Farming methods encourage growth in viruses

Global industrial agricultural systems are creating breeding grounds for viruses, which can mutate and spread to humans, environmentalist Zac Goldsmith has warned.

“Factory farming is producing a situation where animals are subjected to conditions in which they normally would not be able to survive, so in some cases, the animals are fed antibiotics,” he said, at the Real Food Festival in London this month during a debate on the future of food.

“It is well known that constant use of any antibiotics leads to resistance, creating ideal conditions for very dangerous viruses and bacterial diseases to grow. So the question is: how easily can these be transferred to a human environment?”
Goldsmith’s comments come after swine flu dominated the media’s headlines earlier this month. He continued, studies in Scandinavian countries “already suggest the link between intensive animal farming and disease in humans” and that it would be “foolish to deny any link”
In any case, he said, low animal welfare standards associated with some practices of factory farming were unacceptable, “so, as well as addressing these, we crucially need to make sure that the same standards are applied to imports,” he added.
Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, also pointed out that livestock moved freely from country to country increasing the risk of spreading disease. “We have a society where is easier to import cattle from Australia, than it is for a person to travel from there,” said Holden.
Paul Kelly, Asda’s director of corporate affairs, added: “I think that one answer is to have as much British and local food in the supply chain as possible.” He claimed that 6,000 out of 25,000 products in Asda’s stores are sourced locally.