Hello everyone, my name is Ryan and you're listening
to The Vegan Report. Today's episode is a solo
episode and recording it is stressing me out,
in a good way. As my drama teacher would say,
some stress is good stress. It's one I've been
waiting a long time to share with you. For more
than a year, I've been working on a special project.
I've... poured my heart and time into something
I believe can genuinely change your life for
the better. But before I introduce it, I want
to start with a story that should have been front
-page news. A massive pipe recently collapsed
near Washington DC, releasing nearly 300 million
tons of sewage and to the Potomac River. That's
the equivalent of about 200 million cars just
crashing into the water and no one heard about
it. An environmental disaster of this scale in
such a historically and politically significant
region should have sparked widespread alarm.
Instead, it was met with silence, and the limited
information released by authorities did little
to help families understand the threat to their
health. This silence is not an exception, it's
a pattern. Environmental health dangers, sewage
contamination, zoonotic outbreaks, industrial
toxins and more are everywhere. They shape our
health in profound ways, yet they remain in our
blind spot, leaving entire communities vulnerable
and uninformed. This is why I decided to create
Map Your Health, an app designed to track harmful
toxins in your surroundings. Map Your Health
bridges the gap between environmental health
data and the people who need it most. It allows
you to monitor everything from tap water quality
to pollutants emitted by nearby industries, drawing
real -time information from public health agencies,
scientific institutions, and independent organizations
tracking environmental risks. This is the tool
I wish every family had, including my own. and
it's the one I'm determined to bring to life.
The web version will be ready soon, it's still
under construction, but we're getting close.
In the meantime, I invite you to sign up for
Map Your Health's waiting list at mapyourhealth
.info. The link is also in the episode notes,
and please share it with the people you love
and want to keep safe. Now, you might be wondering
how this connects to our activism for animals.
Well, the link is direct and undeniable. Factory
farms and slaughterhouses are dangerous breeding
grounds for zoonotic diseases and antibiotic
-resistant bacterium. Vegans often talk about
how animal products contribute to diabetes, heart
disease and cancer. And that's fair, but the
existential health threat of animal exploitation
goes far beyond chronic disease. We're talking
about risks on the scale of a comet impact, the
emergence of a virus with a mortality rate far
higher than COVID -19. or the rise of antibiotic
resistant bacteria that could end the golden
age of antibiotics altogether. We've covered
many of these issues on the show. For example,
listen to Liz White, leader of the Animal Protection
Party of Canada, explain how backyard chickens
can become a major vector for avian influenza.
chicks out to people who want backyard chickens.
So we put them in Canada Post and mailed them.
And, you know, you look at this whole situation,
not only is it cruel and ridiculous, because
the eggs cost about $2 an egg, it is also the
cruelty and the insanity of it. But yes, you're
playing with fire. It's like that avian influenza
is very very um contagious and you can't stop
other birds from coming into your backyard with
the chickens and you know and that's how the
contamination happens so the city of Toronto
decided to ban it all together which was great
but many other communities are going on as though
nothing's happening and you know the problem
with avian influenza is it's transmitting to
other animals and it's been transmitted to people
from animals. It hasn't transmitted from people
to people yet but this is a virus that is evolving
and and somehow we think that it's all good and
that nothing's going to happen and you know we
could be in a situation like COVID all over again
and much more serious because there are no vaccines
for it. And I think we're just playing with fire,
so yeah, I would recommend every community in
Canada ban backyard chickens. And this isn't
just a Canadian problem. It's happening everywhere.
Here's Haydee Mansfield, founder of Bell and
Fleur, describing how poorly the UK government
monitors and controls the spread of avian influenza.
Bird flu in the UK is being disastrous. I don't
particularly trust the government in their handling
of the situation. I don't particularly trust
their testing or how they deal with the situations.
Year on year, the numbers are getting worse.
Year on year, the outbreak and the housing restrictions
are getting longer. So the housing restrictions
over here where backyard flocks have to be kept
under cover, they're getting longer and longer.
But the numbers and the cases are getting bigger
and greater. So what they're doing isn't working
over here. For me, it's a common sense approach
that you protect your area and you make sure
you don't bring anything in the commercial farms
where they they. on their websites, you know,
you read all their blurb about how wonderful
they are and how the welfare of the hens is vitally
important and how their biosecurity measures
are paramount to their operations. And yet time
and time again, they're getting bird flu and
the entire flocks are being culled. And as you
said, Judy, you know, the way in which they're
being culled is just horrendous. And again, I
try and share this because people haven't got
a clue what goes on, you know, these mainstream
methods of depopulating. the flocks are just
horrendous and people, this is kept from the
public, you know, because they just don't want
them to understand the real, you know, effect
of this on the animals. I don't think the government
over here has got a handle on bird flu or how
to properly take care of it and to minimise the
impact. They just want to minimise the impact
on the industry and their profit margins. But
the situation feels even more urgent when it
comes to antibiotic resistant bacterium. We did
a deep dive on this in episode 55 with Colin
Noonan, scientific advisor to the Alliance to
Save Our Antibiotics. Listen to him describe
how these dangerous bacteria spread. pass from
direct contact with an animal. This can happen
when a farmer is touching their animals or when
a vet is touching the animals. It can also, of
course, happen with pets. Pets can also receive
antibiotics. It can also pass into the environment.
