McCantibiotica

In intensive livestock farming, animals are pumped with antibiotics. This could create resistant bacteria that could cost 10 million people a year's lives by 2050. But if we convince McDonald's to use less antibiotics now, this giant could push the entire industry to a more sustainable model. McDonald's decides now, so call them to prevent the next pandemic.

Pandemics are the shocking but inevitable consequence of the poor hygiene, cross-contamination and the undersized animal welfare that occurs when animals are exploited for 'food'. Viruses appear in markets where live animals are traded, but also in the filth and miserable living conditions of farm animals. These viruses eventually spread to people around the world. To keep farm animals alive in their appalling conditions, they are given a powerful cocktail of medicines, including antibiotics. In the US (and I think it's not much different here) 80% of the antibiotics sold are given to farm animals. As a result, the 'sickmakers' become travel tent for the overused medication, so-called 'superbugs' (superbacteria) arise and eventually we no longer have working medicines at our disposal when we get sick.

Coronavirus is an animal virus introduced to humans through animal markets. Similarly, influenza A viruses are avian influenza viruses that have passed through poultry farming to humans. Taking animals off our collective board would be a big step in preventing future pandemics and improving our health and the environment at the same time.

There is a lesson that we as a species, despite hundreds of years of vigorous warnings, have not learned. Tuberculosis, measles, whooping cough, typhoid, leprosy and cold all have one thing in common: they once crossed from animal to human when we started domesticating, breeding and exploiting animals.

70 billion animals are raised each year in horrible conditions — pumped full of antibiotics to prevent disease outbreaks and stimulate unnaturally rapid growth. Intensive livestock farming is a nightmare for the environment and animal welfare — but it's a paradise for germs, which mutate , multiply and skip to people. Already 700,000 people die every year from infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Scientists predict that this will be up to 10 million deaths per year in 2050.