From mother cows and buffaloes, whose calves are torn away, to the goats, whose throats are slit while they’re still conscious, and hens, which are crammed in small spaces — all these animals killed for human consumption deserve to have their stories told. Through her book, For a Moment of Taste, Poorva Joshipura, Vice President of International Affairs, PETA, presents such stories of animal slaughter and exposes the role of meat, egg and dairy industries in the health crises while warning about ‘a ripe time’ for a deadly pandemic. By Chahak Mittal
Ever wondered what brutal processes an animal goes through before finally being consumed by humans? And how, later, bit by bit, they go on to disrupt nature in various ways? Or how your one ‘spicy hamburger’ makes its way to your plate after using enough fossil fuel to drive a small vehicle up to 20 miles? What about that piece of pork you ate for dinner, producing which generated the same amount of raw waste as a city of 12,000 people? A 2019 report in the British medical journal, The Lancet, pointed out how consuming meat can have “dire” consequences on the planet. It can wreck such devastation on the environment that the Union of Concerned Scientists has even listed eating meat as one of the biggest environmental hazards facing the earth.
Well, in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, this has made the world’s worst nightmare become more immediate. Many are now giving a thought to how meat, its markets and both its production and consumption can adversely impact the whole ecosystem. As per People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), when lands are used to raise animals instead of crops, a huge amount of water and soil is lost, trees are cut down to make land for grazing or factory-farm sheds, and untreated animal waste pollutes rivers and streams.
Poorva Joshipura, Vice President of International Affairs, PETA, (and former CEO of PETA India), through her book, For a Moment of Taste, presents stories of animal slaughter and exposes the role of meat, egg and dairy industries in the health crises. She warns about how it is “a ripe time for a deadly pandemic.” Well, that warning has already come to pass.
She hopes that the one who is at all curious about the origin of one’s food and the impact of its production on animals, human health and the planet, will find value in this book, published by Harper Collins, which presents a first-of-its-kind in-depth investigation of India’s food industry. Excerpts of interview:
Why did you name it as For a Moment of Taste?
Taste lasts in our mouths for just a moment, a few seconds at best with every bite. For those few seconds of joy, pandemics are caused, up to trillions of animals are killed each year, pollution and climate worsen and, eventually, we put our own health at risk. Those few seconds are simply not worth all this.
How did you research for the book? How long did it take for you to complete writing it?
I’ve been studying meat, egg and dairy production systems in India for the last 20 years. This includes personally conducting investigation of animal transport and slaughterhouses and overseeing numerous investigations of live animal markets, factory farms and more. I have also met pioneering medical doctors who help reverse conditions like heart diseases and diabetes through plant-based foods, and I keep up with the impact of the production of meat, eggs and dairy on the planet.
How does this subject have to be discussed now given that there is a global health crisis at hand?
In For a Moment of Taste, written before the COVID-19 crisis, I warned that the time is ripe for a deadly pandemic, say experts. That dire event has come to pass. And sadly, it’s a matter of when — not if — the next pandemic will occur as long as live animal markets, factory farms and filthy slaughters are permitted to continue endangering both humans and animals.
The last few decades have seen a rise in infectious diseases in humans, of which 75 per cent originate from animals. This coincides with our increased interference in nature, including the official establishment of China’s wildlife trade since the late 1970s and our global intensification of farmed animals.
COVID-19 and SARS are both believed to have first infected humans through wildlife. The spread of these two and various other deadly bird flus — like the H5N1 and the H7N9 — have been linked back to the live animal meat markets in China. Many of the animals who end up there, like chicken, come from factory farms. The H5N1 bird flu kills 60 per cent of people who catch it, while the H7N9 bird flu killed about 39 per cent of people who caught the virus then.
In such markets, which abound in India too, animals are soaking wet from bodily fluids and crammed together in cages. Such conditions provide ample opportunity for disease to spread from one animal to another, including to humans, who come into their contact.
Butchering animals also poses a risk to humans. The Ebola virus and HIV in humans have both been traced back to killing wild animals for food. About Ebola, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, “In Africa, human infections have been associated with hunting, butchering, and processing meat from infected animals.” HIV, on the other hand, is largely believed to have first infected humans through killing and eating or hunting chimpanzees.
Allegedly, the novel Coronavirus is said to have been originated in China due to its wet markets. As per the year 2016, USA topped the list of most meat-consuming countries in the world. How do you think such meat markets in India and across the world can be dismissed to ensure lesser meat consumption and health pandemics in future? How is PETA ensuring the same?
Indeed, but zoonotic, i.e. of animal origin, diseases in humans don’t just start in China. The US CDC estimates that up to over 5,75,400 people worldwide died from H1N1 swine flu just during its first year of circulation. Its roots have been traced to a strain that existed in North Carolina pig farms in the US in 1998. In the decade before that, North Carolina’s pig population jumped from two million to 10 million, and the animals were crowded onto fewer farms.
