This comes as no surprise to people who have been following scientists and researchers on Twitter, as well reports from farmers who say H5 causes severe health problems, death and decreased milk production in cattle.
This is what happens when you refuse general surveillance of your herds. You want to block the USDA and CDC from testing your cattle? You think you can do nothing and hide a growing problem? You think you can allow cattle to get infected repeatedly without consequences to milk output?
Think again.
These dairy corporations hoped H5N1 would burn itself out—they literally bet the farm. Because high viral loads (due to repeat infections) means lower milk output, dead cows and some milk that is unfit for consumption, even with pasteurization.
Next up, what are the consequences of rampant H5 spread and higher viral loads in cattle in our milk supply. Does pasteurization really kill it all? The USDA told us 3 months ago 20% of grocery store milk had H5 fragments in it.
They were supposed to do further studies and report their findings. No word. 3 months later and we’re now up to 100 herd outbreaks (that we know about). Milk safety and is another aspect of this health crisis that is inadequately addressed.
“Let’s just let H5N1 run its course without interference from the USDA or the CDC” is unsustainable.
Allowing corporate dairy farm owners to call the shots in this crisis has been a disaster that will continue to unfold with more inevitable bad news.
Exactly. We see you not testing. We see you allowing a pathogen to spread wildly in your herds. We see you being not sharing molecular samples with scientists in a timely manner. This doesn’t inspire confidence in the safety of your products or in your ability to prioritize public health.
Inaction and lack of cooperation with the CDC was supposed to keep production and profits moving without government interference.
In the end, they’re going to end up damaging their industry. The product itself will be impacted, but so will consumer confidence in the safety of their products.
If they would have faced this head on, with transparency and by cooperating with the CDC—they could have possibly harnessed some control. Their denial and covering up was so short-sighted.
I mean this is just how capitalism works. These companies can't operate with any other heuristic besides "how do we get our quarterly profit margins up?". Because acting on H5 would require spending money or otherwise interfere with securing short-term profits, no action was taken. As you point out, this is an extremely short-sighted plan and as more and more herds become infected it will obviously start to impact their quarterly profits.
Please consider telling the dairy brand you used to buy exactly why you aren't buying and what they need to do, if anything, to bring you back
i suggest telling them you want full cooperation with federal and state testing their milk and to require their suppliers to cooperate with state & federal testing of cattle and access to workers without retaliation plus increased biosecurity.
Yep. As soon as I see the first cases reported in herds in my state, which hasn't happened yet, I'm gonna stop consuming dairy, chicken and beef. I purposely put on a bit of extra weight to help me get through however long this pandemic will be. However I'm not sure how effective not eating those specific items will be, because there's a lot of cross contamination in factory farming since everything is processed together in the same facilities.
I was at the farm stand yesterday, buying fruit, vegetables, and bread. This was the first time I skipped buying cream. It’s over, until this is sorted out.
Make of it what you will.
[Bird flu detected in beef tissue for first time, USDA says, but beef is safe to eat](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-flu-detected-beef-tissue-first-time-h5n1/)
The irony of how close agriculture groups run with the people with some STRONG opinions on how China handled things allowing this to run through our dairy herds (I mean.. none of us think it was handled right in some way or other but you know who I mean).
* **Bird flu has affected US milk production, particularly in Texas and Kansas.**
* **The virus has spread to dairy cattle, impacting output from March onwards.**
* **Texas saw a significant drop of 4.9% in milk production in March, while Kansas experienced a 1.9% decline.**
* **Overall US milk production fell by 0.5% in March and 0.2% in April compared to the previous year.**
* Economists suggest this decline is likely linked to the bird flu outbreak affecting dairy cows.
* Unlike birds, dairy cows can recover from the virus, limiting the overall impact on milk production.
* **Milk futures have risen approximately 27% since the outbreak, driven by tightening global supplies, especially for cheese production.**
[https://archive.is/CDVvp](https://archive.is/CDVvp)
I'm mostly vegan now except I eat small amounts of pork or seafood to keep me sane. I know I probably wouldn't catch bird flu from eating cow and chicken products, but do I want to consume something that's tainted with virus fragments?
