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  Today Online 15 Nov 05
Want to Stop the superbugs? Stop using chemicals
Lim Tian Soo

WITH experts predicting that an outbreak of the bird flu virus could kill billions, the race to find a vaccine and impose bio-security measures has intensified. It seems that lots of money and energy is being spent on controlling the spread of this flu bug, but few have bothered to understand why the bug has mutated to this dangerous stage in the first place.

We simply accept the existence of this disease.

It is common knowledge that drugs developed to control one type of virus often leads to the virus becoming more resistant or mutating. The birth of strain H5N1 is likely the result of the large-scale use of antibiotics and other chemicals in our modern society to control the simple common flu and other minor ailments.

Isn't the long-term solution, then, to stop the use of these chemicals? Since World War II, man has increasingly depended on drugs to keep factory-farm animals alive.

Yes, the use of such drugs has made it possible to feed millions more people — but it has also given rise to new types of sickness. Not enough research has been done in this area.

Our world is now caught up with the glamour of scientific progress. When drugs bring in huge profits, everyone clamours for a piece of the pie. Large pharmaceutical companies are the direct benefactors.

Research institutions in turn get more funding from them, and governments get more tax revenue and investments in biotechnology.

Perhaps it is this greed that shuts our mind to the root of the problem. We keep looking for stronger drugs to kill stronger pests or viruses, perpetuating a vicious cycle. Now, experts tell us that pests or viruses can mutate faster than scientists can keep up.

The bugs are smarter. Humans will lose.

We can stop the use of drugs on farm animals and let them die from the common flu virus — instead of breeding super-bugs in these animals and then putting them in our mouths.

You will have fewer chickens to go around to feed everyone, and that might not be a bad thing because you would reduce obesity and a whole host of illnesses that come with today's fast food habits. And isn't it easier to just stop using drugs on farm animals, than to have to invent cures which are at best ineffective and at worst, have the potential to create even more dangerous viruses?

Stopping the use of drugs would, of course, be bad for business for the major stakeholders and anyone who seriously advocates doing so would have to come up against the corporations and governments. . But you have to decide if you want to live without sickness, or die rich and sickly.

Forget the bottomline and the GDP — and have a good life.

The contributor is an organic farmer.
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