According to Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (FAIRR), over 70 per cent of the world’s farmed animals are now factory-farmed, and in the US, that figure is 99 per cent. Factory farms house pigs, chicken, cows, fish and other animals by the hundreds, thousands, or even millions — confining them to cages, crates, or stalls hardly any larger than their own bodies or in severely crowded tanks or sheds — to meet the demand for meat, eggs, and milk. Bob Martin, former executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Animal Farm Production, calls these farms “super-incubators for viruses.”
Antibiotics help factory farms, including fish farms, continue to exist since deliberately keeping genetically identical and stressed animals in jam-packed, filthy conditions means that diseases can spread quickly. Globally, antibiotics are used more heavily in animal agriculture than in human health. This antibiotic overuse makes factory farms perfect breeding grounds for superbugs and simultaneously risks rendering important drugs ineffective in humans who need them. It’s estimated that resistant infections kill more than 58,000 babies in India every year.
However, thanks to vegan advocates, according to GlobalData, the number of American consumers identifying as vegan grew between 2014 and 2017 by 600 per cent.
Not only the consumption, but how do you think the ‘production’ of animal-based products impacts the environment?
Chapter 12 of For a Moment of Taste details the environmental toll of meat, egg and dairy production. To accommodate and rear 77 billion land animals alone for meat, eggs and dairy, farmers need to provide crops and water for the animals, land and water to grow the crops, farms to keep the animals, and so on. In contrast, humans eating plants directly instead of channelling them through animals is far more efficient and kinder to the planet.
A report released in 2010 by the UN Environment Programme’s International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management points out that as the global population swells towards an anticipated 9.1 billion people by 2050, diets based on meat, eggs and dairy will be unsustainable. It further stated that a global shift towards vegan-eating is necessary to protect the world from hunger and the worst impacts of climate change.
And while India has over 190 million hungry people and 163 million without access to safe water, a study published by National Academy of Sciences reveals raising animals for meat, eggs and dairy uses a staggering one-third of the world’s fresh water resources as well as one-third of the world’s global cropland as feed for animals.
In metros, people are waking up to the benefits of having vegan food and a plant-based diet. How do you think the change has come about?
Most people are kind but simply don’t know how animals are manipulated, mutilated, severely confined or killed for meat, eggs or dairy. Once they learn this and how consuming animal-derived foods can harm the planet and their health, they will choose to eat vegan (wholly plant-based) food. They are learning about animals through books like mine or AnimalKind, documentaries like Earthlings and Forks Over Knives, PETA India’s social media pages and other means.
Why are more and more chefs insisting on keeping their menus green?
They know what’s good for business! A recent article on a website run by Franchise India Holdings Limited, reads the number of vegans in India has risen by 360 per cent in the past decade.
Animals like fish are a good source of protein, eggs are high on vitamin B, etc. Given this fact, how can a global shift towards a vegan diet be ensured? Are the consumers and food production industries ready for their substitutes? How does the book address such contradictions about the idea of veganism?
You don’t need substitutes for cigarettes because they’re bad for you and you don’t need substitutes for meat, eggs and dairy in your diet for the same reason. Chapter 13 in For a Moment of Taste covers what doctors and nutritionists are warning us about animal-derived foods.
Fish contains significant levels of mercury, which is toxic and can be especially problematic for children in the womb and is a possible carcinogen. Studies published in various reputed journals have found that eggs are in fact so unhealthy that consumers who ate the most eggs increased their risk of cardiovascular disease by 19 per cent and their risk of diabetes by 68 per cent. Diabetics who ate the most eggs increased their risk for developing heart disease by an incredible 83 per cent. Egg consumption has also been associated with colon, rectal, bladder and prostate cancers.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics said, “Vegetarian, including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood and for athletes. Vegetarians and vegans are at reduced risk of certain health conditions, including ischemic heart disease, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, certain types of cancer and obesity.”
The meat market employs a considerable number of people in India, how do you think its reduction or a complete ban will impact the economy?
As per a recent report by GlobalData, 70 per cent of the world’s population are going meat-free — both in consumption and production. Abroad, farmers and food industries are responding to this change by transitioning to plant-based food production altogether or by getting involved in the vegan food business.
For example, in the US, big meat companies like Tyson, Smithfield, Perdue and Hormel are now selling plant-based burgers or other such products. Dairy companies abroad are also starting to invest in plant-based milk.
In India, many people are opting for jackfruit instead of meat during the Coronavirus crisis. And when chicken sales in India recently plummeted, PETA India sent chicken-meat chain KFC a letter suggesting that it can add a vegan chicken option to its menu as other KFC restaurants abroad have done the same. In India, GoodDot is among the companies offering meat-free chicken and other vegan meats.
As the demand changes, so does the supply.
In India, many religious activities and beliefs are linked to animal killing and consuming. What’s your take on this? How do you think the issue can be tackled in a society as complex and rigid as India?
No religion requires meat-eating and all religions call for compassion. Chapter 2 of my book examines why people eat animals while generally caring for them. We are often told since childhood that certain animals are our friends and others are food. But in some places, animals we commonly call friends, like dogs, could also be considered food. When we recognise the labelling of animals as food as merely a belief, rather than a truth, we can choose a different path.
Any anecdote or personal experience that you would like to share...
I would like to share a quote by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, who said, “When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to him who suffers and try to help.”