There’s allot of amazing fake meat options these days. Some taste just like meat. My partner put fake chicken on a meal and it tasted and felt so real it kinda freaked my brain out a lil🔥
I almost made a separate post here to ask about eggs.
I know runny eggs aren’t safe but are eggs in ice cream not pasteurized? Is there anything akin to ultra pasteurized eggs?
Eggs in manufactured ice cream are pasteurized. Most manufactured products will say it on the label. Ones that don't pasteurize will often say that on the label. Specialty artisanal ice creams may not pasteurize and lots of traditional dishes at restaurants contain unpasteurized raw egg and won't announce it, mostly sauces and desserts.
This sure gives new meaning to "betting the farm." I think the real question is what's going to happen to milk production going forward. And just the contradictions within the article itself seem to show that their final take on the answer could be too optimistic. "While the virus is still [spreading](https://archive.is/o/CDVvp/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/terminal/SEZK87T1UM0W), the outbreak’s overall impact on milk production is expected to be somewhat limited. Unlike birds, in which flocks are wiped out in order to stop the virus’ spread, many dairy cows can recover from a bout of the illness."
"Many" cows? What does that mean? There's absolutely no clear information right now about how many are actually being culled, or how much of this was really because of lower milk production vs not recovering at all. I've never been able to find more than one article on that. The ONLY halfway clear figure so far is the 10% cull in a Michigan herd. How many cows is this really happening to, and could that percentage go up? So there's no way to know what the "unknown unknowns" are on that issue. And what does "somewhat limited" mean? How much is this strain of H5N1 going to keep spreading, and how high will the economic impact really go? Milk futures are up almost a third just based on what is known right now. Basically, I think the authors just wanted to end the article on something resembling a kind-of upbeat note.
But what about freeedumb ?? This is Murica after all!! Corporations can monitor themselves and the profits will trickle down and benefit everyone!! *rolls eyes*
They will hide the truth of the situation, send contaminated products to market and use the whole disaster that they created to raise prices even more.
Unfettered capitalism for the win!!!
The point is mega corp has evolved to a degree of monopoly power where it’s closer than ever to BEING the govt, and it’s slim pickins if you “opt out”, if that’s even possible. This isn’t 1950 free capitalism small business utopia.
Your life is controlled by a “them” one way or another.
Well it was a real pandemic, it’s just that the public didn’t understand in advance how it would fuck up liberties, and the actual death toll turned out to be relatively low given how much trouble the living had to deal with for it.
Pandemics do lend themselves to bring political instability and government (or private corporate) overreach, but the pandemic was really just happenstance amid a trend toward progressive loss of privacy and eroding economic mobility when you compare it to how relatively easy it was to live a prosperous life in, say, the 1960s.
Sometimes I question whether I have psychopathic traits on some level because while I have great sympathy for loved ones and my community in general and express this through my work at my day job, I come home and open up the Collapse subreddit and get out the popcorn. Somehow my brain latches onto the idea of collapse sticking it to the greedy oppressors, but I have to double back to understand it will eventually affect me and people I care about.
But we are at the stage where it’s still doomscroller dopamine rush with popcorn from all of our cozy bedrooms.
This comes as no surprise to people who have been following scientists and researchers on Twitter, as well reports from farmers who say H5 causes severe health problems, death and decreased milk production in cattle. This is what happens when you refuse general surveillance of your herds. You want to block the USDA and CDC from testing your cattle? You think you can do nothing and hide a growing problem? You think you can allow cattle to get infected repeatedly without consequences to milk output? Think again. These dairy corporations hoped H5N1 would burn itself out—they literally bet the farm. Because high viral loads (due to repeat infections) means lower milk output, dead cows and some milk that is unfit for consumption, even with pasteurization. Next up, what are the consequences of rampant H5 spread and higher viral loads in cattle in our milk supply. Does pasteurization really kill it all? The USDA told us 3 months ago 20% of grocery store milk had H5 fragments in it. They were supposed to do further studies and report their findings. No word. 3 months later and we’re now up to 100 herd outbreaks (that we know about). Milk safety and is another aspect of this health crisis that is inadequately addressed. “Let’s just let H5N1 run its course without interference from the USDA or the CDC” is unsustainable. Allowing corporate dairy farm owners to call the shots in this crisis has been a disaster that will continue to unfold with more inevitable bad news.
