Humanity’s Leap to the Golden Era: Washington, D.C., Climate Change Conference, Part 5 of 17, November 8, 2009

Dr. Michael Greger (vegan): “According to the Director-General of the World Health Organization, the three greatest threats facing humanity: Number one is the global food crisis; climate change is number two; and pandemic influenza is number three - all of which have to do with our food choices.” “What has been happening in recent years to trigger these kinds of unprecedented changes in both swine and chicken flu viruses? Let’s ask the world’s leading expert, Dr. Robert Webster, as did the senior correspondent of News Hour with Jim Lehrer:” “‘Farming practices have changed.’ He talks about growing up on a farm. He says, ‘Now we put millions of chickens into a chicken factory, next door to a pig factory. And this virus has the opportunity to get into one of these chicken factories and make billions and billions of mutations continuously. And so, what we’ve changed is the way we raise animals.’ Five years ago, the world’s three leading authorities got together for a joint consultation – the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the World Organization for Animal Health, the world’s leading veterinary authority – and their job was to uncover the key underlying causes of all these new animal-to-human diseases. Number one on their list, in themes of risk factors, was this increasing demand for animal protein the world over.”

“What can we do to prevent this kind of thing in the future? Which is why we’re all here today. The United Nations has urged all governments, local authorities, international agencies ‘need to take a greatly increased role in combating the role of factory farming, which combined with these live bird markets that can provide,’ in their words, ‘ideal conditions for the flu virus to spread and mutate into a more dangerous form. These factory farms can be thought of as the original incubators for dangerous strains of the flu.’”

“The editorial concludes, ‘Those who consume animals not only harm those animals and endanger themselves, but they also threaten the wellbeing of future generations. It is time for humans to remove their heads from the sand,’ they say, ‘and recognize the risk to themselves that can arise from the maltreatment of other species.’” “If changes in human behavior can cause new plagues, well, then changes in human behavior may prevent them in the future.”