A leading plant-based doctor has highlighted how human treatment of animals and their habitats is responsible for all recent major disease outbreaks.

Dr. Newman – also known as the Plant Powered Doctor – is a senior partner at a UK medical practice.

Dr. Newman has partnered with No Meat May this year, which provides free support to those who sign a meat-free or plant-based pledge.

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For a long time I have been concerned that multi-resistant bacteria will cause the next widespread epidemic. Antibiotic resistance would end the age of medical progress, returning us to a time when minor injuries and routine operations could be fatal. Why do I bring this up now? A UN report suggests an extra 10 million people may die by 2050 as a result of antibiotic resistance. We can add viral pandemics to these figures too. This current crisis shows us that we are not prepared for the future we are creating. We have heard the reports that Covid-19 came from a live animal market in Wuhan. Some politicians and commentators blame China. They do not mention that all of the recent major disease outbreaks have been caused by tampering with animals, or that our chicken salad and pepperoni pizza could be the next big health risk. Spanish flu came from poultry, swine flu from pigs, avian flu from birds … We’ve also seen SARS-CoV (civets), MERS-CoV (camels), and HKU1 (mice). Zoonotic diseases like these infect 2.5 billion people each year. The inconvenient truth is that factory farms put a strain on animal health, which means we treat them with antibiotics and small doses end up in your meal. Pigs are packed together in their own excrement. Chickens are in crowded cages leading to salmonella and E. coli spreading. Giving cows other cow carcasses to eat led to BSE. Not to mention the link between cows and TB. Our industrial scale poultry farms are like a ticking time bomb. This pandemic has brought us a visceral sense of what that can mean for humans. This pandemic also shows us how connected we are. What one person does affects another. The same applies to the food choices we make too, and now this is more clear than ever before. I don’t know when this pandemic will end, or how many lives will be lost. But one thing I do know. I can guarantee that lentils will not spark a viral pandemic anytime soon. Many of us are sitting at home wondering what we can do to help this situation. Taking some time to reflect on what we eat, limiting the meat we put in our supermarket trolley and shifting to a more plant based diet will help us shift towards a safer future

A post shared by Dr Gemma Newman (@plantpowerdoctor) on Apr 13, 2020 at 12:07pm PDT

‘Tampering with animals’

“Some politicians and commentators blame China for Covid-19, but they do not mention that all of the recent major disease outbreaks have been caused by tampering with animals and their habitats, or that our chicken salad and pepperoni pizza could be the next big health risk,” Dr. Newman said in a statement sent to Plant Based News.

“The inconvenient truth is that factory farms put a strain on animal health, which means we treat them with antibiotics and small doses end up in your meal. suggests an extra 10 million people may die by 2050 as a result of antibiotic resistance, and we can add viral pandemics to these figures too. This current crisis shows us that we are not prepared for the future we are creating.

“Our industrial-scale factory farms are like a ticking time bomb – yet I can guarantee that lentils will not spark a viral pandemic anytime soon. Many of us are sitting at home wondering what we can do to help this situation. Taking some time to reflect on what we eat, limiting the meat we put in our supermarket trolley and shifting to a more plant based diet will help us move towards a safer future. Signing up to the campaign is a lovely way to feel supported in reducing meat consumption moving forwards.”

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Isolation is tough right. But, imagine if that was the only life you ever knew? ?? ? Billions of animals live this life every single day. The scale of suffering caused by factory farming is truly astounding. ? ? – 40 billion chickens are subjected to overcrowded factory farms every year? – Many will have a space smaller than a piece of paper to live in, in barns crammed with up to 10,000 chickens? – They will spend most of their lives sitting or lying in their own waste? – Piglets on factory farms have their teeth clipped or ground and tails cut off ? – Three out of four mother pigs are confined to cages the size of a fridge? ? Your Netflix and chill doesn’t seem so bad right now does it? Why not add a couple of these documentaries to your Netflix list and see why it’s so important to join us for No Meat May… (it’s never too late!)? ? – Cowspiracy? – The Milk System? – Forks Over Knives? – Game Changers? – Okja (not a doco, but actually a great film that explores animal agriculture.)? ? …what have you got to lose?? .? .? .? .? .? Facts from worldanimalprotection.org.au? ?

A post shared by No_Meat_May (@no_meat_may) on May 11, 2020 at 1:35am PDT

No Meat May record sign-ups

No Meat May has seen a record number of sign-ups this year – with organizers believing the current pandemic may have played a part in this success.

Around 33,000 people have signed-up this year – a huge leap from 2019’s 10,000 participants, with No Meat May’s co-founder Ryan Alexander saying it is difficult to gauge the ‘COVID-19 effect’ but believes it is clear that people are drawing the connection between intensive factory farms and public health concerns.

“[This] has been demonstrated by the record number of sign-ups to this year’s campaign,” he said.

You can find out more about No Meat May here