by Professor Steve Best -
sbest1@elp.rr.com
In late February 2001, while still reeling from the
devastating effects of mad cow disease, the British beef industry was
walloped again. This time it was hit by a new wave a hoof-and-mouth
disease, a sickness not seen in Britain since 1967 when the nation
slaughtered nearly half a million animals.
Although, so far, more animals were killed during the last epidemic, the
current outbreak is more widespread geographically. Fearing an
uncontrollable contagion, Britain has become like a sealed compound. The
European Union has placed severe restrictions on livestock movement; the
United States, Japan, and other countries have banned livestock products
from numerous European countries; and nations such as Russia, Spain,
France, Germany, and Belgium are destroying animals imported from
Britain.
A virus first identified in 1897 causes hoof-and-mouth
disease. In a global marketplace, it is indeterminate and perhaps
impossible to identify the origins of the disease. Although the British
government blames Southern nations for the outbreak, others argue that
the current epidemic originated
in Northern England and spread rapidly throughout farms in Britain and
several European countries. To date, some 50,000 animals have been
slaughtered to prevent further migration of the disease. Mountains of
burning carcasses light up the night skies in a grisly conflagration,
with no end in sight. As evidence of the levels such “preventative
measures” can reach, in 1997 Thailand culled 3.6 million pigs from a
herd of 11 million. The orgy of killing includes animals that are
non-infected and healthy, but are suspect. Since testing individual
animals simply is not economical or efficient, the policy is to shoot
first and ask questions later.
Hoof-and-mouth is a highly contagious viral disease that
can be spread through shoes, clothing, birds, infected feed and soil,
the air (traveling up to 200 miles), and even automobiles. Typically, in
wild herbivores like bison, deer, and antelope, and in cloven-hoofed
animals such as cattle, pigs, goats, and sheep, the disease causes
fever, loss of appetite, and painful blisters on the hoofs and in the
mouth. Although the disease can kill very young or old animals, it is
non-fatal to those in median years. Farmers, agriculture industries, and
veterinarians cull entire herds not to practice euthanasia -- the
effects of the disease are likened to a bad cold -- but rather to
protect profits: animals that eat less, lose weight, become lame, and
produce less milk have diminished market value. Framed as nothing but
commodities and resources, “sick” animals accordingly are slaughtered in
staggering numbers. Vaccinations are available, but the industry finds
them unreliable and not cost-effective, so the market and profit
imperatives dictate a holocaust.
Although not fatal to most animals, hoof-and-mouth
disease can have deadly effects on agriculture economies. Consequently,
extraordinary measures have been taken throughout Europe to protect the
further spread of the disease. Hundreds of farms are under restrictions.
Sporting events such as horseracing, hunting, fishing, and rugby games
have been halted to minimize human traffic. Schools are being
temporarily shut down; many national parks, zoos, and hiking trails are
closed; and trips to the countryside are being prohibited. Farmers are
not allowing visitors to their farms and are rarely leaving their own
property. In the Land of Lysol, people have to disinfect their feet at
airports, and even cars are being treated. Britain may postpone national
elections to keep human feet from trampling around
promiscuously, and Ireland has canceled celebration plans for St.
Patrick's Day.
Thus, a siege mentality has developed in Europe. As with
mad cow disease, there is a huge paranoia surrounding hoof-and-mouth
disease. Countries like Germany are checking to make sure no meat from
Britain enters their land. Thailand is so intent on preventative
measures that they have imposed a 2-year jail sentence on anyone caught
carrying a meat sandwich from Britain. In a replay of mad cow disease,
countries are once again banning British beef in particular, and
European beef in general.
The beef industry is teetering. Jean-Luc Meriaux, head
of the European Union’s meat trading association, said that the
migration of hoof-and-mouth disease to mainland Europe would be “an
absolute disaster” for the meat industry, even more catastrophic than
mad cow disease. The economic
impact would reach far beyond the meat and dairy industries themselves
to effect related industries such as tourism and trucking. Just like
carnivorous consumers, modern economies are addicted to violence and the
mass slaughter of animals.