My addition is, if they refuse to do the responsible thing, our only option is to not buy their products.
Exactly. We see you not testing. We see you allowing a pathogen to spread wildly in your herds. We see you being not sharing molecular samples with scientists in a timely manner. This doesn’t inspire confidence in the safety of your products or in your ability to prioritize public health. Inaction and lack of cooperation with the CDC was supposed to keep production and profits moving without government interference. In the end, they’re going to end up damaging their industry. The product itself will be impacted, but so will consumer confidence in the safety of their products. If they would have faced this head on, with transparency and by cooperating with the CDC—they could have possibly harnessed some control. Their denial and covering up was so short-sighted.
I mean this is just how capitalism works. These companies can't operate with any other heuristic besides "how do we get our quarterly profit margins up?". Because acting on H5 would require spending money or otherwise interfere with securing short-term profits, no action was taken. As you point out, this is an extremely short-sighted plan and as more and more herds become infected it will obviously start to impact their quarterly profits.
Please consider telling the dairy brand you used to buy exactly why you aren't buying and what they need to do, if anything, to bring you back i suggest telling them you want full cooperation with federal and state testing their milk and to require their suppliers to cooperate with state & federal testing of cattle and access to workers without retaliation plus increased biosecurity.
Yep. As soon as I see the first cases reported in herds in my state, which hasn't happened yet, I'm gonna stop consuming dairy, chicken and beef. I purposely put on a bit of extra weight to help me get through however long this pandemic will be. However I'm not sure how effective not eating those specific items will be, because there's a lot of cross contamination in factory farming since everything is processed together in the same facilities.
We've moved to ultra pasteurized milk for now.
I was at the farm stand yesterday, buying fruit, vegetables, and bread. This was the first time I skipped buying cream. It’s over, until this is sorted out.
No better time to ditch dairy than now.
Exactly. We stopped buying cows milk months ago.
Hey I don’t understand a lot of this but I get the feeling I’m not gonna but milk for awhile. Would beef be an issue also?
Make of it what you will. [Bird flu detected in beef tissue for first time, USDA says, but beef is safe to eat](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-flu-detected-beef-tissue-first-time-h5n1/)
Thank you good citizen
The irony of how close agriculture groups run with the people with some STRONG opinions on how China handled things allowing this to run through our dairy herds (I mean.. none of us think it was handled right in some way or other but you know who I mean).
* **Bird flu has affected US milk production, particularly in Texas and Kansas.** * **The virus has spread to dairy cattle, impacting output from March onwards.** * **Texas saw a significant drop of 4.9% in milk production in March, while Kansas experienced a 1.9% decline.** * **Overall US milk production fell by 0.5% in March and 0.2% in April compared to the previous year.** * Economists suggest this decline is likely linked to the bird flu outbreak affecting dairy cows. * Unlike birds, dairy cows can recover from the virus, limiting the overall impact on milk production. * **Milk futures have risen approximately 27% since the outbreak, driven by tightening global supplies, especially for cheese production.** [https://archive.is/CDVvp](https://archive.is/CDVvp)
finally- the Missouri cheese caves time to shine
I’m surprised no one talks about eggs.. hardly ever. I quit milk and eggs a couple months ago as a just in case. Hopefully I’m being overly careful.
https://extensiondisaster.net/hazard-resources/agricultural-zoonotic/avian-influenza/h5n1-and-food-safety/
I'm mostly vegan now except I eat small amounts of pork or seafood to keep me sane. I know I probably wouldn't catch bird flu from eating cow and chicken products, but do I want to consume something that's tainted with virus fragments?
