsidies.
Most big agribusiness corporations are actually wholly-owned subsidiaries of the "Big Five" fossil-fuel energy multinational corporations.
You don't understand. In many states it's now a crime to surreptitiously photograph the outrageous cruelty that routinely goes on inside abattoirs and disseminate it to the general public. That alone will give you some idea of just how powerful "Big Agra" is at the statehouse level. At the federal level it virtually controls Congress through Red State delegations, one reason why Big Agra receives eye-popping tax subsidies.
Most big agribusiness corporations are actually wholly-owned subsidiaries of the "Big Five" fossil-fuel energy multinational corporations.
2
The reflection in the "Eye of the Chicken" ("Rocky" didn't worry about Avian Flu or Salmonella for that matter) is more interesting than the meat of this fowl/foul article and if the bird could talk she/he/it would say: "Flu You!"
2
Seven thousand turkeys in a barn? Do they look happy? What would you say if we raised seven thousand dogs in such cramped conditions? You would call the Humane society and have the farmer arrested! Because of the excellent and expensive lobbying done by the poultry industry, birds are exempt from any protections under law.
So that leaves it up to your sense of morality, doesn't it? Should we be raising sentient animals in disgusting conditions just so we can satisfy our cultural or habitual "tastes" for their muscles?
So that leaves it up to your sense of morality, doesn't it? Should we be raising sentient animals in disgusting conditions just so we can satisfy our cultural or habitual "tastes" for their muscles?
47
Time to become Vegetarian, I guess. Maybe this is Nature's way of telling us to wise-up.
18
I have a turkey breast in the freezer I got for 1.59 a pound a few weeks ago. Potatoes, rice and dried beans, depenfing, are more expensive. Something is out of whack
11
That low price can only be maintained using the inhumane and disease-promoting factory farming conditions that are described in the article and discussed in the comments. That's what's out of whack.
22
@Sue
I understand. However, what I was trying to say, was people's expectations for a cheap bird around thanksgiving might be too high. I really don't think supermarkets make much of a profit around the holidays when selling turkeys. People want them cheap. A twenty pound bird at five dollars a pound won't sell. The people are getting what they want and that's out of whack.
I understand. However, what I was trying to say, was people's expectations for a cheap bird around thanksgiving might be too high. I really don't think supermarkets make much of a profit around the holidays when selling turkeys. People want them cheap. A twenty pound bird at five dollars a pound won't sell. The people are getting what they want and that's out of whack.
3
If you could resurrect some ancient Romans or Greeks and give them an aptly named "cooks' tour" of a typical Whole Foods market, they would drop dead from shock. If Caesar Augustus was among them, he might say that we eat better than he usually did.
For several million years our species' daily struggle was simply finding enough of anything remotely edible to eat ... .
For several million years our species' daily struggle was simply finding enough of anything remotely edible to eat ... .
It seems like an impossible task to keep nature separated from domesticated animals. We wear different shoes when going to pick up goose poop on the boat club lawn to avoid infecting our free roaming hens. With numerous bird species sharing the airspace above the farm it's pure luck to avoid diseases. If we did experience an outbreak, the resources for matching symptoms with causes are difficult to find with simple internet searches.
As more individuals raise poultry for their own use would the economic impact of flock losses increase, or decrease? There must be studies of livestock disease in the past when agricultural operations were more localized, and less vulnerable to the huge flock losses described in the article.
As more individuals raise poultry for their own use would the economic impact of flock losses increase, or decrease? There must be studies of livestock disease in the past when agricultural operations were more localized, and less vulnerable to the huge flock losses described in the article.
Memes of Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' rattle around in one's brain, viruses today replacing the DDT of old, all stirring recollections of recent news reports about mosquitoes with zika, and L. H. Ziska's haunting reports on such things as the role of CO2 in increasing the toxicity of poison ivy.
But none of this is the result of humans indulging ourselves without regard for how we handle our waste! We just are not responsible for the consequences of our own actions! The oceans and winds were supposed to have washed and whisked away all of our offal stuff, and it is their fault that we face perdition, not our fault and our own actions!
It is a great day to hold high recklessness as the trophy of profit from the carbon dioxide and methane fountains of our industrial activity! For over 30 years the 1% have put their 90% of the economy in their banks and investments rather than into public infrastructure: let wasteful living abound while coral reefs die as quickly as turkeys!
It's a great day to be a misanthrope.
But none of this is the result of humans indulging ourselves without regard for how we handle our waste! We just are not responsible for the consequences of our own actions! The oceans and winds were supposed to have washed and whisked away all of our offal stuff, and it is their fault that we face perdition, not our fault and our own actions!
It is a great day to hold high recklessness as the trophy of profit from the carbon dioxide and methane fountains of our industrial activity! For over 30 years the 1% have put their 90% of the economy in their banks and investments rather than into public infrastructure: let wasteful living abound while coral reefs die as quickly as turkeys!
It's a great day to be a misanthrope.
5
The lethal flu strains also tend to be pig based, as the 1918 flu. The cross species issues, where humans and swine trade virus strains, with monoculture pig confinement looms as large as avian strains. When I visit a pig containment facility, I am quarantined (much dirtier than the pigs apparently), and an entire pig facility can be wiped out with one infection due to the lack of antibodies to a virus I may have symptomatically carried to them. On the other hand, many urban farmers are raising chickens, in the open, pecking away in the backyard free to exchange virus with any passing migratory bird. The flu has killed upwards of 30,000 people a year without a sniff in the press due to the average age of those passing (I guess being 70 plus means we can die off the books) without much reason for it. You might be interested to know that in the entire City of Chicago there would be fewer than 200 beds in hospitals to meet this catastrophe of pig or poultry flu. Don't get sick, get your shots.
7
Tune in for today's edition of "How can we scare 'em today" here at the NYTimes....