Despite government admonitions to remain calm, consumers
have raided meat counters and Britain has limited meat stocks and rising
meat prices. Sadly, in the popular mind, meat shortages have been
confused with food shortages and people feel a deprivation rather than
opportunity to shift to a healthier, more humane, and ecologically
sustainable diet. The impression of food scarcity has been exacerbated
by constant media images of empty meat counters and disappointed
customers. The same mentality is replayed in the context of mad cow
disease, as Europeans have switched to chicken, fish, and horsemeat, and
have even taken to raiding zoos for consumable flesh.
Television news images show the spectacle of farmers
mourning, but the crocodile tears are shed over falling profits rather
than lost lives. The funeral pyres of animals mildly ill or even suspect
of sickness vividly dramatize the fact that farming is an industry
governed by crass profit imperatives. Millions can be burned, while
millions more are born; in the eyes of the industry, each animal is a
replaceable commodity not an individual. This does not mitigate the
fact, however that European farmers are being hit incredibly hard, as
thousands go into bankruptcy and many commit suicide. In Britain, for
example, farm incomes have plummeted by more than two-thirds in the last
five years. Still, one has to wonder if farmers really are better off
burning mountains of bodies rather than marketing animals that produce
less milk and are underweight.
After an onslaught of falling prices, mad cow disease,
swine fever, and hoof-and-mouth disease, British farmer Oliver Edwards
laments: “Every way we turn, everything we do – it’s all bad luck.” Bad
luck? More like madness. More like the systemic and unavoidable
consequences of an insane industrial farming system premised upon
obscene destruction of life and the earth.
Combine the capitalist profit imperative, a factory farm
system of agriculture, and a global marketplace bustling with human and
animal traffic, and you get a crisis situation where infectious diseases
breed rapidly, spread throughout the entire planet, and debacles in one
country affect every other country. In the current global economy, an
animal can be bred in Britain, fattened in France, slaughtered in Spain,
and eaten in Ecuador. The pathways of disease, consequently, are
difficult if not impossible to trace. Nor is there any guarantee that
after hundreds of thousands of animals are massacred in the current
crisis further outbreaks will not be lurking right around the corner.
While the alleged necessity of the culling of tens of
thousands of animals is hotly debated, the fact remains that billions of
animals are unnecessarily slaughtered to satisfy ignorant and gluttonous
cravings for flesh. The inexorable logic of profit and competition
demands that animals be raised under intensive confinement in mass
quantities using massive amounts of chemicals to minimize the spread of
disease and maximize the size and weight of animals. Trucking cattle and
pigs long distances may make meat cheaper, but it also is a highly
effective way to spread the hoof and mouth virus.
All this killing and trouble -- shooting, burning,
burying, disinfecting -- for the sake of consuming flesh. Clearly the
only way out of the numerous debacles of the global meat and dairy
industries is not to enact absurd stopgap, reformist measures like using
thermometers to check for safe cooking temperatures, wiping feet in
disinfectant trays, or testing animals for signs of disease before
slaughter. Rather, society must banish the entire system of mechanized
killing, and shift to a local, organic, plant-based food system.
This necessity is becoming increasingly clear, and the
inherent fallacies of factory farming are ever more debated (the German
Government, for example, has appointed an Agriculture Minister from the
Green Party who advocates the end of factory farming in her country).
Yet the desperate measures and risks Europeans have taken to continue
consuming meat shows not only how irrational the lifestyle is, but also
how hard the habit and addiction to meat eating will be to break. Animal
rights activists and
vegetarians need to seize to the fullest advantage the current twofold
crisis of mad cow disease and hoof-and-mouth outbreak to demonstrate the
inherent illogic, inhumanity, and destructiveness of the global system
of meat and dairy industries. Let us turn tragedy into opportunity.
Go on to Manatees In
Trouble
Return to 7 March 2001 Issue
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