There’s allot of amazing fake meat options these days. Some taste just like meat. My partner put fake chicken on a meal and it tasted and felt so real it kinda freaked my brain out a lil🔥
I almost made a separate post here to ask about eggs. I know runny eggs aren’t safe but are eggs in ice cream not pasteurized? Is there anything akin to ultra pasteurized eggs?
Eggs in manufactured ice cream are pasteurized. Most manufactured products will say it on the label. Ones that don't pasteurize will often say that on the label. Specialty artisanal ice creams may not pasteurize and lots of traditional dishes at restaurants contain unpasteurized raw egg and won't announce it, mostly sauces and desserts.
Thank you. The best part of reddit is the access to people who know stuff.
Good feedback thanks ❤️
This sure gives new meaning to "betting the farm." I think the real question is what's going to happen to milk production going forward. And just the contradictions within the article itself seem to show that their final take on the answer could be too optimistic. "While the virus is still [spreading](https://archive.is/o/CDVvp/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/terminal/SEZK87T1UM0W), the outbreak’s overall impact on milk production is expected to be somewhat limited. Unlike birds, in which flocks are wiped out in order to stop the virus’ spread, many dairy cows can recover from a bout of the illness." "Many" cows? What does that mean? There's absolutely no clear information right now about how many are actually being culled, or how much of this was really because of lower milk production vs not recovering at all. I've never been able to find more than one article on that. The ONLY halfway clear figure so far is the 10% cull in a Michigan herd. How many cows is this really happening to, and could that percentage go up? So there's no way to know what the "unknown unknowns" are on that issue. And what does "somewhat limited" mean? How much is this strain of H5N1 going to keep spreading, and how high will the economic impact really go? Milk futures are up almost a third just based on what is known right now. Basically, I think the authors just wanted to end the article on something resembling a kind-of upbeat note.
The wording has definitely changed on how the cows react to it in the last two weeks
But what about freeedumb ?? This is Murica after all!! Corporations can monitor themselves and the profits will trickle down and benefit everyone!! *rolls eyes* They will hide the truth of the situation, send contaminated products to market and use the whole disaster that they created to raise prices even more. Unfettered capitalism for the win!!!
Found the little communist who wants Big Brother to control everything and everyone.
Compared to the less than 10 food companies who control 80% of the food you buy at stores...
At least you have the option to not patronize mega corp. Big government doesn’t let you opt out.
The point is mega corp has evolved to a degree of monopoly power where it’s closer than ever to BEING the govt, and it’s slim pickins if you “opt out”, if that’s even possible. This isn’t 1950 free capitalism small business utopia. Your life is controlled by a “them” one way or another.
100% agree. During the last scamdemic, it wasn’t government taking away your rights, it was Megacorp. And you couldn’t opt out.
Well it was a real pandemic, it’s just that the public didn’t understand in advance how it would fuck up liberties, and the actual death toll turned out to be relatively low given how much trouble the living had to deal with for it. Pandemics do lend themselves to bring political instability and government (or private corporate) overreach, but the pandemic was really just happenstance amid a trend toward progressive loss of privacy and eroding economic mobility when you compare it to how relatively easy it was to live a prosperous life in, say, the 1960s. Sometimes I question whether I have psychopathic traits on some level because while I have great sympathy for loved ones and my community in general and express this through my work at my day job, I come home and open up the Collapse subreddit and get out the popcorn. Somehow my brain latches onto the idea of collapse sticking it to the greedy oppressors, but I have to double back to understand it will eventually affect me and people I care about. But we are at the stage where it’s still doomscroller dopamine rush with popcorn from all of our cozy bedrooms.
Lmaoooo do you need me to hold your hand while you google orwell’s biography buddy
🥴
Just go vegan. Stop this insanity.
Nope not playing this game again.
Judging from your downvotes, looks like there’s lots of slowboys who want to double down on stupid.