The End of Medicine (2022) - full transcript

It all
felt deeply unethical.

I went in with pure intentions
to make a difference.

It really was
every day that I'd cry.

And then [ think
I was just suddenly like,

"I can't do
another day of this."

I just want to share my story

and I want people to know what
I've learned about disease.

We have seen multiple episodes
over the past several years

where viruses have emerged that
have caused cause for concern.

And, thankfully,
to date, time and time again,

measures that have
been taken by governments,



measures have been
taken by W.H.O.

have managed to
combat those outbreaks.

I think the whole
of the medical community

is mindful and slightly fearful

that eventually
there might come a time

where such
a virus can't be contained.

There are two sets
of laws that we have

that control human behavior.

One is the laws that we make.

And, in those laws,
they say from time to time,

"It's okay to do this.
It's okay to do that."

Well, it may be
okay and it may be lawful

but nature has
its own set of laws.

And when you, or we as
people, violate those laws,



then nature responds with
a consequence all of its own.

And it can be a consequence

that we,
as humans, can't tolerate.

We're creating
these scenarios

in which viruses
can mutate in that way.

It really feels like there's
So many alarms going off

and it just
isn't being spelled out.

♪

I'm Alice Brough and I used
to be a livestock vet

so I worked
for about four years

in the British pig industry.

And I left that
about a year ago.

As soon as I was
old enough to understand

there was a job that
was involving helping animals,

that was the career for me

and I didn't ever
consider anything else.

It was like, as soon as I could
speak, I wanted to be a vet.

Since I sort of turned 15,

I started working
on farms every holiday.

And then the veterinary
degree is five years long.

So, so considerable amount
of time put towards it, really.

So the year before I left,

I was actually a finalist
for Young Pig Vet of the Year.

I really put
everything into it.

I tried incredibly hard to...
To achieve what really

was my aim was to
improve the lives of animals.

And I, yeah, it was a...

It was a tough job
and I put everything into it.

So, um, why
have you since left that job?

Um... that's a tough question.

I think the more I went on,

the more I struggled
with the sort of concern

that I was
facilitating something

which would be
potentially very dangerous

to human health
further down the line.

I felt I've had to
step back from that role

to feel like
I'm not contributing

to some of the biggest
threats to humanity

in the form of pandemics
and antimicrobial resistance.

♪

There
are many different diseases

that have led to pandemics
over the history of time.

And there's
typically some sort of link

between human
health and animal health

within those
types of pandemics.

About half of infectious
diseases people can get

can be spread from
an animal or be zoonotic.

And for emerging infectious
diseases, particularly,

scientists estimate
that three out of every four

emerging infectious diseases
come from an animal source.

Well, the truth is,

when you look at the origins
specifically of COVID-19,

we think it's come from some
of these wet markets in China.

And for many of us in the West,

we look over there
and we say, "Okay, well,

perhaps they
should close down."

And to a certain
extent that is true.

But we should also
look in our own back garden

and just look at how we
are treating animals here.

It's not just over there.
If we are cooping up

our livestock in
unsanitary conditions,

having to give them
antibiotics all the time,

we really don't have
much of a case to be pointing

the finger at anybody else.

♪

The more I looked into it

and the more
research I looked at,

it was sort of like going down
the rabbit hole, in a sense.

Animal agriculture
is a big business.

It's causing all
sorts of major issues,

but nobody's joining the dots.

I worked in the Office

of Counter-terrorism
and Emerging Threats

at the Food
and Drug Administration.

And, in that office,

we were preparing
for things like pandemics,

like COVID-19,
that we're facing now.

I worked with
the Center for Disease Control.

I worked for the
National Institutes of Health.

I worked with the military.

I worked with
Homeland Security.

Throughout that
entire time, not once

did we ever talk about
how these emerging diseases

come about in the first place.

This is the time.

If there is any time,
this is the time

to really look into how
these infections come about.

So you think about it,
we're about

eight billion humans
on this planet right now.

But for every
human on this planet,

there are
about ten land animals

raised and killed for food.

So we think there
are too many humans?

Think about how
many animals there are.

So we're talking
about 80 billion land animals

being raised and killed
for food at one time.

You know, with Coronavirus,
we are being told to...

To socially
distance and rightfully so.

But we're doing
the absolute opposite

with these
animals in these farms.

We're crowding them into
as tight of a space as we can.

And that goes against
everything that we know

about how to
contain and prevent

the emergence
of infectious diseases.

Their immune
systems are decreased

because of the stress
that they face

and then they're
so densely packed.

So, it's so easy for one
animal to catch an infection

and then pass it
on to another animal

and then the virus
can spread like wildfire.

So far, they've been able
to verify the deadly strain

of flu virus is passed
on from chickens to people.

Four people...

In 1997,
with the emergence of H5N1,

it was a highly
pathogenic influenza virus

that emerged from
chicken farms in China.

Now, that virus had
a lethality rate of about 60%.

Think about it.
This was a virus that killed

60 out of 100 people
who contracted the virus.

You can imagine how
deadly that virus is.

I mean, that is
a scary, scary virus.

H5N1 came out
from animal agriculture

and it is still out there
and it is still circulating

and it is still mutating.

We are not done with H5N1.

It's a ticking time bomb,

you know, what's happening
in these factory farms

and the influenza strains
that are coming out.

It's no coincidence

that when we think
of past pandemics,

we think
of swine flu and avian flu

and pigs and chickens

are the most intensively
farmed animals on the planet.

Intensive farming
acts as a crucible

for the development
of pathogenic organisms.

It's our insatiable need

for cheap food
and for animal protein.

If we didn't have those,

we wouldn't have a lot of the
drivers for zoonotic emergence.

