How industrial meat and dairy trap us in an infectious disease cycle.
H5N1, or bird flu, has hit dairy farms — but the dairy industry doesn’t want us saying so.
The current, highly virulent strain of avian flu had already been ripping through chicken and turkey farms over the past two years. Since it jumped to US dairy cows for the first time last month, it’s infected more than 20 dairy herds across eight states, raising alarms among public health authorities about possible spread to humans and potential impacts on the food supply.
One Texas dairy worker contracted a mild case of bird flu from one of the impacted farms — the second such case ever recorded in the US (though one of hundreds worldwide over the past two decades, most of them fatal).
Whatever fear-mongering you may have seen on social media, we are not on the cusp of a human bird flu pandemic; the chances of further human spread currently remain low. But that could change. As the virus jumps among new mammal species like cows, the risk that it’ll evolve to be able to spread between humans does increase.
But the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), an organization of beef and dairy veterinarians, declared in a statement (condemned by public health experts) last week that it doesn’t believe bird flu in cows should be considered bird flu at all.
At this point, it would be a massive step up if people would just not send their money to people who cram cows in tiny cages with no room to move. Even if the vast majority of people can’t give a shit about the well being of animals, they should at least be able to realise that breeding horrific viruses so they have baby cow juice loaded up with drugs is a terrible idea just for their own selfish sake. How hard is it to change a few little habits? Are people so far gone that they can’t change any aspect of their lives?
It’s so hard to take anyone seriously when they have such little self-control and moral absence that they can’t even take any tiny step if it means giving up anything that they are used to.
You can take my milkies away from my cold dead calcium fortified skeletal remains!
This is a joke. I think milk actually tastes real gross
I’ve not drank anything that was made for baby cows in over 6 years(or any other animal products), I get regularly tested for deficiencies, and I have never been under in calcium. They lied to you. They lied to you because they knew how easy it would be to make you feel like you need to do whatever they tell you. Not only did they convince you that it is healthy to drink their milk, they also convinced you to not think about the fact that they pump it full of drugs to increase their profits. You got played so hard that they don’t even have to worry that might question them. At this point, most people are too afraid to even consider they’ve been played because they don’t want to entertain the fact that maybe, just maybe, they’ve been doing something stupid. The count the egos of their victims to continue their scam for them. As a result, people do their job for them and repeat their manufactured lie to their own children.
“Got Milk?” Is a seriously insidious ad campaign. The posters are in every school I’ve ever seen, and have been for decades.
It is legitimately impossible for most 1st-worlders.
They all think they’re entitled to what they’ve had their entire lives, even if it hurts others.
I know, you’re right. I bounce back and forth between despising and pitying them. I feel like I should pity more, but honestly, I spend more time despising.