General Wellness

Andrew Chuma 😎doctorchuma.com
“Eat well, Move more, Love more & Stress less” Dean Ornish MD
“Do the best you can, until you know better. Then when you know better, do better” Maya Angelou

Begin forwarded message:

From: Sentient Media <newsletter@sentientmedia.org>
Date: May 19, 2020 at 8:44:39 AM EDT
To: andrewchuma@gmail.com
Subject: COVID-19: Agribusiness Reaches New Lows
Reply-To: Sentient Media <newsletter@sentientmedia.org>



COVID-19: Agribusiness Reaches New LowsAs our food system shuts down, workers and animals continue to suffer.

Jo-Anne McArthur / WeAnimals COVID-19 Revealing Inherent Cruelty of Agribusiness Reading Time: 3 minutes “I know many industries are experiencing hardship right now. This is just the story of ours,” Ryan Elbe shares as he watches milk gush from a pipe at his Wisconsin dairy farm. Elbe is one of many farmers across the U.S. and Canada who started dumping thousands of gallons of milk in early April as a consequence of COVID-19 closures. According to the USDA, processed milk products make up the majority of dairy consumption in the United States, with cheese accounting for over half of milk fat consumption in 2018. But as consumers trade restaurant dining for eating at home, the demand for dairy products has dropped drastically. Food banks across the U.S. are reporting supply shortages due to the spike in unemployment. Some argue that the excess milk could be donated to food pantries, but processing milk for human consumption would significantly cut into the dairy industry’s profits. Instead, it is more cost-effective for farmers to dump the raw product. As dairy farms continue to operate despite decreased demand, many farm owners are bracing themselves for the repercussions of dwindling milk prices. As the food supply suffers, so do millions of animals stuck within the meat and dairy industries. COVID-19 closures have already resulted in the culling of millions of animals within the meat and dairy industries in the U.S. and Canada. Inside the dairy industry, cows are kept in confined, unsanitary spaces where they are hooked up to machines and milked multiple times per day. In modern dairy, calves are removed from their mothers so cows will produce more milk for human consumption. Only now, the their suffering is in vain as their milk is being flushed down the drain. The Reality of Agribusiness Victims of the dairy industry are not the only ones suffering as a result of COVID-19: Multiple Smithfield meat-packing plants have become hotspots for COVID-19 due to authority figures taking inadequate measures to protect their workers. One worker at the Smithfield plant in Milan, MO. is suing for putting their life in jeopardy—along with the lives of the Milan community. Farmers are “depopulating” their flocks and herds due to the closures of dairy and meat-packing processors. Millions of animals have already been killed by CO2 gassing, blunt-force trauma, and ventilation shutdown, among other “acceptable” forms of destruction, and the fate of millions more is uncertain. President Trump has signed an Executive Order forcing meat-packing plants to stay open during the coronavirus pandemic; the Order protects plant owners from legal liability if their workers get infected, but contains no provisions to protect the workers themselves. The current crisis within the milk and meat industries starkly contrasts with the image agribusiness has attempted to create for itself. On the outside, the dairy industry paints a bucolic picture of rolling hills and happy cows, but recent investigations have unveiled immense cruelty shuttered behind closed doors. The meat industry paints a similar picture, only with the addition of rugged, intrepid ranchers. Countless investigations have shown that the promises on the outside of the package are often far from reality—that 99 percent of farmed animals in America reside within factory farms. The meat and dairy industries are largely controlled by major corporations prioritizing profit over the health and safety of workers and animals. Workers within the meat and dairy industries have little control over their working conditions. Hundreds have fallen ill after showing up to work in fear of losing their jobs during this uncertain time. As COVID-19 continues to surge through processing plants, some workers are striking in hopes of inciting change within our current food system’s procedures. COVID-19 has the potential to spark significant changes in the agricultural industry, giving citizens an opportunity to influence its direction. Animal rights advocates and concerned voters can lobby elected officials to limit the use of government funds to support industries that engage in animal cruelty and mistreat their employees. Read the full story Covering COVID-19 With the worst global pandemic we’ve seen in over a century, it’s more important than ever to make sure the truth is reported in its entirety, not just what’s convenient. Help us share the facts during these uncertain times and make sure the world knows our species cannot survive if we continue our exploitation of the planet and nonhuman animals.

This email was sent to andrewchuma why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences Sentient Media · 18 Bartol Street · #1150 · San Francisco, CA 94133 · USA

Positive news.

I must admit that at the end of last week, I was having increased anxiety about the fact that there appeared to be some re-infections on a US military ship as well as concerns about not being able to develop a vaccine. Those concerns were magnified by another 8 cases of “re-infection” on the ship popping up over the weekend. These were all sailors who had symptoms, were tested positive for the virus, isolated for 2 weeks and then tested negative before returning to active duty. Concerning.

As far as vaccination development is concerned, there are literally dozens of companies working on this with hundreds of studies worldwide. Although this may sound good, like the lack of coordinated clinical treatment studies in the US and worldwide, it seems like it’s every man for himself.

This morning, I heard a few things which make me more optimistic about both situations.

With respect to vaccination, there is a US company with some optimistic early phase results showing a dose dependent antibody production in a small vaccine trial. Although the number of volunteers (hats off to the volunteers by the way) was small, they all produced antibodies which at least in the dish, appeared to neutralize the virus. The next phase of study is anticipated to ramp up now however, even under the most optimistic conditions, there won’t be a viable vaccine for mass production until probably the new year. Not great but at least SOME good news on the faccine front.

Some respected physicians were interviewed and questioned the re-infection issue. Just to explain why this is a concern is that if really true, that would mean that having been infected provides no immunity to this respiratory virus moving forward and you can catch it again. As we have seen with re-opening of some states, people are going bananas and doing virtually no social isolating. Between that irrational and irresponsible behaviour, coupled with lack of immunity and the potential for re-infection, it seems like a re-explosion of cases is inevitable. I still think we are headed in that direction if people and businesses are not more aggressive and adamant about social distancing, mandating masks… The issue of re-infection and immunity is still in question. They made a few points:

1) If this was really a problem, given how long this virus has been around in other parts of the world, certainly there would be more definitive cases of reinfection. You can argue that information from other countries may not be reliable, but for almost nothing to surface, makes NO immune protection to be unlikely. It may not be perfect but any protection is better than none.

2) Testing has been questionable so were these sailors properly tested with a reliable test is also unknown.

3) We don’t have a lot of information about their symptoms with respect to severity the second time around.

Again, we are learning everyday about how this virus behaves, how to treat it, about it’s unusual presenting symptoms and how we deal with it moving forward, but any promising news is well appreciated.

With more states opening up before Memorial Day Weekend, please be careful out there. Socially distance, wear a mask, wash your hands… Even if you think you don’t believe what is going on and think it’s all a government conspiracy (lots of those theories out there), please be respectful of others’ beliefs. Don’t flaunt your beliefs. It just adds to everyone’s stress.

That having been said, we all also need to live and get out in the world among people.

Stay safe and be well.

AC 😎✌️🌱❤🐖🏃🏻🧘🏻‍♂️🌎😷