by Carlos Magno Abreu (Batata)
Traslator Daniel Castelo Branco
June 2019: “This is the world that we created. Congratulations". Last episode of the dystopian series “Years and Years” (HBO).
January 2020: "It is not about if, but when". First episode of the documentary series “Pandemia” (Netflix).
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announces that COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus, is now characterized as a pandemic.
Nineteen days later, in an interview, Átila Iamarino, PhD, states: - "The world as we knew it is over". On this day, Brazil had confirmed 4,663 cases and 166 deaths by COVID-19. Seven months later, on October 31, 2020, we have confirmed 5,519,528 cases and 159,562 deaths and worldwide, in at least 188 countries, 45,475,639 cases, with 1,187,014 deaths. As if a pandemic caused by a new fatal virus was not enough, we find ourselves in the midst of a global proliferation of fake news, anti-vaccine movements, ‘flat-earthers’ daydreams and denials of all sorts, be it over science, be it over the burning in the Amazon and the Pantanal, or even over the unequivocal anthropic global warming. The perfect storm was set. Not only due to the effects of the coronavirus, the dead accumulate by the thousands per day.
As dystopian as it may seem, we are not surprised at the recurring appearance of new viruses and diseases. The history of humanity is full of several zoonosis that have come to afflict us, almost all of them, directly related to the way we treat animals. Since 1980, the number of zoonosis has tripled every decade. In 2016, Germany slaughtered tens of thousands of birds after an outbreak of avian influenza was confirmed and the same has occurred in China, Australia, the Philippines and several other countries. In the 1980s, the “Mad Cow Disease” emerged in the United Kingdom and, although more than four million animals were sacrificed, it soon spread throughout the world. In 2019, due to an outbreak of swine fever, China slaughtered tens of millions of pigs. The same has been happening, with increasing frequency, in different countries, with different species, created for the most diverse purposes, from food and clothing, to animals that are slaughtered to make brushes with their hair.
In the book "Pandemics, Global Health and Personal Choices", published in April of 2020, after a comprehensive review of the specific literature on pandemics and outbreaks of infectious diseases in the last decades, the authors state: “On the one hand, we cannot be naive and assume that all outbreaks of infectious diseases are associated exclusively with the consumption of products of animal origin. (…) On the other hand, until now, there has not been a single pandemic in the history of mankind that had its origin in plant products.”
Faced with these frightening numbers, the question remains: how many birds slaughtered because of new viruses are acceptable to keep us safe? Does all this killing make us safe? How many pigs are allowed? How many “mad cows”? Wouldn’t we be crazy if, for fear of new viruses, after slaughtering an incalculable number of animals, raised in terrible conditions and in absurd quantities, we raise them again, in the same places, in the same terrible conditions and absurd quantities, just hoping that new diseases do not manifest themselves in the same way as just before? Wouldn't it be crazy to do exactly the same things and expect different results? Will we ever learn that there is no right way to do wrong?
There are basically two ways of raising animals for human consumption. Intensive breeding, with unimaginable population densities, in which animals are barely able to move and which, due to the poor conditions, can only be sustained with the massive use of antibiotics, so much that more than 3/4 of all antibiotics in the world are intended for that purpose. On the other hand, extensive breeding, widely used in Brazil for cattle, with a density of less than one ox per hectare, that can only be sustained, with government subsidies or criminal practices, possibly with both. Such creation occurs mostly over the ashes of the Amazon Rainforest, where the clearing of areas for new pastures is responsible for more than 80% of deforestation and fires. Today in Brazil, literally, there are more cattle than brazilians, and, only in the Amazon, despite of how inconceivable and inexplicable it may be, there are three oxen for each person. A lot of soy is also planted there, with over 90% of the production being used as feed for slaughter animals worldwide.
