True: COVID-19 was not born in an industrial farm, and it is not even well established whether the first spillover occurred in the Wuhan wet market. It is also true that some risk factors related to the development of new diseases are not related directly to animal product consumption, for example the increasing world population and the size of urban agglomerates in proximity of wildlife habitats.
But, as a matter of fact, consuming animal products increases many risk factors for the genesis and spread of new zoonotic disease, and it had its role in the genesis and spread of COVID-19 itself. If you think that’s not true, you’re in denial.
Let’s see the facts.
1. Animal farming is a significant cause of deforestation and loss of biodiversity worldwide
A 2016 study from the Institute of Social Ecology (University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences, Vienna) analyzed the relation between dietary choices, global food supply and deforestation. The result is summed up in this article, which reports the words of the authors: “If the world’s population followed a vegan diet, all combinations of parameters, even those with lowest yield levels and low cropland expansion, would be feasible”.
See also: http://www.fao.org/3/a0701e/a0701e00.htm
And no, the soy production for seitan and tofu is not responsible for that. Soy produced for human consumption has a negligible role compared to the production for animal consumption: https://sentientmedia.org/does-soy-consumption-harm-the-planet-depends-whos-eating-it/
2. Deforestation and loss of biodiversity are risk factors for the spread of zoonotic pandemics
This is explained quite well in recent articles published by several newspapers like https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html, https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/coronavirus-habitat-loss or http://theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/28/is-factory-farming-to-blame-for-coronavirus
But let’s see other sources:
“The rapid growth in livestock production and supply chains is creating public health threats as- sociated with an animal-to-human pathogen shift, which implies pandemic risks, food safety hazards and high burdens of zoonotic diseases, depending on the agro-ecological and socio- economic development context.
http://www.fao.org/3/i3440e/i3440e.pdf
Livestock production and supply practices are part of a complex of global factors that drive disease emergence, spread and persistence.”
“Disease emergence correlates with human population density and wildlife diversity, and is driven by anthropogenic changes such as deforestation and expansion of agricultural land (i.e., land-use change), intensification of livestock production, and increased hunting and trading of wildlife”
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/8/3888
3. The appetite for animal products and the consequent intensification of industrial farming pushes small farmers towards hunting, commodifying and trading wild animals as alternative trades
This is precisely what happened in China in the past decades, increasing the risk for the development and spillover of zoonotic diseases. Which resulted in Coronavirus. Thank you, meat eaters.
“During the 1990s, large industrial poultry enterprises, organized as vertically integrated “dragon-head corporations” (longtou qiye), began to steadily increase market share. Statistics show a rapid drop in smallholder poultry farms (Ke and Han 2008). During fieldwork, I discovered that many of these smallholders have not necessarily abandoned poultry production altogether, but instead now specialize in local or unusual breeds. One manner of specializing production, which aims to meet the growing demand for distinctive foods among wealthy elites, is to breed wild animals.”
https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/ca30.1.03/258
4. Amassing large amounts of animals in restricted areas increases the risk of development of zoonotic diseases
“Low genetic diversity in the domestic population encourages rapid dissemination of infection if the latter are susceptible. The expansion of intensive livestock production in the last few decades, particularly for short generation interval species such as poultry and pigs, creates large high density populations in which there is an increased probability of adaptation of an introduced influenza virus and amplification for transmission between farms, to humans, and to wild animals”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3666729/
Conclusions
These are the facts:
- Since animal farming (driven by an increase in demand of animal products) is a significant cause of deforestation and loss of biodiversity, and deforestation and loss of biodiversity are risk factors for the genesis spread of zoonotic pandemics, we can conclude that consuming animal products increases risk factors for the genesis and spread of zoonotic diseases.
- Since the intensification of industrial farming (driven by an increase in demand of animal products) pushes small farmers towards hunting, commodifying and trading wild animals as alternative trades (which in turn are risk factors for the genesis and spread of zoonotic disease, consuming), we can conclude that consuming animal products increases risk factors for the genesis and spread of zoonotic diseases
- The expansion of intensive livestock production (driven by demand in animal products) in the last few decades, particularly for short generation interval species such as poultry and pigs, creates large high density populations in which there is an increased probability of adaptation of an introduced influenza virus and amplification for transmission between farms, to humans, and to wild animals. It follows that consuming animal products increases risk factors for the genesis and spread of zoonotic diseases
- The problem is not confined to the wet markets of Asia, obviously. The consumption of animal products has an impact, regardless of where it happens. For example, several popular “traditional” European products are actually produced with exotic meat (e.g.: the famous “Bresaola della Valtellina” is actually produced with Brazilian meat: https://cucina.corriere.it/notizie/cards/bresaola-valtellina-igp-fatta-carne-zebu-sudamericano-pochi-sanno/caso-bresaola_principale.shtml ), or produced with animals fed with soy-based food (this applies to pork, poultry, fish, …) – and soy is imported from Brazil, where its production causes deforestation.