6
Sometimes that's exactly what it takes to get reader's attention. JGAIA-
12
If you aren't alarmed at the very high threat of pandemics set off by human activity dithering with nature, you haven't been paying attention. Ebola, Zika, SARS, Foot and Mouth anyone? Bueller, Bueller...Bueller?
2
Between this and zika...Not good, right?
4
Industrial meat-farming is immoral, unsustainable, and dangerous. And what does it produce? Food that is literally inedible by anybody with a sophisticated palate. Last Thanksgiving we were invited to a turkey dinner where I had to pretend to have a toothache because I was unable to swallow huge chunks of dry meat with a nauseatingly sweet sauce. American meat-based diet is not only unhealthy but disgusting. And yet people are willing to torture sentient beings, risk a pandemic, and breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria in order to consume enormous quantities of tasteless, poorly prepared flesh!
33
I for one am looking forward to when meat-like protein can be grown in a lab in giant vats. Utilizing animals for protein, while necessary at our current stage of scientific know-how, is primitive and highly inefficient. Hopefully we can eventually do the same for plant-based foodstuffs too.
Though we don't have a meat-like subsitute that is grown, it is really easy to maintain one's health on a vegetarin diet. Better for your bodies and certainly better for the planet.
1
7000 turkeys in one barn?! How disgusting! Obviously the birds are going to get sick. And we are a sick society for permitting such a thing in the first place.
Animals have the right to live in humane conditions, even if they are going to be slaughtered. Do yourself a favor and buy free-range organic turkeys.
Animals have the right to live in humane conditions, even if they are going to be slaughtered. Do yourself a favor and buy free-range organic turkeys.
12
Actually in Washington State the virus killed free range birds. Being outdoors left them at risk of contracting the disease from wild birds or their droppings.
3
An animal can be raised humanely, but will definitely suffer at the stockyards and at at the slaughterhouses where animals are often skinned alive because of inhumane production speeds.
There is no way to be an innocent meat eater unless you are a competent hunter who personally butchers his own meal. No, I am not a hunter.
If you eat meat, you support the torture of animals. No ifs ands or buts.
There is no way to be an innocent meat eater unless you are a competent hunter who personally butchers his own meal. No, I am not a hunter.
If you eat meat, you support the torture of animals. No ifs ands or buts.
7
The birds in the photo could easily be free-range organic. There is nothing at all inconsistent with those labels in that photo. Those labels are highly deceptive.
1
Many people are commenting about the inhunmanity of confined animal feed operations (CAFOs) like those described in this article. I couldn't agree more, but the blame is misplaced - it's not really the individual farmers who are responsible for this system of agriculture, it is consumers who aren't willing to pay what it would cost for eggs, meat and dairy raised in a less intensive, and more humane, way.
22
Thanks Stacey. These conditions are merely a response to consumer choices.
When a product seems unbelievably cheap... somebody else (or some animal) is paying for it, in some way, somewhere.
When a product seems unbelievably cheap... somebody else (or some animal) is paying for it, in some way, somewhere.
5
No, it's the selfishness of us humans who use animals for food when we don't need to. We can live well on a plant based diet: I do now.
6
These are ethical and moral choices all around. While I don't eat animals, my family does. To at least (hopefully) treat non-human animals humanely, I pay a great deal more for free-range meats and eggs laid by free-range chickens. If more meat and egg consumers are willing to spend a bit more for more ethical treatment of non-human animals, more farmers and retail stores will respond. This clearly works as in the past few years, Trader Joe's and Kroger have significantly expanded their cruelty-free meat products. We need to speak with our wallets.
1
Unless Sanders gets elected, we're going to see more and more of these kinds of diseases, blights and die-offs, as the unfettered agro-engineering business wreaks more and more havoc on simple nature - all, of course, perpetually unsubstantiated in the eyes of the FDA.
4
Housing 7,000 animals in one barn? I feel sorry for the birds, not the farmers.
17
Agriculture (more specifically, industrial agriculture) in the USA is a looming catastrophe, and this story is a perfect example why. Forcing our food to live in densities ranging from hundreds to thousands of times greater than is natural, under very high stress, on manufactured diets under constant exposure to hormones and antibiotics is the perfect system for viral and bacterial evolution. Nature itself could not design a more perfect laboratory to experiment with developing new pathogens that are resistant to every feeble defense we can devise. It is not at all sexy, but agriculture policy should be near the TOP of the political discourse, and should be raised in the presidential debates. Initially, it will not grab people's attention like terrorism, immigration, or abortion. But starting the discussion will get people used to thinking about it, and people will be less detached from it. Our agriculture model needs to start following our national energy policy, where food production is decentralized, making communities and individuals responsible for much more of their own production (like rooftop solar energy production). People need to be reintroduced to where their food comes from and the consequences of our food choices (just like our energy choices). Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivores Dilemma" drives all this home perfectly! That book should become required reading for all!
11
I own a small farm and raise heritage chickens and ducks for a local farm-to-table restaurant. I cannot imagine raising 56,000 turkeys in one spot--let alone millions of chickens. This method of farming is the problem, as are the modern industrial breeds used for most of America's food consumption. A Cornish Cross chicken (the industry standard) takes five weeks to mature. A "normal" or heritage breed takes four to five months. The fast maturation of muscle comes at the expense of all of the animal's other systems (digestive, skeletal, immune, etc). Thus the poultry industry is raising heavily comprised animals in the most unhealthy conditions. But as long as Americans want to eat cheap meat daily rather than expensive meat occasionally, this is will be the farming norm...until a superbug wipes everything out.
54
OK, AnnH I also have a small farm and I'm not raising animals yet but I am getting there. So what does it cost you to raise meat chickens to table ready and butchered? I read the farming blogs and I know it COSTS you more in just feed than what you could buy a whole chicken for in a supermarket, and if you added butchering, your profit and transportation, I'd guess your chickens would cost roughly $16 to $18 a bird retail.
