As a doctor, I’m carefully following a hen flu outbreak that’s hitting our Central Valley dairy farms exhaustingparticularly since the California Division of Well being stories not less than 21 human instances. This quantity appears to extend every week in our state, which has extra dairy cows than another. Chook flu has unfold to not less than 291 dairy herds in California.
As a board-certified physician in inside and way of life medicines, I assist the well being division’s efforts to observe and check for hen flu, I admire these calling for further protections for California’s dairy employeesand I commend our public well being officers for doing job of confronting the quick disaster.
However it is usually time to take a tough take a look at the meals manufacturing system that places farm employees in shut contact with sick cows and birds, the customary American weight-reduction plan that calls for itand the well being ramifications of each.
Services with massive numbers of animals in a small area are a risk to public well being as a result of they present perfect situations for viruses to unfold, evolve and presumably purchase the power to contaminate individuals. Analysis exhibits that intensive animal agriculture has been implicated in influenza viruses leaping from animals to individuals, and some consider this hen flu might even turn into the supply of our subsequent pandemic.
Lately officers introduced the disturbing information that hen flu has contaminated a pig in Oregon, a troubling improvement that well being specialists say might imply a extra transmissible and virulent virus.
Shoppers and farmers who need to be a part of a extra healthful future could marvel about alternate options to intensive animal farming. If you happen to’re a poultry farmer and hen flu has worn out your flockchances are you’ll be contemplating a change. In truth, some are repurposing their hen homes to develop crops.
California dairy farmers additionally encounter vital challengesand plenty of already had been selecting to exit the enterprise. Now the hen flu outbreak amongst dairy cows is presenting one more drawback.
A few of these farmers are possible fascinated by phasing out the cow’s milk operation and transitioning to plant-based milk manufacturing, or rising crops or orchards. Really, this development is already underway. Only a few years in the past, the Giacomazzi household of Hanford, house owners of California’s oldest dairy farm in operation of greater than 125 years, switched from cow’s milk to almond milk.
This transition couldn’t come at a greater time. The plant-based milk business, a $2.9 billion enterprise, is booming. Almond milk is the most well-liked plant-based milk. California produces 80% of the world’s almonds and probably the most almond milk in the USA.
However these transitions contain prices, and California ought to assist farmers who select to make these modifications. We also needs to assist dairy farmers who transition to rising oats for oat milk, like Califia Farms in Bakersfield, for instance, or almond or soy for milk bought by San Diego Soy Dairy — or any different crop they discover worthwhile.
Shifting away from animal agriculture helps our surroundings and our financial system and improves employee security. I’ve discovered for myself and my sufferers that it additionally improves well being. A plant-based weight-reduction plan centered on fruits, veggies, beans and greens grown in California may also help keep wholesome weight, decrease blood strain and enhance coronary heart well being.
I do know this from my very own private expertise and from treating sufferers with diet-related illnesses. Whereas our public well being officers attempt to management our present disaster, I’m hopeful California will transition to a method of consuming and rising meals that’s each safer and extra nutritious.
