Posted on 01/29/2020 5:47:13 AM PST by karpov
...
China is the planet’s premier incubator of new flu strains, blamed for the 1918-19 “Spanish” flu, 1957’s Asian flu, the Hong Kong flu of 1968, and the “Russian” flu of 1977. Yet the story is one of progress. China’s backyard agriculture, where ducks and pigs are raised in close proximity, was long considered a key culprit in generating new strains. With this year’s Wuhan outbreak and 2003’s SARS outbreak, suspicion has shifted to urban “wet” markets where affluent Chinese indulge an increasingly atavistic taste for wild and exotic animals slaughtered on the spot.
Notice that such issues with meat production don’t arise in developed countries. The reason, to oversimplify, is agribusiness. Mass production focuses on a single species at a single site; the product is usually frozen or refrigerated and delivered to the customer through a chain of sanitary intermediaries; the opportunity for cross-species infection is small; the opportunity for quality control and systematic inspection is great.
In a mixed blessing, such techniques also put small operators out of business, and that’s been happening in China. By one count, farms with more than 500 hogs accounted for 75% of pig production in 2015, tripling their share since 2008. Large-scale dairies have arrived in China. Backyard protein production is demonstrably fading. Whether Beijing can muster the will to ban the newish problem of urban wet markets is doubtful, but the Chinese people may take a hand here too. A succession of adulterated-food scandals have made food safety a top-of-mind concern. Demand is growing for trusted brands and more processed ingredients.
Foodies in the West look askance at such developments, but the fact remains: Americans can grab stuff off a store shelf and put it in our mouths with little fear it will kill us in the short run.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Do muslims also have ‘wet markets’? I know that ritualistic animal slaughter is a part of their OCD religion.
Isn’t there a whole festival for it?
Is halal meat really that sanitary in open air markets?
Take a trip to Taiwan. Open air markets there have areas to slaughter chickens. Meat is displayed for sale without ice on it and lots of flies. For a country that is ahead of us in many ways they are sure backwards in others.
They eat live baby rats and bats.
https://twitter.com/UyghurInfo/status/1220171791999463424?s=20
https://twitter.com/Dystopia992/status/1219925516372922368?s=20
In Chinatown in Chicago you can pick out live turtles to bring home freshly slaughtered. They are in a water tank, indoors, safer temperature and fewer flies, but not much different.
The Chinese need to wash their hands as well. Watched a video by people who married into families and there are many unhygienic practices that need to be corrected.
I haven’t been to Taiwan but when I was in Peru I saw an open market with slaughtered animals including dog.
“Americans can grab stuff off a store shelf and put it in our mouths with little fear it will kill us in the short run.”
Unless it comes from China or was picked by Mexicans with diarrhea or shat upon by the pigs, wild or tame, that eat the farm worker feces.
No. I am not jaded. Why do you ask?
I've heard that in Peru and several other countries, while they do eat dog, they don't torture them first to "make the meat more flavorful". Do you know if that's the case in Peru or are they sadistic like the Chinese?
I didn’t ask or taste
The local Chinese supermarket (in NJ suburb) reeks. Live fish, dead fish, live frogs, meats I can’t identify. I think they want fresh slaughter to prevent food poisoning but it smells like bacteria are flourishing.
I like the Indian markets. Vegetarian, smell like spices only.
It seems to me that the advantage to buying stuff that is killed on the spot is that there is no question of there having been any refrigeration gap, which does have an upside in some places.
Heeere we go! Now the federal government has an excuse to start enforcing all those Kennedy-era executive orders about regulating or eliminating home-grown produce/livestock. This without a scientific explanation about how viruses jump species and mutate. Just some mumbo-jumbo about microbes in China.
How’s this for a conspiracy theory? (and it IS a conspiracy theory)
“Government has bred mutant viruses/bacteria in order to have justification for banning home produce”
Why don’t these meats get maggots? How soon after slaughter does does the meat get maggots?
I saw video by cbs on youtube showing one of these air markets and they had bins full of dead animals.
How’s this for a conspiracy theory? (and it IS a conspiracy theory)
“Government has bred mutant viruses/bacteria in order to have justification for banning home produce”
It’s no goofier than most conspiracy theories I’ve seen about this outbreak.
It’s food that China is making strides in food safety but the Coronavirus has nothing to do with food safety, IMHO.
Bkmk
Wet markets, conveniently located near Level 4 Biolabs.
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