And chicken is supposed to be the cheap meal.
And chicken is supposed to be the cheap meal.
1
You put your finger on it, AnnH. Meat ought to be regarded as something of a luxury and a treat, rather than a staple of life taken for granted and eaten 2-3 times a day.
That's probably the way our remote ancestors looked at it.
That's probably the way our remote ancestors looked at it.
14
The consumption of meat is the problem.
2
Whether it's animals or plants being farmed, housing or planting the same animals or crops all together has led to the law of unintended consequences. Same goes for chemicals sprayed to protect the crops (which have harmed bees) and antibiotics routinely given to amimals (which are now resistant and becoming useless, even for us).
Crop rotation is coming back. Maybe the family farm should come back too.
Otherwise, I picture tiny robots and tiny drones sneaking into barns, even animals' bodies - carrying bird flu or whatnot.
Whether the infections were intentional or not, birds fly and so can drones. It sounds pretty ominous actually that so many birds tested had the same virus strain - when normally, viruses mutate so rapidly.
Crop rotation is coming back. Maybe the family farm should come back too.
Otherwise, I picture tiny robots and tiny drones sneaking into barns, even animals' bodies - carrying bird flu or whatnot.
Whether the infections were intentional or not, birds fly and so can drones. It sounds pretty ominous actually that so many birds tested had the same virus strain - when normally, viruses mutate so rapidly.
Maybe we can substitute those wild turkeys that are terrorizing mailmen and pedestrians in New Jersey (or wherever it was.)
And maybe those wild turkeys are healthy and growing in population numbers because they're out moving around in at least a semi-natural habitat instead of cruelly crammed together on a factory "farm."
And maybe those wild turkeys are healthy and growing in population numbers because they're out moving around in at least a semi-natural habitat instead of cruelly crammed together on a factory "farm."
5
The concentration of tens of thousands of animals in factories is inhumane and in cases of infection, puts substantial numbers of animals at risk simultaneously. It gives "putting ones eggs in the same basket" real meaning. Managing any other resource in that manner would be derided as foolish. We do not have a right to cheap food at the unreasonable risk and stress of farm animals.
11
Mankind, turkeys, pathogens and time are all part of nature. Like it or not, nature eventually takes its own course -- not ours, even though we build walls, cages, dams and even temporary antibiotic defenses. Time is on nature's side and we're well on our way to destroying the longstanding equilibrium that allowed our species to prosper. "Of course" we're not facing extinction, but unless we call a truce and stop factory farming, the future looks ominous indeed.
12
The speciation curve for ALL species looks something like an inverted hockey stick. That's ALL species. Long upwards growth in numbers until great success results in overcrowding, over-pollution and rapidly diminishing resources, and then "Boom" no more species.
1
We've been running a confinement agricultural operation here in Wiscosin for a number of years. It's significantly increased our production and strange to say produced less heart ache on both the manager and the field hands. Yet, as the author points out, we can never be sure they've done enough...there is always another pest adapting to have it's way with what we on the Production Team think of as ours. We have yet to adopt the external audit, but in smaller communities rest assured that there is always someone suggesting some new and better way - too often relaying on some new technology aimed at saving the day.
Just last week we needed to reinforce our confinement fences - adding two foot high chicken wire mesh. The 8foot fence kept out the deer...but the rabbits chewed threw that like it wasn't even there. Last year some voles got into the beet patch, but the tomatoes, Brussels and Asparagus were to die for. Sure, we don't pack them in like the photo of the Turkey...and if we did, how would we have any room for the flowers and fruit tree???
I don't really care for the look of the confinement fense...but those deer...you have no idea what they can do in a night...
Maybe if we could get more of those turkey eaters interested venison and rabbit....just sayin'....
Just last week we needed to reinforce our confinement fences - adding two foot high chicken wire mesh. The 8foot fence kept out the deer...but the rabbits chewed threw that like it wasn't even there. Last year some voles got into the beet patch, but the tomatoes, Brussels and Asparagus were to die for. Sure, we don't pack them in like the photo of the Turkey...and if we did, how would we have any room for the flowers and fruit tree???
I don't really care for the look of the confinement fense...but those deer...you have no idea what they can do in a night...
Maybe if we could get more of those turkey eaters interested venison and rabbit....just sayin'....
2
Try hardware cloth (wire mesh) instead of chicken wire, it's pretty strong stuff. More expensive but I doubt a rabbit could get through it.
Walk into any chicken or turkey shed on a factory farm and it’s easy to see why. this disease is increasingly dangerous. One shed houses tens of thousands of birds who are never allowed outside. They are surrounded by their own waste and breathe ammonia-laden air that burns their lungs and damages their immune systems.The conditions in these sheds provide ideal breeding grounds for pathogens because birds live amid their own feces from birth to slaughter. Egg-laying hens are kept in stacked cages that become encrusted with waste. When one bird gets sick, the disease can quickly spread to all the birds in the shed.
I havent eaten meat in over a decade and I've never been healthier or felt better, and I havent had as much as a cold in years. Plant-based is the way to go.
I havent eaten meat in over a decade and I've never been healthier or felt better, and I havent had as much as a cold in years. Plant-based is the way to go.
28
Becky says it well above. Good habits pay off- especially in eating choices. JGAIA-
7
I live in Minnesota and one thing the article fails to mention is that small poultry producers weren't hit by the avian flu here. Monoculture farming whether it's animals or plants is much more susceptible to being wiped out by disease. Diversity is the solution.
58
You are right! We are Minnesotans and have a small flock of chickens. They were not affected. They are outdoors most of the day and return on their own to their coop at night. We do have a fence around their yard but that is to keep out predators, including coyotes, roaming dogs, feral cats, etc.
