Humans’ meat consumption is still growing, and doing great damage to nature and climate. If that’s not bad enough, meat may also cause the next pandemic. Pandemic pathogens often jump to humans from animals. Farm raised meat and wildlife markets (“wet markets”) greatly increase opportunities for pathogens to jump from animals to humans, and then spread human-to-human as a pandemic. Today, we explore these risks, and what can be done about them.
Our guest is Jerry Martin, who has worked for many years to prevent and manage disease outbreaks from animals. He has traveled the world helping countries develop programs to manage these risks.
Resources:
Jerry Martin article:
STAT – 5/21/20
The growing global appetite for meat increases the risk of future ‘spillover’ pandemics. We can do something about it
https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/21/growing-global-appetite-meat-risk-future-spillover-pandemics/
The program Jerry used to be director of:
DAI: Preparedness and Response (P&R)
https://www.dai.com/our-work/projects/worldwide-preparedness-and-response-pr
Global land used for meat production
Our World in Data
https://ourworldindata.org/land-use
Global meat production, 1961 to 2018
Our World in Data
https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production
Environmental Impacts of Food Production
Our World in Data
https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food
USA Today – 2/16/22
Bird flu detected at multiple chicken and turkey farms in Midwest, South; over 300k affected
Vox - June 10, 2020
The meat we eat is a pandemic risk, too
The Guardian, 9/18/20
A 12-storey pig farm: has China found the way to tackle animal disease?
NY Times, 4/29/19
U.N. Issues Urgent Warning on the Growing Peril of Drug-Resistant Infections
Foreign Policy, 5/21/20
China’s Farms Are Petri Dishes of Antibiotic Resistance
NY Times, 6/7/19
Warning of ‘Pig Zero’: One Drugmaker’s Push to Sell More Antibiotics