To think that maybe being vegan could've stopped this.

[Scapegoatforlife]

See the link and post

www.instagram.com/p/B9uiHGJl5xo/?igshid=ae9keny8um35

In short : COVID-19 was caused by eating animals (bats)

Ebola, swine flu, bird flu , HIV , SARS and VCJD were caused by eating animals.

COVID-19 and the like would not exist had we not eaten them.

And each one has caused an epidemic of some sorts, whether that be globally or on a social scale.

After doing my own research I'm definitely going to be incorporating more vegan food into my diet and then transitioning fully.

I KNOW this is about the C word, however it's an AIBU and let's be honest people post non relevant stuff in here all the time and dont get policed for it.

To all the posters saying "bloody vegans..." blah, blah, blah - the OP is not even vegan. She's considering becoming vegan.

Just looked at the Instagram Post in the link.

Are people really this fucking ignorant, are they really this lacking is awareness of what goes on and how people live outside the bubble in which they live?

You need a lot of plants to get a decent lentil harvest if you are going to use it as your staple. Won’t it take up a lot more space than the maize which you get reliable crops from twice a year?

And it’s going to take a lot of faith to not plant your staple crop and plant something new when you might starve if it goes wrong.

YANBU . You're right, this virus should make us consider the appalling way we treat animals. Some of the photos from the Chinese live animal and seafood markets were extremely distressing (as are UK factory farming photos for those who care to look and see... and read....and acknowledge).

Like, do people really not understand that not everyone on the planet can get vitamin B12 from an artifical supplement or Marmite?!

This story’s been going round since the start - maybe don’t take your news from Instagram. foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/27/dont-blame-bat-soup-for-the-wuhan-virus/

And as others have said, there is a huge difference between eating bats that have been stacked in cages in a wet market, and not consuming any animals at all.

mummy Around 70 percent of the world's soy is fed directly to livestock and only six percent of soy is turned into human food, which is mostly consumed in Asia. The rest of soy is turned into soybean oil. It takes 10 bathtubs of water to make just one beef burger patty.
The west is beyond greedy in their meat consumption. Plant based food will be much easier to cater for. We can adapt we just dont want to. Veganism isnt a panacea for the worlds problems,we still have a long way to go still.

Soy bean production was the reason the Amazon fires were started, to make space for soy growing to feed the cattle.

Everyone in the world being vegan?

The Spanish flu was contracted from pigs by pig farmers - so you can't just blame eating wild animals.

Although I agree the Chinese have behaved apporingly towards wild animals and basic hygiene. They have got away for too long using the wild animals of this world as their own personal larder and pharmacy. Pushing many creatures to the brink of extinction. Treating them horrendously and keeping them in unsanitary conditions. This was gonna happen sooner or later.

So yes being vegan may have stopped this. But....... Being vegan does have implications on your health and alot of vegan food is highly processed. So if we were all vegan we may see other issues occurring. Maybe illness would jump from pets or vermin more easily because everyone has a shot immune system. Maybe the world will die because all the rainforest have been replaced with soy bean, avacados and palm oil trees. Who knows.

All I'm saying is being vegan could bring a different set of issues. Just farming to a high hygiene and welfair standard and only using farmed animals would probably be more sensible.

FYI I am a vegetarian, I don't think it's necessary to eat meat beyond childhood. But I don't agree with a fully vegan diet.

hobnobsaremyfave
And vegans wonder why people think they're twats

With bells on.

SFS

Lentils are just one crop that is widely available, I'm not preaching for the Big Lentil Conversion of 2020.

My point was in answer a PP who stated there are no alternatives to bush meat and wild animals.

The op isn’t vegan. Lots of “vegans behaving like twats” aren’t actually vegan.

Do people really think that they don't have lentils and avocados in countries without a waitrose ? Having lived in a rural part of an African country for many years I can assure you they have plenty of both, and most of the other "vegan" wholefood items which are often made out to be only eaten by rich Western people. It's only expensive and fancy over here because so few of us eat it, where I lived it was some of the cheapest, easiest to buy food you could get. Not saying they or anyone else should go vegan, but it's not the OP showing ignorance as to what other countries are actually like!

I was specifically thinking of Ebola, and how the villages in West Africa essentially got fed up of people coming to them preaching about bushmeat, as their response was essentially: “what else do you expect us to eat? We’re not set up for farming, who’s going to pay to radically change the surrounding landscape and train us on how to raise livestock?

Ah ok. I don’t know much about practices in West Africa but just wanted to make clear this is not the situation in China.

Prokupatuscrakedatus

I can see that parts of Africa might be a problem going vegan and growing enough food to feed the areas population but there are areas that grow enough to feed their continent. Zimbabwe used to be called the bread basket of Africa because of how much food it produced. China, India etc are traditionally vegetarian/vegan so I don’t think it would be a problem

A lot of Europe and the Americas have the right conditions to grow food.

Australasia again grow most of the food they eat.

In most of the world with a little bit of organisation that there is enough food to go around.

Fuck off. No wonder a lot of people hate vegans

The flaw in the argument is that vegans and "clean eaters" in the west are causing just as huge problems for third world countries as the meat hungry eaters are.

Quinoa for example , used to be a cheap, sustainable grain for the South American countries that grew it. Now because of the demand from the west it is locally very expensive and most of it is exported.

The growth of the avocado market is reducing the water table in many places, swathes of profitable avocado trees are reducing land available for other crops and using vast amounts of ground water.

What we need to do is to eat local and eat seasonal to a far greater degree than we do at the moment. Realistically we are never going to give up on eating out of season foods completely, but we ought to be making ourselves more aware of the environmental issues involved in expecting fresh peaches, plums and strawberries on our supermarket shelves out of season, or choosing to eat spinach rather than sweetheart cabbage.

Quite possibly but then it could have happened in a zoo, pet shop, farm...

If we are being so righteous with our eating, perhaps you can steer away from the incredibly damaging monoculture crops, all those lovely almonds, avos... largely responsible for colony collapse of bee populations (also these foods use bee labour! Not vegan In the slightest going by aforementioned definition of veganism in this thread). Not to mention all the social (quinoa, cocoa, cashews), water and transport issues.
Veganism isn't without its complex issues too.

What are the vegan solutions to iron anemia & protein deficiencies in places where folk can't grow much of their own food and can't afford a supermarket (or won't have one).

Militant isnt a word i would use to describe a group of people who are against the violence and exploitation of millions of animals.

Quinoa for example , used to be a cheap, sustainable grain for the South American countries that grew it. Now because of the demand from the west it is locally very expensive and most of it is exported.

No, not anymore. It used to be the case, but production has diversified.

Abraham Lincoln once said that you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet.

What are the vegan solutions to iron anemia & protein deficiencies in places where folk can't grow much of their own food and can't afford a supermarket (or won't have one).

The occasional bat wing or pangolin filet is not going to solve that.

My DF is a big meat eater yet is still prescribed Iron by his doctor.