So, as I said, the antibiotics can be excreted
in the urine and that those antibiotics will
then end up ultimately in the environment where
they can select for more resistant bacteria.
But the bacteria can also end up, you know, in
the air, you know, particularly when you have
kind of factory farms with, you know, thousands
or, you know, in the case of chickens, you know,
tens of thousands of chickens in one shed. Obviously,
you know, There will end up being a lot of bacteria
in the air and so people who go into that shed
will end up being kind of to some extent where
their clothes anyway will end up with bacteria
on it. The air that is released from those farms
can contain bacteria in the local environment.
Some of the antibiotic residues that are excreted
or the resistant bacteria that end up in the
manure will end up on the land. They can also
end up, you know, in water supplies as well.
Of course, so then it can also, as you said,
be on the meat, but it can also end up, you know,
when, you know, or rather vegetables more likely
are grown in the fields that there may be resistant
bacteria or residues in those fields. And so
it can end up on vegetables as well. So yes,
there are various different ways in which I can
spread it. I want to go back to the airborne
This is the first time I hear about bacteria
being in the air. So what do we mean by that?
Is it mixed with water? Can they mix with clouds?
Is it present in the rain? I wouldn't really
know exactly that. I do know that you have to
be relatively close, say, to a factory farm for
there to be kind of the detectable number of
bacteria like in the air. So I think it's, you
know, kind of like within a few hundred meters
or something like that. And yeah, I don't know
exactly, you know, presumably these bacteria
are just kind of floating and eventually settle.
But I don't know exactly how that works. And
what about the water? You know, you have slaughterhouses
built as an example, built by, you know, on the
shores of a river and they dump all of the manure
and inside you have all of those bacterias and
then they will most likely travel to lakes, to
other rivers, to even the ocean. Is that a likely
scenario? There is certainly in different parts
of the world, you have contamination of rivers
and that sort of thing with resistant bacteria,
particularly in sort of lower and middle income
countries. I mean, some of it is coming from
livestock farming. Some of it is coming from
human sewage as well. Human sewage will be treated
in many countries but some of it nevertheless
is going to release antibiotic residues and then
some of it will also be coming from antibiotic
manufacturing which releases sometimes very high
levels of antibiotics into the environment. And
so, yeah, there are manufacturing facilities
in some countries like India, which are releasing
very high levels of antibiotics into the environment.
But we do know that even in countries like the
UK, that there can be residues of antibiotics,
you know, in water supplies, and these can sort
of, you know, you can detect these on people
who swim in that water, that sort of thing. So
yes, it is something that can be detectable and
it may well depend on the time of year and rain
and that sort of thing. In the case of farming
it will depend on when manure is spread on the
land and it will also depend on whether that
manure has been properly composted before it's
spread on the land because if it's If animal
manure is mixed with crop residues and properly
composted, then this will reduce the number of
bacteria in there and it will also reduce antibiotic
residues. But if it's not, and very often it
isn't properly composted, then you can get higher
levels of these residues of antibiotics and of
antibiotic resistant material. If antibiotics
stop working, modern medicine collapses. No more
open -heart surgeries. No more chemotherapy.
Even childbirth becomes dangerous again. You're
prescribed antibiotics for something as routine
as dental procedure. The implications of losing
them are catastrophic. Our lifespan would shrink.
And Map Your Health will shine a light on all
of this. It will expose the presence of factory
farms and slaughterhouses and show their impact
on the water we drink, the air we breathe, and
the soil we depend on. No more hiding. To me,
Map Your Health is simply common sense. Just
as we have the right to know what companies put
in our food, Laws literally require them to list
every ingredient. We should also have the right
to know what industries are putting into our
air and water. And when the next virus outbreak
happens, we deserve an independent, reliable
platform for risk communication. We shouldn't
have to depend on the whims of the media cycle
or the political interest of the moment to access
life -saving information. We deserve a mappier
health to protect our wellbeing and the wellbeing
of the people we love. So this is my case for
mappier health. This is why building this app
feels meaningful to me, not only as an animal
rights activist, but as someone who believes
in fighting for a safer, healthier world. I hope
I can count on your support. Please sign up at
mapyourhealth .info and share the link with the
people you care about. Thank you so much for
caring and see you soon.