The Secret Weapon Against Pandemics That Nobody Wants to Talk About

[Music]

[Applause]

there’s a reason why

i have to deliver this talk remotely

there’s a reason why i haven’t been able

to address a real audience in person

for almost a year there’s a reason why i

currently can’t visit a hairdresser and

sort out this

mess what there seems to be no reason

for however

is the fact that one of the most

effective ways in which we can

drastically reduce the chances

of another debilitating pandemic from

occurring again

is seemingly being ignored or at least

isn’t present in the public

consciousness

we’re still not entirely sure about the

origins of covid19 it’s generally

thought to have migrated to us from a

bat in china

but this virus is only one example of a

type of disease

called a zoonotic disease a zoonotic

disease

is one which originates in non-human

animals but develops the ability to

transmit from those other species

to human beings if we ever need a

reminder of our place in nature

not as the untouchable lords of the

animal kingdom as

many humans see themselves but as

animals ourselves

who are just as susceptible to the

trials and tragedies of the natural

order as

any other species on planet earth we can

find it in the humbling force with which

a zoonotic disease can

in the blink of an eye come to devastate

us so surprisingly

and so severely that it threatens our

very existence

since the outbreak of covid19 there have

been seemingly endless efforts to

prevent something like it from ever

happening again

but something is being overlooked like a

discussion about

lung cancer that omits mention of

smoking or a discussion about pollution

that ignores the transportation industry

the conversation surrounding pandemic

prevention currently has a dangerous and

gaping

blind spot that i cannot believe isn’t

getting more attention

covert 19 thankfully looks like it soon

will become a thing of the past

but we still face a very real risk of

more pandemics

happening again in the future here’s

what i’m here to convince you of

if we genuinely want to reduce our risk

of zoonotic diseases developing

and potentially causing more pandemics

we simply cannot continue to ignore

the elephant in the room or more

accurately

the pig or the cow or the chicken on the

factory farm

the vast majority of animal products

that we consume that’s

meat but also dairy and eggs comes from

factory farms

many people know of the ethical horrors

of animals being confined and harmed

within these disgusting facilities

but not so many people know that an

unintended consequence

of housing the animals we unnecessarily

farm for food

in such close proximity such high

numbers and such

outrageously unhygienic conditions as

are present in factory farms

is an explosion in the likelihood that

an animal-based virus

will mutate into one with zoonotic

abilities that is

one that spreads to humans factory farms

are our principal source of animal-based

foods

but they’re also breeding grounds for

these kinds of viruses and pose a severe

threat

to public health and human well-being

that simply cannot continue to be

overlooked

to understand why we have to first

unpack what exactly is

a factory farm factory farms are

profit-driven

large-scale industrialized engines of

animal cruelty

their primary motive in farming animals

is not the ethical treatment of these

inmates

it’s not environmental sustainability

and is certainly not a provision

of acceptable hygiene standards factory

farms exist

solely to make as much money as possible

from the exploitation of animals

and unfortunately ethical environmental

and public health considerations

only serve as a roadblock in the way of

increasing profit margins

and so were completely neglected by

these farms factory farms are a

relatively new

experiment in animal agriculture only

really arising in the 20th century when

the discovery of vitamins

and the development of antibiotics

allowed animals to be kept

indoors in close proximity and in far

greater numbers

than previously possible and this leads

to the familiar and horrifying images of

chickens crammed into barns pigs and

cows in cages so small that they can’t

turn around

and the slaughter of these animals to

the tune of around 210 million

per day not including fish by the way

who are slaughtered

in the billions per day around 7.5

billion human beings are currently alive

on planet earth

we kill that many land animals alone

every 36 days and that’s just for food

not including animals killed for other

purposes like clothing

and not even including sea life at all

animal suffering doesn’t just permeate

our food and our clothing by the way

animal suffering is everywhere we know

that it’s in our food and in our

clothing

but it’s also in our furniture our

sports our medicine and our cosmetics

it’s in british currency alcohol

backpacks

violins guitar straps bibles tires

blankets phone cases wallets

and even fireworks you might be

currently listening to this talk

while sat on the skin of a dead cow the

only place that i can think of

where animal suffering is truly nowhere