We are 1/3 of the mammal biomass on the planet. Oxen, pigs, goats and everything else we raise for slaughter, account for more than 60%. The other species, from rats to whales, account for only 4%. For consumption, we kill more than 70 billion land animals per year and about 200 million tons of fish. In the same period, we cut down 15 billion trees, as a rule to make more space for slaughter animals or to plant food for them. In Brazil, 1 ox, 1 pig and 189 chickens are killed per second. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of the year!
We need to talk about how our tyrannical relationship, based on all sorts of animal abuse, whether wild or domesticated, intensifies, strengthens and helps, not only to disseminate, but to create new viruses, new pathogens and new diseases. Whatever the origin of the zoonosis that “jumped” for our species, it must be kept in mind that there an abuse against animals and against the environment exists. We burn the forest to open new pastures, unbalance the environment, increase global temperature, place domestic and human animals, both in vulnerable conditions, in direct and constant contact with wild animals that, due to the destruction of their habitats, are also weakened and more prone to disease. Once again, the perfect storm was set.
We need to change this despotic and objectified relationship that we impose to animals, and migrate to a healthy and respectful distance, so that our habits respect their basic rights, especially the right to life. “The animals of the world exist for their own purposes. They were not made for humans, in the same way that black people were not made for whites, nor women for men” (Alice Walker).
Tens of thousands of years were necessary for, from hunter-gatherers, through the development of agriculture, to reach the mark of 1 billion people on the planet, which only occurred in 1800. Then, in just over 200 years, we exceeded 7 billion and we are on the verge of collapse, on the threshold of the Earth's sustenance capacity, if we have not already exceeded it. At this rate of death and destruction, in less than a century, perhaps much less, we will return to being a handful of hunter-gatherers, just before our extinction.
There are few true carnivores in wild nature, as a balanced environment that supports many prey is required to maintain them. Our planet does not support billions of meat-hungry carnivores every day, feeding several times a day. The root of our environmental imbalance is exactly on our plate. The simple habit of eating the meat of animals every day is destroying the environment and our health, is killing tens of billions of animals per year and is closely related to the emergence of new diseases and the worsening of others. Currently, due to the excessive consumption of products of animal origin, we have 2.5 billion overweight people, three times the number of malnourished people. Obesity and cardiovascular diseases have become the main causes of death in different parts of the planet. This calamity must be stopped at the earliest opportunity.
We must, as soon as possible, flatten the curve of the consumption of products of animal origin, so that we can flatten the curve of slaughtered animals, wishing that these data became just a terrible horror story that future generations will tell about our gastronomic barbarism. We have already set goals for reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere, now it is urgent to set goals for reducing animal breeding worldwide.
There is no longer any way to deny that the scenario portrayed above is only perpetuated under the aegis of the negationism of the meat. Even in a context where we have all the information, even so, although daily present in our meals, apparently dead animals are the “absent referents” in our hearts and minds, so that the cause and effect relationships do not apply to them.
We need to take death out of our feeding and our lives. We need to understand that as long as we continue to kill animals and cut trees by the billions, we will also die by the billions. The world is what we eat. As inconvenient as it may seem, from the abundance of the plate the abundant pain was made, and, if we continue on that way, we will be left with only forests in ashes, animals in carcasses and billions of us in collective graves.
But how to stop this carnage, if we need to eat every day?
In 1944, in the United Kingdom, a group of friends founded the “Vegan Society”. In a brief and simplified definition, veganism is a philosophy of life that seeks to exclude all forms of exploitation and cruelty to animals. Thus, not only is the vegan diet absent from any item of animal origin, or resulting from any type of abuse against them, but also are all the objects and products used.
