The Price of Meat: Bird Flu
Press release from the EVU
In an interview with the BBC, Samuel Jutzi, Director of the Animal Production
and Health Division of the FAO, was asked about the possibilities of fending
off the dangerous bird flu Virus H5N1 that is inching into Europe, frightening
meat-eaters and vegetarians alike.
He answered that the availability of financial resolve to eradicate the
virus along with the animals would play an important role in keeping Europeans
secure. However, there was no plan to cull wild birds: the flu infecting
them would `taper off' after a while and remain without impact on humans.
Is it not then a reasonable conclusion that chickens raised for meat are
the reason for the threatening pandemic about which everyone is so concerned?
Would the logical answer to that situation not be to avoid chicken meat,
even if this may prove difficult for those who opted for chicken because
they feared the consequences of BSE, other animal diseases dangerous to
human health and fish laden with hormones, PCBs, dioxin and mercury?
Why does the FAO not openly admit that in a situation of increasing transboundary
animal diseases, safe meats cannot be guaranteed?
Why does no institution have the guts to admit that the safety of meat
is crumbling at dazzling speed?
Why are all measures dealing with symptoms and not with the source of
the bird flu problem?
Why does the WHO avoid the promotion of vegetarianism even though every
one of their nutritional recommendations underlines the importance of
fruit and vegetable consumption in ever-stronger statements?
Why are no official health warnings issued regarding meat?
Why does damage restriction so far mainly consist in the culling of millions
of sentient beings and the recommendations to eat the flesh of other animals
than those affected, which happens to appear relatively safe at the given
time (until further notice)?
Why, in the light of all present and emerging problems, is meat still
heavily subsidized in the industrial world, at the expense of each and
every taxpayer?
Why do international, European and national bodies ignore the fact that
a vegetarian way of life is a healthy one, as scientifically proven time
and again?
How bad does the situation need to get before experts will finally acknowledge
the need to research the benefits of vegetarianism seriously?
There is one conclusion to all these questions: Since the production and
consumption of meat is risky, puts enormous strain on global ecology,
adds to the problem of world hunger and endangers the security of future
generations, the price of meat has become far too high!
Renato Pichler
President
European Vegetarian Union
www.european-vegetarian.org
c/o Swiss Union for Vegetarianism
Bahnhofstr. 52, CH-9315 Neukirch-Egnach
Tel. +41 (0)71 477 33 77, Fax 477 33 78
http://vegetarismus.ch
svv@vegetarismus.ch
European Vegetarian-Label: http://v-label.info
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