to be found

is in the moral consideration of the

average human being

it’s worth thinking about this the next

time you hear someone accusing vegans

of being the pushy or forceful ones i

promise you that i have to encounter

animal products

far more than you have to encounter a

vegan complaining about them now in case

you don’t already share

my ethical intuition that factory farms

are in urgent need of abolition

allow me to describe some of their

common operations starting

with cows cows only produce milk for

their offspring just like human beings

do

and so it’s standard practice in the

dairy industry to forcibly impregnate

cows

so they’ll start producing milk but when

their calves are born as a result of

this

those calves will want to drink their

mother’s milk and so it’s also standard

practice

to forcibly separate the calf from their

mother

so that the milk can be redirected for

human consumption

i’m sure i don’t need to explain to you

the psychological stress

involved in being forcibly separated

from your children

but at least these mother cows don’t

know what will happen to their stolen

calves

in the united kingdom seventy thousand

of these calves

are killed in their early life each year

to produce veal

for human beings to eat that mother cow

will by the way

continue to go through this cycle of

exploitation until she can no longer

produce milk

at which point the thanks we give her

for her services

is to sell her to a slaughterhouse where

she’ll be bolted in the head

or sliced in the throat so that we can

enjoy a big mac

now let’s talk about chickens the

chickens bred on the farms that produce

our food

are separated into two distinct breeds

broiler chickens who produce chicken

meat

and layer chickens who lay eggs now

these are separate operations it’s not

the same chickens who produce the meat

and the eggs that we eat they come from

these two different breeds

now because of this it’s a common

misconception that the egg industry

isn’t responsible for chicken deaths but

this is

unfortunately untrue think about those

leia chickens

of course male chickens don’t lay eggs

and are therefore useless

as layers and because of this the egg

industry

kills around seven billion of these male

chicks

every single year seven billion that’s

like wiping out nearly every human being

currently alive on planet earth

every single year for the sake of an

omelet

and these chicks are killed either by

suffocating them in large bags

grinding them up alive in an industrial

macerator

or they are in the words of the british

egg information service

humanely gassed they’re also killed as

soon as they’re born so both their first

and last experience of this world

is terror and suffering caused only by

the fact

that we like to eat their products and

this chick culling occurs in

all industrialized egg production

including i’m afraid to report

free range and organic farms as for pigs

these poor trusting creatures often

begin their lives by having their tails

cut off and their teeth

pulled out without anesthetic to prevent

them from cannibalizing each other later

in life

when these intelligent creatures are

driven to insanity

by the unthinkable conditions we trap

them in for most of their lives

if these piglets are considered to be

unusable or unprofitable

and they’re often killed immediately

using so-called

blunt force trauma whereby a farmer

takes the piglet by their back legs

and smashes their head into the ground

killing the piglet

by the force of the floor against its

skull

and this is a method which the canadian

pork council describes as

humane pig euthanasia but maybe these

pigs who die

early are the lucky ones in the uk

the most common method for slaughtering

pigs who make it to adulthood for food

is by forcing them into a gas chamber

the last moment

of these animals tragic lives are spent

writhing around

in confused agony trapped in a cage

that’s been lowered into a chamber of

carbon dioxide

wherein after a lifetime of suffering

they’re finally choked to death

and for what all for the sake of a bacon

sandwich

clearly with regards to our treatment of

non-human animals

we are in need of an ethical revolution

a revival of the animal loving spirit

that we’re all born with

you don’t need to teach a child to love

animals

you need to teach them to stop and we

teach our children from their earliest

years

to view farm animals as commodities with

which

we can do as we please instead of

sentient beings

with whom we share the world the love of

animals

is not something that’s learned it’s

something that’s lost

when was the last time you needed to

teach someone to think that

dogs shouldn’t be tortured and killed

for food

rediscovering our love and respect for

animals

is not a process of learning anything

new but unlearning the moral status

that we’ve unjustifiably placed upon

these animals just to make our food

production more convenient

by refusing to fund factory farming by

drinking

oat or soy milk instead of cow’s milk by

cooking a chickpea curry

instead of a beef one by starting your

day with oats

instead of bacon you can be a part of

