PUT IT IN PERSPECTIVE

Here's a meme that seems to be getting popular: Now that SARS and Mad Cow have both made headlines simultaneously throughout the Western world, some commentators are comparing these outbreaks to the catastrophic 1918 flu epidemic, which killed up to 50 million people, and saying that in that context, this ain't so bad.

Well, no, it ain't. But what's more noteworthy about all these things being compared is that they're horrific diseases visited upon human populations as a consequence of intensive animal agriculture. Of course Mad Cow is, and it's now become undeniable that SARS is, and most scientists now agree that the source of the unbelievably devastating 1918 flu pandemic was the American pork industry. Even ignoring for the moment all the ill health effects that personally arise with consuming each and every ounce of meat, isn't the cost to our populace a little high for such a pointless luxury item?