4
Absolutely right.
1
That is a very important omission -- thank you for bringing it to our attention.
In Iowa many hate trees. They get in the way of huge ag equipment. So we have no problem cutting down all Dutch Elm trees subject to disease even when they are still healthy. Who knows. Maybe some of those species had mutated and developed an organic poison against the borer. But then many in our dear state don't believe in evolution so the idea that trees and other living things "evolve" and can develop resistance is alien.
4
Sorry Dr., but my parents lost two Dutch Elm trees in the 70's because experts like you told them that was the only option despite their protests. I've never met an Iowan who "hates trees". Why all the bitterness? "Physician, heal thyself."
2
Joe, I think you and Dr. are on the same page.
I still mourn the magnificent American Elms of my childhood which filled the sky with their glorious fountain-like shapes... they were wiped out without a single survivor.
I still mourn the magnificent American Elms of my childhood which filled the sky with their glorious fountain-like shapes... they were wiped out without a single survivor.
3
For those who want to perpetuate the parasitic system of agriculture that dominates Iowa (CAFO's corn and chemicals), an easy solution is to not kill all the birds, so that subsequent generations are resistant. Problem solved...but then that would prevent the price spikes that result from the "mysterious epidemics," and price spikes mean big profits....not for farmers, of course, but you know.
We would probably have millions of pure American chestnut trees today if people hadn't foolishly tried to stop the spread of the chestnut blight by killing them all.
But, ya know....what're ya gonna do?? Raise your own food and vote for Sanders is one idea.
We would probably have millions of pure American chestnut trees today if people hadn't foolishly tried to stop the spread of the chestnut blight by killing them all.
But, ya know....what're ya gonna do?? Raise your own food and vote for Sanders is one idea.
3
(I should have said "Buy directly from farmers who don't use poison, raise your own food, and vote for Bernie Sanders is one idea.")
3
Raise you own food and vote for Sanders? Sander's entire ideology revolves around taking the food you raised and giving it to someone too lazy to raise their own food. Are you willing to raise food under those circumstances?
1
I'm not the least bit concerned about anyone taking my food, or about anything else in your imagination. I am very concerned about neighbors poisoning my food and/or killing trees after I've invested a lot in them. Hopefully with Sanders in the White House, the wiser people at the USDA/EPA/FDA would be making the rules instead of whoever's been allowing all this insanity over the past several decades. Joel Salatin would be a great choice to head the USDA. Btw, let's ask Salatin about his birds' survival rates over the years and the epidemics.
I'm just middle class, but very fortunate, and have no problem whatsoever paying a bit more in taxes for the sake of a fairer and more stable nation. A carbon tax and a sales tax would be much better than an income tax though.
I'm just middle class, but very fortunate, and have no problem whatsoever paying a bit more in taxes for the sake of a fairer and more stable nation. A carbon tax and a sales tax would be much better than an income tax though.
The essential failure here is in the current fundamental agribusiness model of factory farming. A new model will be necessary. See
https://farmingpathogens.wordpress.com/
for details.
https://farmingpathogens.wordpress.com/
for details.
3
I was going to say that photo reminded me of some past circuit parties. I can imagine what the floor must look like at the end of the day.
Who knows - those floors are cleaned at most once the flock is taken to slaughter, if then
1
So you think the photo is funny - a nice example of how remote most of us are from the natural world.
2
I'm a farmer's son from south TX. So, this isn't too foreign of a concept for me.
I always knew the dinosaurs would be doing us humans in some day....
Took 65 M years, but avian flu will do the trick one of these days.
It's all a matter of combinatorics. The more birds contained at high population density, the more possibility for the virus to spread and mutate. The more people interacting with the birds, the more likely the virus will make the jump to humans. The more humans in densely populated areas (cities, buses, subways, trains, planes, theaters, stadiums, etc) the more likely the virus will enhance its ability to spread and further mutate. Influenza is a highly effective killer, the Spanish flu epidemic showed that. There will be another one like it, but with 4 times more and highly mobile humans on the planet it will be much more deadly.
In the end, it's all a numbers game.
Took 65 M years, but avian flu will do the trick one of these days.
It's all a matter of combinatorics. The more birds contained at high population density, the more possibility for the virus to spread and mutate. The more people interacting with the birds, the more likely the virus will make the jump to humans. The more humans in densely populated areas (cities, buses, subways, trains, planes, theaters, stadiums, etc) the more likely the virus will enhance its ability to spread and further mutate. Influenza is a highly effective killer, the Spanish flu epidemic showed that. There will be another one like it, but with 4 times more and highly mobile humans on the planet it will be much more deadly.
In the end, it's all a numbers game.
2
Don't worry, climate change or nuclear war will incinerate us all long before then.
It's not just about turkeys and eggs--those flocks can be restored. Specialized breeders of fly tying feathers, who have spent decades of time developing particular colors and hackle traits can have the entire bloodlines eradicated in no time. Those flocks cannot be restored. I don't suppose many people care much about this--but for the few of us that do, it's a real tragedy when it happens.
1
I hear what you're saying about heirloom birds, but many people (though not nearly enough) are more concerned about the amount of animal suffering involved in intensive farming. We do not see the animals as mere numbers which can be replaced - whether they are rare strains or commonplace factory birds.
Do you have an organized method for isolating multiple populations of rare strains in various parts of the country (or the world)?
Do you have an organized method for isolating multiple populations of rare strains in various parts of the country (or the world)?
Here we go again with the fear mongering.
Don't want avian flu? Stop with the huge industrial model of poultry raising.
Don't want avian flu? Stop with the huge industrial model of poultry raising.
8
It isn't fear mongering, consider it to be fair warning instead. However, you are right, the industrial model of food production in the USA is the root cause of so many problems in our country and it must be changed!
2
Last week it was the looming threat of the Zika virus.