this ethical

revival helping animals to no longer go

through this immeasurable suffering

and helping yourself to no longer be a

part of its cause

simply choosing something else on the

menu is

all we need to do to bring this horror

show to an end

it’s such an insignificant thing for us

to do

but it means absolutely everything to

the animal that you save

from being forced into that gas chamber

but i started this talk by asserting

that this kind of ethical revolution

doesn’t just solve this massive moral

problem but also helps to solve

our pandemic problem it’s clear that

factory farms are ethical abominations

but

what has any of this this talk of

factory farming

got to do with public health with

pandemics

well to be clear the pandemic that we’re

currently facing

was not caused by factory farming

but the next one might well be and

that’s the danger

when we understand how zoonotic viruses

like covid19

work it becomes easy to see that factory

farms play a

huge role in increasing the risk that

more of these viruses

will materialize in the future viruses

like the coronavirus

are parasites and they’re nearly alive

they have their own dna or rna

but are generally not considered to be

fully fledged living things

since they can’t survive without a host

a host

is simply an organism which viruses can

infect

and use to replicate themselves and

increase their population

so in order to replicate in this manner

viruses have to infect the cells of

other living beings

who serve as the viruses host now this

host

carrying a virus may be a mosquito or it

may be a pig

it may be a cow or it may be a human

being

a virus will jump from one host to

another

any time it gets the chance to and the

more hosts

that there are available the more

transmissions can occur but as a virus

replicates

it sometimes mutates when the virus

copies itself the copy is an

imperfect one with some kind of small

difference now these mutations are

completely random

but sometimes a mutation happens to

occur that gives the virus a new ability

that aids its survival

such as for example the ability to

transmit

not just from one animal to another but

from one species of animal

to another remember when this kind of

transmission occurs

specifically from a non-human animal to

a human being

we have a zoonotic disease covert 19 is

an example of a zoonotic disease

as is bird flu ebola malaria

and swine flu some of the most famous

and dangerous viruses that we know of

now picture again the factory farm the

barns

full of animals packed together in their

tens

of billions per year if these animals

are carrying a virus

this translates into tens of billions of

potential hosts

every year the more hosts the more

random mutations

and the more mutations the higher the

chance of the virus

developing into a zoonotic disease with

the ability to transmit to humans

so by keeping so many animals in the

excruciatingly close conditions

of factory farms the chances of such a

zoonotic disease developing

explodes if you were trying to create

the most dangerous conditions possible

for viral replication within animals

if you were trying to bring about a new

zoonotic pandemic

you couldn’t wish for something more

suitable than a modern factory farm

as josh bulk of the united states humane

society has said

whilst our governments are telling us to

keep our distance and avoid large crowds

to prevent viral transmission

we’re simultaneously cramming tens of

thousands of animals

wall-to-wall inside giant factories and

failing to recognize the risks

or at least choosing to ignore them so

where does this all leave us

well i’m hoping that it should be clear

by now that factory farming simply

needs to come to an end not only will

this allow us to bring about a

blossoming of our ethical concern for

those we share this planet with

but it will also help us to fight

against the risk of a repetition of the

horrors

that we’ve had a taste of with covid19

every single time just one animal dies

inside these ignoble factories it makes

a mockery of the claim that we’re a

society of animal lovers

and when we scale this abuse up to the

level that we see in factory farms

and continue to pay for their operations

to continue

it rebuts any claim any claim that we’re

doing

everything we can to combat the risk of

future pandemics

the solution to this problem is so

incredibly simple

that future generations will look back

with astonishment

that it took us so long to work it out

all we need to do

to bring about an end to this

nightmarish industry

is eat something else choose something

else on the menu

if we can all manage this simple task we

can collectively move towards a world

much safer much healthier and much more

ethically consistent

than the world of today even if it were

just for the sake of the animals

who were currently suffering and dying

as i speak these words

that would be more than a good enough

reason alone to stop eating animal

products

but as it turns out it’s not just in

their best interest for us to stop doing

so

it’s in our best interest too thanks for

listening

you