The avian influenza creeping across Asia and now into Europe is bringing death to millions of chickens and threatening the health of people around the globe. The World Health Organization predicts that it may become the next pandemic, with the potential to kill as many as 7 million people.
Avian flu can be added to the list of other deadly ills, including SARS and mad cow disease, that are the result of meat consumption. The crowded, inhumane conditions that farm animals exist in -- crammed together with barely enough space to turn around and fed unnatural diets -- are reservoirs where viruses and bacteria multiply and spread.
How many people will die before we accept the fact that the best solution, for health and humanitarian reasons, is to stop using animals as food?
Jason Baker
Asia-Pacific director, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
I am writing in response to the statements of Guardian journalist George Monbiot regarding beef production in Brazil ("The real cost of Brazilian beef," Oct. 21, page 9). To say that 80 percent of beef production in Brazil takes place within the Amazon region is equivalent to saying that Taiwan is part of Inner Mongolia.
This is one of the most obnoxious and ignorant pieces of journalism I have ever seen in the UK press, unfortunately published on your own Web site.
Brazilian beef production has historically taken place in the regions of natural savannah grasslands after the areas were colonized in the 18th century. These areas, which were very poor, have been transformed due to a better understanding of how to manage poor-quality and acidic soil, and now are the breadbasket of the country and where most soybeans exported to China originate.
The southern fringes of the Amazon have been settled by cattle ranchers in the 1980s with government subsidies, but most of these early projects did not succeed because the soil and climate were not conducive to sustainable cattle ranching. With the high cost of controlling forest regrowth, this type of activity became uneconomical.
I hope this is enough information to counter the damaging statements of Monbiot, reacting out of nationalistic views to defend his own farmers who were hit years ago by the mad cow disease scandal, which originated from the cruel practice of feeding cows with dried cow meat to raise profits at the expense of consumer health.
I would also like to point out that Brazilian cattle from that region is fed exclusively with natural grass and nothing else, giving it the best environmental and health attributes among beef products available worldwide.
Tadeu Caldas
Cologne, Germany
The bird flu outbreak at US dairy farms keeps finding alarming new ways to surprise scientists. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that H5N1 is spreading not just from birds to herds, but among cows. Meanwhile, media reports say that an unknown number of cows are asymptomatic. Although the risk to humans is still low, it is clear that far more work needs to be done to get a handle on the reach of the virus and how it is being transmitted. That would require the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
On April 11, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered a speech at a joint meeting of the US Congress in Washington, in which he said that “China’s current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge … to the peace and stability of the international community.” Kishida emphasized Japan’s role as “the US’ closest ally.” “The international order that the US worked for generations to build is facing new challenges,” Kishida said. “I understand it is a heavy burden to carry such hopes on your shoulders,” he said. “Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder
Former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) used to push for reforms to protect Taiwan by adopting the “three noes” policy as well as “Taiwanization.” Later, then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) wished to save the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) by pushing for the party’s “localization,” hoping to compete with homegrown political parties as a pro-Taiwan KMT. However, the present-day members of the KMT do not know what they are talking about, and do not heed the two former presidents’ words, so the party has suffered a third consecutive defeat in the January presidential election. Soon after gaining power with the help of the KMT’s