The very last reported case of Listeriosis in South Africa happened very close to my farm.
Even though that happened in 2018, it’s something that is still fresh in my mind. If you don’t know, Listeriosis is a mild to deadly bacterial infection you can acquire when consuming meat and milk. Over two hundred people died from eating Listeriosis contaminated meat here in South Africa. Many of those were kids.
The possibility that an outbreak can be on your doorstep is a deeply concerning thought.
The entire outbreak was poorly handled by authorities, media and corporations. Authorities were slow to detect it, the media provided scant information and the corporations shied away from taking responsibility.
I was left feeling that we are inadequately prepared to handle problems of this magnitude.
Increase in Epidemics
I never really paid much attention to the rise of these epidemics. However you can’t help but take notice now. The current COVID-19 outbreak is so reminiscent of previous outbreaks that you can easily start to draw parallels.
Just of the top of my head, I can think of SARS, MERS, Mad Cow Disease, H1N1(swine-flu) and H5N1(bird-flu). The connection between all of these outbreaks is that they all stemmed from the abnormal interaction with animals.
Over the past few decades, the horrendous conditions of animal agriculture for both animals and people have been well established. These conditions have only gotten worse with the relentless drive for profits by corporations.
With this rise in these despicable conditions, we have also started to see an escalation in the number deadly epidemics.
The only reason why China was able to respond quickly to the COVID-19 outbreak is because they’ve had so much practice wiping out millions of pigs and chickens to quell prior epidemics of swine flu and bird flu.
The Disease-Meat connection
It never fails to amaze me that the media, corporations and governments do not emphasis the obvious cause of these outbreaks; the consumption of meat.
It is quite obvious. Animals that are slaughtered in these hell holes whether it’s in Wuhan or Warsaw provide a petri dish for germination of all these bizarre insane diseases.
We like to comfort ourselves by thinking that the Chinese consumption of exotic animals is the cause.
However Mad Cow disease occurred in the United States and Listeriosis occurred here in South Africa. Both of which occurred by people consuming ordinary meat products.
The connection is plain as day.
Consume meat and it’s not a question of if you will suffer, rather it’s a question of when you will suffer.
Will Epidemics drive an increase in Veganism?
The increase in these epidemics will drive an increase in Veganism. More and more people are starting to see the direct connection between meat and death.
People are also starting to see not only the benefits of a plant based diet but the inherent safety of a plant based diet.
After all, no one ever died eating beetroot.
If you consume a plant based whole foods diet, then you drastically reduce your chances of getting bizarre illnesses and diseases.
Forewarned is seldom Forearmed
The World Health Organisation considers processed meats to be a Level 1 carcinogen. What that means is that if you consume processed meats regularly you will get cancer.
If people here in South Africa did not eat meat due to this knowledge, I think many lives could have been saved during the Listeriosis outbreak.
Today, we’re getting to the point where the knowledge and common sense is becoming unavoidable.
We know for a fact that eating meat is bad for us, and now we’re starting to realize that the next pandemic most likely will stem from meat consumption.
Conclusion
Epidemics like COVID-19 curtails economic growth, heightens xenophobia and destroys lives. This price is too high to pay to satiate our taste buds.
The obvious and best solution has always been the simplest one; people must stop consuming animal based products. We can either choose to do so willingly or the choice will be forced upon us by mother nature.
Personally I believe we are smart enough to make the choice by ourselves. That has always been our strongest virtue. We can see the consequences of our actions and act accordingly.
With the rise of the global epidemics I believe we will all make the smart choice and go Vegan.