In the late 1920s Americans were eating on average only ½ lb of chicken per year. By the end of World War II the average had moved into the range of some 5 lbs per annum. Currently, our annual consumption is an astronomical 90 lbs per person per year. That’s a lot of nuggets. But what changed over the last 80 years? Animal husbandry practices.

The role Vitamin D plays in minimizing Rickets and other development disorders was discovered in the early 1920s. This new tidbit of scientific evidence readily translated into farmers’ abilities to keep chickens indoors under carefully controlled environmental conditions, rather than providing them adequate and humane conditions where they had access to exercise and the great sunshiny outdoors. In other words, chicken production became a year round business

Modern broiler sheds frequently have tens or hundreds of thousands of birds crammed into unbelievably confined conditions. The facts are scary. Each bird, living out its 42-47 day lifespan, has about ½ square foot per individual. If this isn’t bad enough, think about the poor egg laying hens – each one of those has about 64 square inches allocated to it although the average bird requires 72 square inches just to stand freely.

It is under the living conditions described above, that the H5N1 virus, if introduced, has the opportunity to spread and recombine in an almost ideal limitless pool of poultry. As the virus mutates as it spreads from individual to individual, there may come a day, and possibly soon, where these mutations will lead to a strain that is capable of jumping from chickens to humans. That’s when public health professionals will need to dig deep professionally and personally.

In the meantime, by consuming a plant-based diet, we don’t contribute to the misery of millions of animals while we play a role in minimizing the risk of pandemic avian influenza. This is prevention at its best.

Tomorrow: The support group meets for the 3rd time.

San Bernardino Sun Article: “Cold turkey vegetarian”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Vegetarian Challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.