The vegan couple made the comments in an op-ed published in The Washington Post.
“China is hardly the only country where live animal markets and other squalid operations are common,” the wrote. “Some 80 of them operate within the five boroughs of New York City alone, according to Slaughter Free NYC, a nonprofit group that opposes them. They are near residences, schools and public parks.”
But, as Phoenix and Mara pointed out, they’re a drop in the bucket when it comes to our food system. The real threat is modern factory farming.
“Less notorious but much more commonplace threats to public health are the ‘concentrated animal feeding operations’ (CAFOs) scattered throughout the South and Midwest,” the couple wrote.
“These factory farms warehouse thousands of animals that wallow in their own waste with limited or no airspace. [This] routinely [creates] conditions for the proliferation of superbugs and zoonotic pathogens,” they added.
Phoenix made headlines in February when he used his Academy Award acceptance speech for Best Actor in “Joker” to address our dependence on animals. He cited the dairy industry for its inherent cruelty.
But these industries aren’t just cruel. They bring significant health risks for humans, animals, and the planet.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) have warned us against the risks of factory farms for years,” Phoenix and Mara wrote. “The unsanitary living conditions inside CAFOs weaken animals’ immune systems and increase their susceptibility to infection and disease. The factory farms’ response has been to pump the animals full of antibiotics that make their way into our food supply and onto our dinner plates, systematically fostering in humans a lethal resistance to the medicines that once quelled everyday infections. Such practices have brought humanity to the point that the WHO now estimates that more than half of all human diseases emanate from animals.”
Original Source: https://www.livekindly.co/