We all pretty much agree, 2020 has been a year like no other. The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the world, with nearly a million global fatalities and wide-scale economic devastation. The origins of the pandemic have been traced to a so-called “wet market” in Wuhan, China. Wet markets are a euphemism for live, often exotic, animal markets that trade in misery and death. Prior to that, we have had the likes of “bird ‘flu”, “swine ‘flu”, “mad cow disease”, and Ebola (thought to originate from fruit bats). You don’t have to be Columbo or Sherlock Holmes to spot a theme here…
Of course, for the sake of balance, we shouldn’t forget the dreadful tofu pandemic of 2018 and the pinto bean plague of 2019. Yes, it’s hard to recall either of those. That’s because there were no such things and, tellingly, there never will be. Fruit, vegetables, grains, pulses, beans and so on are not only known to be good for your health in general (lower cholesterol and lower saturated fat being two stand out examples), but are also notoriously well known for not creating global pandemics. In fact, they have been responsible for literally none at all. Ever.
How many more animal related disease outbreaks will it take before human-kind wises up to the fact that exploiting and consuming non-human animals is not only ethically wrong, it also poses a huge threat to human health? The classic definition of insanity is to keep on doing the same thing but expecting a different result each time. The current COVID-19 pandemic is a huge red flag for human health going forward and another clear indicator that a vegan diet is the best that there is – for the animals, for human health and the environment.
