COVID | Meat-Factories
Recently Thousands of meat plant workers have been infected by COVID, in Europe and US [1]
More than 4,000 workers have been infected with coronavirus in 37 outbreaks in abattoirs and meat factories in Europe, leading to at least nine factory closures, analysis has found.
Staff working close to each other in low temperatures is thought to be the cause, but the UK government and Public Health England are reported to be looking at evidence from around the world linking meat plants to Covid-19.
At the same time, an undercover worker at American factories has described how stressful employment conditions leads to high dropout rates. [1]
COVID taught us that eating animals and selling their flesh under poor hygiene, can be risky for humans.
Most pandemics originated from animals, where poor hygiene allowed pathogens to spread and attack humans. For example, take the Spanish Flu, and the 14th century plague. They were carried by birds, and rats respectively, resulting in more than 50 million deaths each. At Fempton Institute, our courses are based on vegetarian nutrition. We're proud of it; and we advocate for a balanced nutrition for humans, without adding unnecessary violence on animals. Of course, we're aware that to become vegetarian may not work for everyone. Nevertheless, we're glad when others join us. For example, Nobel prize Linus Pauling once said that: 'Optimum nutrition is the medicine of tomorrow'. This bold statement still resound as a powerful invitation to reconsider what is food, and why we have it.
We don't think pleasure should be the main reason for our food, especially when our pleasure means inflicting pain to others. Pain and pleasure are connected, they appear and disappear together, so we should look to balance them, since the world constantly tend to balance itself. This was found in many cultures, including the Chinese TAO, and the Indian law of karma.
Today there is conflict of interest with the food industry, trying to push governments to have a blind eye on junk food, including soft drinks, alcohol, tobacco, processed food and sugar.
According to Cancer Research UK, colorectal cancer, is the third most common cancer in UK. The World Health Organization concluded in 2015, that there is enough evidence to classify processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans,". They also classified red meat as "probably carcinogenic." [2]
[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-meat-factory-workers-slaughterhouse-europe-germany-us-a9590036.html
[2] https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2015/processed-meat-cancer/en/
