We Need to Rethink Our Food System to Prevent the Next Pandemic

Once a dangerous new pathogen is out, as we are seeing, it can be difficult if not impossible to prevent it going global. One as contagious as SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to infect the whole of humanity. Eighty per cent of cases may be benign, but with such a large pool of susceptible hosts, the numbers who experience severe illness and die can still be shockingly high. So the only sensible answer to the question, how do we stop this from happening again, is: by doing all we can to prevent such pathogens infecting humans in the first place. And that means taking a long, hard look at our relationship with the natural world, and particularly with the animals that sustain us. SARS-CoV-2, like the influenza virus and many other disease-causing microbes, initially infected an animal – probably a bat in the case of SARS-CoV-2. The term for when such a microbe jumps the species barrier into humans is “spillover.” Spillover has always happened, but it was accelerated by the introduction of farming around 12,000 years ago, which brought humans and the animals they domesticated into close proximity – making the jump easier. The last century saw a lull in spillover, largely due to improved nutrition and hygiene, but it has been increasing again in recent decades. This is partly to do with the sheer number of us, and the extent to which we’re connected through global travel and trade, but there is growing evidence that it is also connected with the way we ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news