We have to step back from intensive farming

With up to 150 people in Northern Ireland being treated for swine flu, isn’t it time we focus on the cause of these viruses before it’s too late?

Diseases run rampant on crowded filthy factory farms, where hundreds of pigs are forced to live in filthy, crowded sheds.

As Hans-Gerhard Wagner, a senior officer with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, has said, the intensive industrial farming of livestock is an “opportunity for emerging disease”.

The way to prevent future outbreaks of swine flu, bird flu, SARs, and other animal-borne diseases is to stop raising billions of animals for meat, eggs and dairy products.

We must take responsibility for our actions, which impact not only animals but also on humans, and we can all be part of the solution by making the only rational choice: to leave animals off our plates.

Jennifer White

Society Building

8 All Saints Street

London N1 9RL

England