What is this? choose a terror a week articles?
What is this? choose a terror a week articles?
5
Could it possibly be that they're simply too close together? The conditions shown in the accompanying photo are appalling!
9
If the average person knew where and how their meat was processed, they'd be instant vegetarians.
30
People are carefully conditioned throughout life not to think about where their animal food comes from. It's easy nowadays when the only animals many people see are city birds, the odd squirrel, and their house pets.
There's a mental Berlin Wall with "it's got nothing to do with me" written all over it. The whole factory farming system depends upon this wall in the mind.
Maybe people still imagine the happy chickens pecking in the farmyard and then Farmer Joe swiftly using the axe on them (if they imagine anything at all).
A family member of mine dislikes animals. She once declared to me, as she ate her steak, "I never touch an animal!"
Vegans and vegetarians are often accused of being emotional and irrational. But the biggest failure of logic and perception is with those who refuse to acknowledge the direct consequences of their own choices as consumers, insisting on rock-bottom meat and dairy prices.
There's a mental Berlin Wall with "it's got nothing to do with me" written all over it. The whole factory farming system depends upon this wall in the mind.
Maybe people still imagine the happy chickens pecking in the farmyard and then Farmer Joe swiftly using the axe on them (if they imagine anything at all).
A family member of mine dislikes animals. She once declared to me, as she ate her steak, "I never touch an animal!"
Vegans and vegetarians are often accused of being emotional and irrational. But the biggest failure of logic and perception is with those who refuse to acknowledge the direct consequences of their own choices as consumers, insisting on rock-bottom meat and dairy prices.
7
A well-made short video (not graphic at all) in which people on the street talk about where they imagine their "humanely produced" meat comes from:
https://www.facebook.com/animaljusticecanada/videos/1321486851201194/
https://www.facebook.com/animaljusticecanada/videos/1321486851201194/
Good that you mentioned the outbreak of Anthrax. FBI investigators determined this Anthrax was stolen by a disgruntled employee from a US Lab in Fort Dextrix Maryland where chem and germ warfare agents are investigated. The disgruntled employee had less than a teaspoon of Anthrax and it was determined to be from a lab in IA of all places.
The federal govt. knows full well the huge Anthrax production facilities the Soviet Union had on stand by to produce vast quantities of the stuff. The tanks on stand by were 4 stories tall and 10 meters across.
I call on large hospitals and in every major city in the USA, one or several large hospitals are designated as Cipro or Ciprofloxain storage depots. While helping unload on of our trucks, I saw a large box truck unloading sealed pallets of meds and asked the Director of Pharmacy what was going with all the armed guards. Turns out this was the Cipro going into underground secure storage. Most large hospitals have their pharmacy in the basement.
Yes the price of turkeys and eggs did go up last year - hopefully no terrorists will get their hands on Anthrax. BTW Anthrax spores are very long lived, require no refrigeration and it is virtually impossible to destroy them even using very intense UV lights. Large doses of ionizing radiation is about all that will kill these spores.
The federal govt. knows full well the huge Anthrax production facilities the Soviet Union had on stand by to produce vast quantities of the stuff. The tanks on stand by were 4 stories tall and 10 meters across.
I call on large hospitals and in every major city in the USA, one or several large hospitals are designated as Cipro or Ciprofloxain storage depots. While helping unload on of our trucks, I saw a large box truck unloading sealed pallets of meds and asked the Director of Pharmacy what was going with all the armed guards. Turns out this was the Cipro going into underground secure storage. Most large hospitals have their pharmacy in the basement.
Yes the price of turkeys and eggs did go up last year - hopefully no terrorists will get their hands on Anthrax. BTW Anthrax spores are very long lived, require no refrigeration and it is virtually impossible to destroy them even using very intense UV lights. Large doses of ionizing radiation is about all that will kill these spores.
2
Maryn McKenna's SUPERBUG addressed MRSA, prophylactic use of antibiotic, pigs, et cetera.
Perhaps we need to ask right now if prophylactic use of antibiotic, no longer permitted without the DVM's Rx, with Rx disallowed for prophylaxis, is being gamed by ranchers, growers and the DVM - that spread disease with the common needle. Why spread the disease?
By infecting the herd, we are allowing feed lot distribution of grain fed antibiotic to stimulate growth.The deliberate spread of certain diseases... say anaplasmosis - allows the feedlot approach to use of grain to allow trough uptake of tetracycline to suppress, accelerating unhealthy growth... assuring increasing insensitivity to antibiotic.
Why do farms, drug companies' one needle pistol applicator, DVM and farm staff encourage the use of the same needle in vaccination - assuring spread of anaplasmosis? Drug companies want to sell drugs. That's easy. Farms want livestock to grow faster. That is easy.
What is the result: continuous use of antibiotic and grain, faster, cheaper growth... and an end run on the proscribed prophylactic use prohibition... with herd wide feeding... and herd wide illness that justifies the feeding.
So, will Catch 22 in this area spread MRSA and end the use of the OR for an operation, rendering use of antibiotic pointless?
Serious question.
Perhaps we need to ask right now if prophylactic use of antibiotic, no longer permitted without the DVM's Rx, with Rx disallowed for prophylaxis, is being gamed by ranchers, growers and the DVM - that spread disease with the common needle. Why spread the disease?
By infecting the herd, we are allowing feed lot distribution of grain fed antibiotic to stimulate growth.The deliberate spread of certain diseases... say anaplasmosis - allows the feedlot approach to use of grain to allow trough uptake of tetracycline to suppress, accelerating unhealthy growth... assuring increasing insensitivity to antibiotic.
Why do farms, drug companies' one needle pistol applicator, DVM and farm staff encourage the use of the same needle in vaccination - assuring spread of anaplasmosis? Drug companies want to sell drugs. That's easy. Farms want livestock to grow faster. That is easy.
