Vegetarian Star

Moby interviews with KCRW on his co-edited book Gristle, veganism and zoonotic diseases.

“Almost every big global pandemic starts with confined animal production,” he said.

A more recent example of this is swine flu–the disease used to make its way through pigs on farms before it got smarter and infected humans.

The musician also touches on the benefits of a plant based diet for athletes, stating that carbohydrates and protein are easier to use than those found in meat.

Moby’s interview starts at minute 22:14, but there are several clips during this program that are relevant to vegetarians, including a segment on school lunches, polenta and a restaurant that only serves mac and cheese.

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Credit David Shankbone on Wikimedia Commons

So you love the taste of a well done steak or a ham and cheese sandwich.

You don’t give a flying saucer about animals and their pain and suffering.

Why should you make an effort to eat less meat, especially factory farmed meat?

Well, you don’t really want everyone in the office (not even the co-workers you don’t like) to come down with Swine Flu next year, do you?

Jonathan Safran Foer, author of his book on factory farming, Eating Animals, has interviewed with Vegetarian Times in the May/June 2010 issue where he gives this argument for those who aren’t interested one bit in “animal” welfare and rights.

“We known where the flu came from: it came from factory farms in North Carolina. The link between flu pandemics and animal agriculture is not an opinion. It’s a well documented fact by scientific organizations that have no interest whatsoever in promoting vegetarianism.”

Swine flu, of which cases were seen in humans over the past few years, has traditionally been confined to outbreaks among pigs.

Like other viruses, it sometimes develops an affinity for a different host.

According to Wired, in 1998, scientists found a strain of swine flu in U.S. factory farms that spread quickly, and experts warned then it could one day evolve the ability to infect humans, resulting in a pandemic.

Bob Martin, former executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Animal Farm Production and a critic of factory farms, called these environments, “super-incubators for viruses.”

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Author Kathy Freston interviewed Dr. Michael Greger of the Humane Society of the United States to get his thoughts on the possible connection between recent outbreaks of the flu virus and factory farmed meat.

According to Dr. Greger, the first hybrid mutant strain of swine flu was found in a factory farm in North Carolina, where hundreds of pregnant sows were crammed together in crates.

Dr. Greger believes these conditions provide the environment necessary for viruses to emerge.

But does touching or eating meat actually increase your risk of contracting the virus?

“There are certainly lots of viruses people can pick up from handling fresh meat… There have been a number of cases of human influenza linked to the consumption of poultry products, but it’s not clear whether swine flu viruses get into the meat. Regardless, the primary risk is not in the meat, but how meat is produced. Once a new disease is spawned from factory farm conditions it may be able spread person to person, and at that point animals–live or dead–may be out of the picture.”

But in the end, it probably pays to go veg anyway.

“We’ve known for 20 years that the immune function of those eating vegetarian may be superior to those eating meat. First published in 1989, researchers at the German Cancer Research Center found that although vegetarians had the same number of disease-fighting white blood cells compared to meat eaters, the immune cells of vegetarians were twice as effective in destroying their targets–not only cancer cells, but virus-infected cells as well. So a more plant-based diet may protect both now and in the future against animal-borne diseases like pandemic influenza.”

Read Dr. Greger’s online book about bird flu at birdflubird.com.

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It’s like pork Deja Vu all over again, this time creepier, with more killing and saturated fat.

This year for the holidays, Paula Deen donated a lot of ham to charity–25,000 pounds to be exact.

But it was the ham that bit back as someone threw the ham like a football and it smacked Paula in the face.

The Associated Press reported Paula said she was okay and it just “knocked me for a little bit” and she later Tweeted, “I’ve never met a ham that hasn’t stopped me yet.”

But ham, along with other meat, can stop people with its saturated fat and cholesterol levels, not to mention the horrible conditions pigs are kept in factory farms that send a personal invitation to diseases like swine flu.

Let that smack on the head serve as a wake up call, Paula.

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Jim Carrey made a statement during his acceptance speech at the MTV movie awards that sounded as if he has a beef with pig factory farming.

“There wouldn’t be a swine flu if we treated the pigs better!” Carey said.

Is he referring to the cramped conditions pigs are kept, where they have little to no room to move around and often lie in their own and other animals’ excrement? Dr. Michael Greger of the Humane Society agrees these are breeding grounds for diseases.

When a celebrity makes a statement that has animal rights tones in it, vegetarians get really excited, even if that celebrity isn’t veg.

Still, perhaps out of optimism, statements can be taken out of context. Remember when Kelly Clarkson cancelled her show at the rodeo? Here we thought she was doing it out of concern for the animals, but the show was just inconvenient for her schedule. Not to mention, she even quit being a vegetarian!

We hope Jim means exactly what he said and sees factory farming for what it really is-unhealthy for the planet, the animals’ and human health.

While you’re on the subject of sticking up for the animals Jim, tell girlfriend Jenny McCarthy to lay off that mammal killing Botox!

via peta.org

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There’s something sexy about a man who dates a woman who orders spaghetti without the meatballs. Just wish we could have know what he ate that night, but it probably wasn’t pork.

Jimmy Kimmel recently gave pork the thumbs down in the New York Times, citing the association with meat and diseases.

“The government does not want us to call it the swine flu. They’re calling it the 2009 H1N1 virus. The reason for the change is they want people to know you can still eat all the pork you want without any risk to your health, except diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.”

Ouch! Jimmy telling it like it is!

He’s not known for being a vegetarian yet, but could this talk show host who has an on/off relationship with Sarah Silverman more than some flexitarians give up then eat meat again be heading in that direction?

According to Ecorazzi.com, Kimmel has ran a couple of humorous videos that the Meat industry might record in response to vegetarian PSAs, like this one below.

We think Jimmy has to at least be doing some part time veggie lovin’!

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Brigitte Bardot is the latest celebrity to get in on the debate between pigs and swine flu.

The actress turned animal rights activist has publicly denounced the Egyptian government’s plans to cull 250,000 pigs to help combat the swine flu epidemic, which some have linked to factory farming of the animals.

In a letter to Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, Bardot wrote:

“Taking advantage of the global hysteria over the propagation of ‘Mexican’ flu, which has nothing to do with animals, in order to launch a campaign to exterminate pigs raised by a destitute section of the population is extremely cowardly.”

via contactmusic.com

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Jane Velez-Mitchell is tackling animal rights and vegan issues on television once again!

During a recent Issues With Jane Velez-Mitchell, the vegan television anchor discussed the recent swine flu outbreak and its possible link to inhumane factory farming of pigs. Some scientists believe when pigs are kept in such confined conditions as they are in factory farms, their immune systems cannot fight infections.

There have been at least 40 CDC confirmed swine flu cases in the United States during this outbreak.

She interviewed Dr. Michael Greger, Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture of the Humane Society of the United States.

“When thousands of animals are overcrowded together in these filthy football field size sheds to lie in, nose to nose in their own waste, it’s a breeding ground for disease.,” said Dr. Gregor. “The perfect storm environment for the emergence and spread for these new diseases.”

Watch the video to hear Dr. Greger and Jane discuss more about the possible link between pig factory farms and swine flu.

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