{"id":3034,"date":"2022-11-09T14:31:40","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T14:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?page_id=3034"},"modified":"2022-11-21T21:18:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T21:18:05","slug":"end-big-poultry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/take-action\/end-big-poultry\/","title":{"rendered":"End Big Poultry to Thwart the Next Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Farm Forward is calling for the shutdown of Big Poultry<\/h2>\n

Ending industrial poultry farming is the single greatest action we could take to reduce the risk and frequency of future pandemics.<\/p>\n

In the midst of this pandemic, many are laying blame on \u201cwet markets\u201d and the consumption of bats and other wild animals. While COVID-19 may have emerged from a wet market, the greater pandemic risk is our insatiable appetite for cheap, factory farmed meat. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)<\/a>, at least three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases come from animals\u2014and the intensive confinement of genetically compromised animals on filthy, crowded factory farms has created a perfect breeding ground.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With an estimated mortality rate of around 2 percent, COVID-19 is wreaking havoc worldwide. But it could have been much worse. Had COVID been another virus on the CDC watch list, like H5N1 (bird flu), we could be facing a pathogen with a 60 percent mortality rate. And of the 19 viruses currently dominating the CDC\u2019s list of influenza viruses with pandemic potential considered \u201cof special concern,\u201d AT LEAST 11 emerged in commercial poultry farms.<\/a><\/p>\n

COVID-19 should be a wake up call\u2014we have the power to prevent or delay the time when a deadlier virus lurking on factory farms leaps into our communities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more than a decade, Farm Forward has argued that there is no other public health measure that could so dramatically reduce our pandemic risk as ending industrial animal agriculture\u2014which we reassert in a new Guardian<\/em> op-ed<\/a> with Farm Forward board member and New York Times<\/em> best selling author Jonathan Safran Foer. The role Big Poultry plays at the epicenter of this risk is summed up in Foer\u2019s 2009 bestseller Eating Animals:<\/p>\n

\u201cBreeding genetically uniform and sickness-prone birds in the . . . conditions of factory farms promotes the growth and mutation of pathogens. Our choice is simple: cheap chicken or our health\u201d (pages 141-142).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The world is a different place since the emergence of COVID-19\u2014we are waking up to the huge costs and disruptions caused by a pandemic and we are ready to act now to protect our future. Some political leaders have rightly called for a moratorium on new factory farms while others are calling for additional protections for workers in slaughterhouses and meat packing plants, thousands of whom have already become sick. In this moment we can re-envision a future without industrial agriculture\u2014in which alternatives abound and animals are raised with dignity. Perhaps for the first time since the emergence of factory farms two generations ago, we are ready to collectively demand an end to Big Poultry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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End Big Poultry: Pledge Now<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Our relationship with animals\u2014and especially the intensive confinement of chickens, turkeys, and ducks on cramped, filthy factory farms\u2014is increasing the risk of deadly global pandemics. It’s not a question of how we make ourselves safer. We know. The only question is will we?<\/p>\n

Reduce the risk. Join the movement to end Big Poultry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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