Due to the greater propagation of all the facts described here, interest in veganism has increased drastically in recent years. Every day new technologies and new products appear, previously unimaginable. Vegetable meats that mimic animal meat. Vegetable milks and cheeses are increasingly present on market shelves. Ingredients of animal origin are replaced by those of vegetable origin. A few years ago, it was questioned whether an exclusively vegetable diet was possible. Today, it is certain that, more than possible, and scientific studies indicate this, the vegan diet is one of the healthiest known. More and more, elite athletes, from ultra-marathoners and weightlifters, from tennis players to Formula 1 drivers, are switching to an exclusively vegetable diet to increase their performance in a highly competitive environment. Each time, more scientific studies indicate that the vegan diet not only prevents several cardiovascular diseases, but can even reverse them.
Obviously, it is not enough just to stop eating animals to solve all our many problems. It is not intended here to claim that veganism is the panacea that will save humanity from all ills, that will end the fire in the Amazon, stop global warming, heal us from COVID-19 and prevent us from being harassed by other pandemics. The allure of easy solutions to complex problems only persists in ignorance. However, we also don't solve problems that we pretend don't exist.
Therefore, not taking into account, in a responsible and committed way, that the way we relate to animals had, and has, a direct influence on public health events in different parts of the globe, also approaches the innocence of wanting to cover the sun with a sieve. Furthermore, I dare to say that there is no possible solution, of long duration and global scope, that does not go through the principles of veganism.
Napoleon Bonaparte said: "In war, half measures lose everything". And we are in the midst of the greatest war we have ever created: the war for our own survival – and our obsolete and ingrained habits are our greatest enemies. If we do not get rid of the bonds of ethical blindness that we have conditioned ourselves over centuries, we will succumb, as those who go to the battlefield succumb with their eyes blindfolded by routine and their hands tied by the past.
Each breeding for slaughter is a time bomb that we set up. And, when one of them explodes, as it has happened several times, we try to create new mechanisms to more efficiently monitor these time bombs, and shortly after we arm others, as if nothing had happened. Wouldn't it be wiser to stop arming time bombs that, like any bomb, will one day explode!?
Once the pandemic is over, once again freed by science and vaccination, finally embraced, we will mourn our dead. But, after the collective mourning, with veganism as the north, it is urgent that we definitely abandon the denial of the meat. We urgently need to dismantle these time bombs that we call animal breeding. And then, we may be able to avoid our annihilation and dream again that future generations, instead of dystopia and destruction, contemplate a constructive and sustainable utopia in this cozy and fruitful little round rock that, despite of all regrets, we call Mother Earth.
Today, November 1, is the International Veganism Day. Take advantage of the date and venture into a possible new world. Start now. Even if it is just exchanging butter for oil, honey for molasses, silk for cotton, animal leather for vegetable leather. Change the fillet for more French fries. Eat 100% vegetable hamburger. Even better, make one. Exchange the bacon for mushrooms. Try new recipes, new textures, aromas and flavors. Participate in the “Meatless Monday” campaign. When you feel better, move on to meatless meals on working days. And keep going. Everything is difficult until it becomes easy. But, believe me, it is much simpler and more enjoyable than you can imagine.
When asked about the fear that his boat could sink in the nautical adventures he made through all the oceans of the world, the great navigator Amir Klink replied: “The worst shipwreck is not to leave”. Let's go! Our safe haven no longer offers us security. Let us venture into the new possibilities of living without depending on death. It will be one of the best decisions of your lives. Animals, trees and the entire biosphere, even if silently, in joy, will thank you. Future generations will do the same.
Consider veganism. Now. Time is a luxury that we don't have.
"The worst shipwreck is not leaving."
Carlos Magno Abreu, better known as Batata, is a master in marine biology, environmental analyst at IBAMA since 2003, eventually publishes on his blog SomosUnsBossais and intends, though without strong conviction, before the end of 2020, to finish writing the book “From Plate to Pain: the Vegan North, the Amazon Rainforest Aflame and the Pandemic”. In 2013 he published the book “The story of Boitatá Operation and “Princess Diamond” - The One Million Dollar Snake”.
http://somosunsbossais.blogspot.com
somosunsbossais@gmail.com
@somosunsbossais (Twitter/Instagram)
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário