Reports & Articles

SARS-CoV-2, widely known as the coronavirus, has had a huge impact on all of our lives and changed the way we live – perhaps forever. But while it’s important to acknowledge the massive loss of lives and jobs and the impact of the virus on our global society and economy, it’s also vital to examine the root causes of the pandemic – and pandemics in general – if we are to minimise the risk of potentially far more damaging outbreaks in the future.

By exploring the crucial connection between the current crisis and our animal-based food system, the ProVeg Food & Pandemics Report highlights how our food choices help to create a recipe for zoonotic pandemics. By shifting to plant-based and cultured foods, we can help to minimise the risk of future pandemics as well as helping to resolve many of the other key challenges we face, including climate change, biodiversity loss, world hunger, antimicrobial resistance, and the rise of other food-related diseases.

The global response to COVID-19 has shown that we can respond urgently and collectively and that we can do so now. Together, we can change our food systems for a better, healthier, and more resilient world.

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Unless otherwise noted, these factsheets have been created by the team at Plant-Based Health Professionals UK. Do share these free resources widely and please credit us when using them.

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It is happening. For years epidemiologists have been warning about a pandemic in the making, and unfortunately their predictions have materialised in the current COVID-19 global epidemic. Much remains for us to understand about this dramatic event that is generating profound suffering and placing human societies on the ropes. What is clear, though, is that this disease is a consequence of our interactions with nonhuman animals. COVID-19, however, is just the most recent example of a much larger threat to public health—one that in modern times manifests in animal agriculture, factory farming in particular. This report will illuminate the most pressing impacts and threats of animal agriculture for the health and well-being of human families and communities and how practices that challenge sustainability are leading us toward a global catastrophe.

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