Let me begin by saying – you must read this book, Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching (Lantern Books, 2006). If not the whole book, which I recommend, then at least read some parts of the book. There is no excuse not to do so as it is offered in its entirety online for free in an easily readable format. Dr. Michael Greger, has written an incredibly well researched (roughly 100 of the 465 pages are references) book. The book consists of five sections, Storm Gathering, When Animal Viruses Attack, Pandemic Preparedness, Surviving the Pandemic and Preventing Future Pandemics with a Forward by Professor Emeritus Kennedy Shortridge, who is credited with discovering the H5N1 (bird flu) virus in Asia.
While I consider myself fairly well versed in the horrors of factory farming, having read much of the prominent literature regarding animal rights and veganism, I found myself underlining informative sentences and gasping paragraph after paragraph with some of the information spilling off the pages. Certainly the description of the zoonotic diseases introduced to humans through the domestication of animals – including Lymes disease, rabies, AIDS and Ebola – was a particularly insightful example of one of the many reasons factory farming is problematic. Obviously bird flu is another example, historically shown to be dangerous to humanity and believed to be on the verge of a pandemic world-wide. Continue Reading…