What is the result: continuous use of antibiotic and grain, faster, cheaper growth... and an end run on the proscribed prophylactic use prohibition... with herd wide feeding... and herd wide illness that justifies the feeding.
So, will Catch 22 in this area spread MRSA and end the use of the OR for an operation, rendering use of antibiotic pointless?
Serious question.
1
How about we stop protecting animal agriculture and eliminate the "looming threat of avian flu" by eliminating the poultry industry? At some point avian flu will mutate into just the right organism to decimate the human population, but in the meantime the cruelty inflicted on birds so that humans can eat them makes us deserving of a plague.
27
Sure. Instead of inexpensive protein the poor can eat cake.
2
I grew up on a farm in Ohio, and our neighbors raised turkeys. Turkeys heads/necks are normally NOT blue or purple (as depicted in your photo). They are a healthy pink. But scream loudly at turkeys and put them under stress, and their heads and necks will turn blue (it's how farm kids entertain themselves; you learn by observing). Those turkeys are under stress - all of them. How much do farming practices like crammed quarters and inability to roam freely contribute to the birds' vulnerability to disease? I'm guessing a lot. Something the scientists and farmers should look into.
178
I know what you mean!
With all the bureaucracy the federal government is pushing on us, I am seeing more and more people with purple heads and necks every day.
Not to mention the primaries.
Have you looked at Donald Trump lately?
With all the bureaucracy the federal government is pushing on us, I am seeing more and more people with purple heads and necks every day.
Not to mention the primaries.
Have you looked at Donald Trump lately?
1
There are a lot different types of domestic turkeys, from the designer slate to bourbon colors, to plain white. Wild turkeys have blue that ranges from some blue to almost all blue. I don't think you can make that judgement from a photo.
1
There is no question that poultry and other factory farms use inhumane conditions to increase profits. But most are not giant conglomerates; like the people in this story they are human beings, ordinary farm families who are struggling to make a living. They operate on pretty narrow margins of profit (most goes to the middleman) and they were devastated by this attack of avian flu.
If you want to be concerned folks (you vegan fanatics too!), the real cruelty is in the poultry processing plants. Why? because in order to maximize profits, the big companies (Tyson, etc.) GOT RID OF THEIR UNIONS and fired all the well-paid US citizens in those unions -- and hired illegal aliens. Virtually all poultry and meat processing today is done by illegal aliens, who are paid $5 an hour under the table. With no union and in terror of the INS, the corporations run the processing lines too fast, creating miserable conditions, cruelty and pain for both the animals AND the workers. It is also filthy, passing along contaminated product.
And why do we have 20 million illegal aliens? How can huge corporations get away with hiring almost all illegals, with NO repercussions or legal worries? Answer: lefty liberalism (dare not talk about deportation, or you are a xenophobic racist hater!). And BTW, problem has gotten exponentially WORSE under Obama.
If you want to be concerned folks (you vegan fanatics too!), the real cruelty is in the poultry processing plants. Why? because in order to maximize profits, the big companies (Tyson, etc.) GOT RID OF THEIR UNIONS and fired all the well-paid US citizens in those unions -- and hired illegal aliens. Virtually all poultry and meat processing today is done by illegal aliens, who are paid $5 an hour under the table. With no union and in terror of the INS, the corporations run the processing lines too fast, creating miserable conditions, cruelty and pain for both the animals AND the workers. It is also filthy, passing along contaminated product.
And why do we have 20 million illegal aliens? How can huge corporations get away with hiring almost all illegals, with NO repercussions or legal worries? Answer: lefty liberalism (dare not talk about deportation, or you are a xenophobic racist hater!). And BTW, problem has gotten exponentially WORSE under Obama.
2
No matter what, for the love of God and all that's holy, let's not rethink industrial-level husbandry, let alone such commie-pinko ideas as "being mostly vegetarian." That'd just be crazy. Better to keep gigantic biopools of viral evolution up and running until the inevitable disaster.
63
Affluent, educated people of all political persuasions are often huge fans of paleo and other high meat consumption diets. Never mind that eating that much meat is not environmentally friendly or sustainable, they insist they need to eat more than one serving of animal protein a day to maintain a low weight. At what cost, though?
2
Being in healthcare I dread this the most - in the near future we may just see avian flu mutate and cause bird to man and man to man transmission. When it happens it will be a pandemic of monumental proportions. The likelihood is far higher in Asia where I see millions of chicken being raised in farms in close proximity to millions of people. What we see in the US, surprisingly, is far better than what you might see in Asia.
16
Well I wouldn't panic. There are probably a half a trillion birds on the planet. What are you going to do? Kill them all? Then kill all the mosquitoes? And on and on.....
1
I remember when there was a media manipulated bird flu potential epidemic around 2006-2007 that resulted in the US Government buying Tamiflu, made by Roche, in which Donald Rumsfeld was invested and he was reported to have made 15 million dollars just from the sale to the army. The bird flu didn't pass into the human population as was predicted, and all that Tamiflu went to waste.
15
But Rummy and his cronies got rich.
3
Pretty sure they were already rich.
So they got richer. They always want to get richer.
1
I must join what I think will be a storm of revulsion at the sight of all those poor birds being crammed into that barn. This is the price being paid for those cheap frozen butterballs at the supermarket, which of course is the least of it. Where to even start?
39
Yes, but why should I care?
I'm old enough to have survived a lot of flu viruses.
And most Americans are too stupid to know what you're talking about. They are counting on "God" or Donald Trump or "the invisible hand of the free market" to save them.
Edward Abbey on Capitalism: "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell."
I'm old enough to have survived a lot of flu viruses.
And most Americans are too stupid to know what you're talking about. They are counting on "God" or Donald Trump or "the invisible hand of the free market" to save them.
Edward Abbey on Capitalism: "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell."
27
Way too many members of one species confined in a small area means, eventually, a devastating epidemic disease which will cut numbers down.
Does any other species come to mind here besides farm animals?
Does any other species come to mind here besides farm animals?
39
The pictures with this article tell me all I need to know. We are only eating poultry and eggs at the prices we have because the birds are kept in ridiculously crowded conditions. If we treated turkeys and chickens as if they were living animals no one could afford to eat them.
I am giving up my yearly turkey. I had already given up red meat. It seems that buying cage free eggs is not enough.
I am giving up my yearly turkey. I had already given up red meat. It seems that buying cage free eggs is not enough.
30
Poultry can be kept in more humane conditions without costs escalating beyond control. It's not "one or the other".
I could live without turkey, because I detest turkey. But I don't think I could live without eggs -- an inexpensive, excellent source of protein -- and many people like to eat chicken.
I prefer fish -- but the price of salmon has DOUBLED over the last 6-7 years, so I can't afford to it, and am forced to eat chicken, which I don't like (but don't DETEST as I do turkey).
If you want to work for better conditions for meat production -- do so. Just you not eating a yearly turkey does nothing.
I could live without turkey, because I detest turkey. But I don't think I could live without eggs -- an inexpensive, excellent source of protein -- and many people like to eat chicken.
I prefer fish -- but the price of salmon has DOUBLED over the last 6-7 years, so I can't afford to it, and am forced to eat chicken, which I don't like (but don't DETEST as I do turkey).
If you want to work for better conditions for meat production -- do so. Just you not eating a yearly turkey does nothing.
2
Absolutely! Chains such as Trader Joe's carry free range eggs and other free range meats. Though it's more expensive, it's a great idea to support farmers who do offer human altermatives to mass farming. If we keep purchasing more ethical products, humane farming methods will become more prevelent.
Research "cage free." It is a deceptive term for torture.
1
We torture Turkeys so we can all be thankful at Thanksgiving that we are eating a tortured Turkey?
End Factory Farming.
End Factory Farming.
61
This is yet another reason we should shift to a food system that puts plants at the center of our diet instead of meat. The business model of factory farming relies on externalizing costs onto the animals, workers, the environment, and tax payers, and keeping animal mortality acceptably low (but not zero) to maximize profits. If we paid the true cost of meat, it would be significantly more expensive than it is now, and we would eat vastly less of it. But luckily, eating any meat at all is entirely unnecessary to be healthy and thrive. We should seriously question whether animal agriculture is an essential part of our nation's food security, or a threat to it.
45
Good luck proselytizing that lefty veganism. It just won't sell. Most people absolutely hate vegetables. I don't mean "they prefer meat". I mean they LOATHE, hate and detest all vegetables. I know vegans and vegetarians, and even THEY eat things like fake processed cheese and fake processed bologna and fake processed "Tofurkey" rather than eat vegetables.
95% of people are not going to give up meat.
95% of people are not going to give up meat.
2
What planet are you from? People detest vegetables? Oh, I see. You mean " Americans detest vegetables". Newsflash: Americans are not the only people around. There is the delicious plant- and legume-based Mediterranean diet; the amazingly tasty Chinese diet in all its many varieties, in which meat is used almost as a condiment; fish-based Venetian diet. I have gone hungry for days while driving through Midwest because I find meat-based American diet totally nauseating. And even if I had a craving for burgers, one look at the locals waddling around like beached whales would cure it.
1
The problem, Mark, is that vegetable farming without animals is VERY difficult--unless of course you are happy to dump petroleum-based fertilizers on everything.
2
I don't like my tax dollars paying to dispose of these birds and to clean up contaminated corporate barns.
If you want to be a chicken farmer and treat these birds in a disgusting and cruel environment, then you pay for the disposal and remediation out of your profits.
If you want to be a chicken farmer and treat these birds in a disgusting and cruel environment, then you pay for the disposal and remediation out of your profits.
90
You're not wrong to think that way. But keep in mind that not only should you be ready to pay substantially more for meat, you are asking everyone else to pay substantially more, too!
1
No one is forced to eat meat. A vegetarian diet is cheaper and better for the environment.
Is eating meat a right or simply a luxury?
Is eating meat a right or simply a luxury?
2
As a taxpayer, I'm sure you hate paying those low prices in eggs and meat and dairy products too. Such is the hypocrisy for folks like yourself who condemn industrial agriculture and farming, yet demanding ever lower prices at the same time. Somehow, somewhere, someone has to pay the price. If you're not willing to pay the price in terms of retail price, then you have to pay the price in tax dollars. It's as simple as that.
1
Don't we have a vaccine for this yet?
How about a nice thanksgiving sardine?
3
Are you kidding? You never heard of sardine flu?
How about a vegetarian Thanksgiving? The food is great, and no turkeys need to suffer.
That's the best picture of a turkey I've ever seen.
that photo will put me off col sanders for quite a while
5
Perhaps we should just allow the poultry industry to take the same action that the beef industry is allowed to take with respect to mad cow disease: just don't check for it. Problem solved.
3
7000 turkeys in one barn. Does that contribute to turkey health?
99
disease travels fast when youre shoulder to shoulder
or wing to wing
or whatever body part they press together
or wing to wing
or whatever body part they press together
10
I agree. I saw that picture and shuddered.
7
what do you think? For so many reasons, ethical, moral, and health, industrialized animal production (it's NOT farming), will come to an end. Probably along with the human animals who invented this torture.
15
"the company commissions outside audits of its biosecurity. It passed one just before the epidemic started. The flu got in anyway. "
Yes; and this WILL happen again. And again. Because? The idea that this system "will work" is entirely based on fantasy, at every level. But a nice fantasy the bankers and business planners love: big profits. While if works.
But it doesn't; in the long run, it can't work. Hiring outside auditors? Sounds good; but inspection of that kind is a boring job with incredibly high skill levels required for consistent performance. You will run into incompetent inspectors eventually. Or a competent one whose marriage is falling apart— and the consequences of missing that one little point... total catastrophe. Diseases under control? They evolve; always have.
This isn't theory; this is history; and the future. More animals in one facility; tighter control, means— bigger profits; bigger crashes. Also a loss of genetic diversity in the animals, and a loss of farm skills among the farmers, making it increasingly difficult to adopt any other route.
Another instance where the Holy Fantasy of economists — "Demand" which "must" be satisfied; has led the world into collapsing systems. Consumers do not "demand" turkeys; and no disasters of any kind would follow if far fewer were produced. Farmers might not have to compost so many animals, could still make a fine living, and taxpayers wouldn't have to pay for their "disaster relief."
Yes; and this WILL happen again. And again. Because? The idea that this system "will work" is entirely based on fantasy, at every level. But a nice fantasy the bankers and business planners love: big profits. While if works.
But it doesn't; in the long run, it can't work. Hiring outside auditors? Sounds good; but inspection of that kind is a boring job with incredibly high skill levels required for consistent performance. You will run into incompetent inspectors eventually. Or a competent one whose marriage is falling apart— and the consequences of missing that one little point... total catastrophe. Diseases under control? They evolve; always have.
This isn't theory; this is history; and the future. More animals in one facility; tighter control, means— bigger profits; bigger crashes. Also a loss of genetic diversity in the animals, and a loss of farm skills among the farmers, making it increasingly difficult to adopt any other route.
Another instance where the Holy Fantasy of economists — "Demand" which "must" be satisfied; has led the world into collapsing systems. Consumers do not "demand" turkeys; and no disasters of any kind would follow if far fewer were produced. Farmers might not have to compost so many animals, could still make a fine living, and taxpayers wouldn't have to pay for their "disaster relief."
43
Bird flu, and it's spread, is linked to factory farming. You cannot cram 7000 large birds into a barn and expect healthy results. Aside from the inherent cruelty of such practices, I'd think the threat of illness would be enough to encourage people to turn away from buying and eating factory farmed animals.
132
Karla, why do you think bird flu and its spread is linked to factory farming? The article say that avian flu usually comes from wild birds.
1
You can get healthy results, but if something goes wrong it is a disaster.
Robin... Even though some may have the disease and some may die, the wild birds are not dying by the thousands, because they are not being kept in unnatural, crammed conditions like chickens and turkeys are.
Turkeys and hens are sentient beings condemned to live an unnatural, short and stressful life. The people who work on these places should not be called "farmers" - they are factory meat producers. Not "farmers". Shameful.
Turkeys and hens are sentient beings condemned to live an unnatural, short and stressful life. The people who work on these places should not be called "farmers" - they are factory meat producers. Not "farmers". Shameful.
7
The photo of 7000 Turkeys in a barn is pathetic! What are your laws on poultry farms environment? Is that allowed? Livestock are worth more than that miserable existence especially in the United States where space is not an issue!
108
When will people just take the rational way out and start eating plant-based while eschewing a diet that is inhumane, unfair and fundamentally unhealthy. Bringing feeling, intelligent creatures into the world (via rape racks and similar ingenious instruments of torture) just to be killed and consumed does not do honor to us as a species. Zoonotic diseases have been the bane of humanity since the advent of agriculture. We don't have to breed them or catch them. Plants do not carry avian flu or, to my knowledge, any other contagious disease .
36
Thank you, ARC!! I agree 100%. The only thing I would take exception to is that instead of being a "way out," a plant-based diet, especially if it is based on whole foods, is a "way in" to a whole new healthful, joyful, and pleasurable way of life that you can't imagine until you try it. For websites, visit forksoverknives.com, pcrm.org, and nutritionfacts.org. If you love food and cooking, check out theplantbasedlife.com, vegkitchen.com, plantpoweredkitchen.com, and theppk.com.
5
Packing these animals together as in the barn photograph is disgusting and cruel. These people should be in jail.
88
Turkeys and hens are sentient beings condemned to live an unnatural, short and stressful life. The people who work on these places should not be called "farmers" - they are factory meat producers. Not "farmers". Shameful.
2
The reason these conditions exist is because consumers demand the cheapest possible product. In the short-term, the only way to achieve the prices we've come to expect (and often seem to feel entitled to) is through economies of scale and efficiency. The factory farm is a direct result of what consumers demand, and consumers are directly responsible for these conditions. In the long-term, the benefits of the economy of scale will collapse. Just like economists designed the most profitable way to produce the cheapest food, Mother Nature will design the most efficient way to destroying these methods and those who patronize them.
3
I operated a feed mill on a family livestock operation that was once considered the largest in our part of the state. We enforced stringent bio-hazard protocols-- no one could visit the farm who had been around other livestock or on other farms for 72 hours, disinfectant foot baths at the door of every building that had to be used upon entering/leaving, and the use of SPF breeding stock-- Specific Pathogen Free, in which the first generation is taken by cesarean section to avoid picking up several chronic diseases from the birthing tract.
However, no matter how good a job we did on the farm, we had to have many tons of grain, soy bean meal, calcium and phosphorus supplements, salt, and various vitamin, trace minerals, and medical supplements delivered to the farm, usually by semi tractor trailer, out of which we made our own feed. Deliveries were made by several trucking firms several times per week by trucks that were regularly visiting a number of other farms before us and after us, dropping off deliveries as parts of a larger route, so that the companies could benefit from economies of scale.
Spelunkers re-using equipment spread white nose disease. Itinerant bee keepers spread colony collapse. Bass fishermen who don't disinfect their boats spread zebra mussels. And trucking companies that don't disinfect their trucks between deliveries spread viruses across poultry, swine, and cattle production facilities.