♪

So, I'd be driving
every day, farm to farm,

and seeing generally
similar sort of problems

across the board,

uh, whether that be disease
or... or welfare issues.

Um, and these
conditions are not...

Not exceptional, not one-offs.

This is really how
our meat, dairy and eggs

are produced every day.

We do a lot
of unnatural things to animals.

You know, we routinely
mutilate young animals.

We cut off teeth, tails,
testicles and beaks, horns,

which creates a direct
route into the bloodstream

for bacteria,
and it's also greatly stressful

and painful, obviously.

We all know dairy
cows that are removed

from their mothers
almost straightaway.

Chickens don't get any
time with their mothers.

Um, and piglets are weaned
about three-to four-weeks old.

When you move
them into an environment

that's frightening for them,
away from their mum

and on a completely
different feed,

it's very common to see things
like post-weaning salmonella

or E. Coli
diarrhea or meningitis.

Generally when
there's been an outbreak

of disease that
requires my input,

I'll go
and take some samples, um.

And I might,
you know, swab some tonsils

or nostrils or take some
blood from the jugular vein.

And the whole time,
I'm kind of leaning down

in front
of the nose and mouth of a pig

which might potentially die
from something like swine flu

which could
potentially pass to me

or, you know,
some unnamed disease

which we haven't
discovered yet.

The level of ammonia
coming from, you know,

tons of waste
from these animals,

and the dust that builds up,

everything that those
pigs are breathing out,

you're just breathing in.

So you come out
and your eyes are red

and streaming
and you're choking in it.

But those pigs
are in it there 24/7.

You know, that's the reason

we see so much
respiratory disease.

And you see lungs
coming through the abattoir

that, uh, have got pneumonia
and various bacterial diseases.

Like, the concoctions
of respiratory pathogens

because of these
enclosed spaces are phenomenal.

It was quite
soul destroying really

'cause most of the time

what I felt was probably
the best option for the animals

I saw suffering or sick
or injured was to shoot them.

And I was doing that most days.

You know, I carried a bolt gun
in my car and a screwdriver

to euthanize
animals daily. Uh...

It just wasn't...
Yeah, it wasn't really

what I signed up for
as a vet to be honest.

Um...

In order to shoot an animal,

you have to look them
in the eyes.

But that was
a kind of daily occurrence.

I'd go home with
these eyes of animals

that were utterly miserable.

I'd have horrible
nightmares all the time,

um, about killing animals,

and spent quite a lot
of time in slaughterhouses.

And I'd just get
this sort of recurring loop

of animals getting
killed in my dreams.

The way that I dealt
with it at the time was,

"If I'm not doing it,
then somebody else will

who probably doesn't care."

These are studies that
show drops in lung function

around factory farms
and things like that.

So there are many,
many, many studies

that very clearly show disease.

If you look at every
step along the pathway,

the use of animals for
food causes disease in humans.

Starting with the farms,

the people who work there
and the people who live there.

We see increased rates
of respiratory ailments,

GI ailments from
water contamination,

increased rates
of skin and wound infections.

Then you move on
to the slaughterhouses.

As they are
slaughtering the animals,

they're often opening the belly

and when they're
opening the belly,

they're often
having to do it so quickly

that they're
tearing into the intestines.

So now, you have spillage
of intestinal contents,

i.e. feces splashing on the
person, on the flesh itself.

Then you move to
the processing of it.

So, you now have products

that are
contaminated with bacteria.

There are plenty
of studies to show this.

Now, you shift over
to the consumer

because now the product
has moved on to the consumer.

There is a study done

by the University of Minnesota

in which they went
to ten large retailers

and collected
samples of the meat,

the pork
and the beef products sold

in all those grocery stores.

And they sample them

and they found
that there was E. Coli

in 60% to 70% of the beef
and the pork product.

And 92%
of the chicken products.

So these are just some
of the infectious disease risks

that are coming out
from these factory farms.

Another bleak
day of record COVID figures.

And at Croydon University
Hospital, it is status red.

Ambulances asked to
take patients elsewhere

if at all possible.

♪

COVID-19 has pretty much

brought the world to its knees.

Over a million
people have now died.

Obviously,
that's a huge number of people

to have lost their lives.

It's a huge number
of people to be out of work

um, unable to socialize.

But the thing to
remember is that COVID-19,

it spread very quickly and
it's infected a lot of people,

but potential pathogens
for pandemics in the future

have much,
much higher mortality rates.

The CDC have kind
of tipped the next pandemic

as an avian influenza, which
has a mortality rate of 40%.

It's a horrifying thought, but
it's a very real possibility.

The more that we're
creating these scenarios

in which viruses
can mutate in that way,

there is a very
real risk of something

much worse than
COVID-19 happening.

We only need to
look at pandemics

from the past to know this.

Well, the last
global pandemic that we had,

it was the swine
flu pandemic of 2009.

Scientists are fairly
certain that it originated

from a factory farm.

Now, global estimates
place about 500,000 people

as casualties
of that last pandemic.

So, incredibly serious stuff

uh, originating
right down the road

from a massive pig facility.

And it makes
sense that that pig farm

was ground zero
for the 2009 pandemic.

Uh, pigs and humans share
a lot of genetic material.

So, pigs are this perfect host.

And when that happens,
influenza mutates

and it can
become highly pathogenic

and wreak absolute
havoc in the human population.

As far as the 1918 pandemic,

we know why that happened.

It was a virulent
disease and it occurred

when troops were being
moved all over the world.

So, you had
massive movement of people

in confined spaces.

Just because the 1918 flu
did not involve factory farms,

it does not mean that it
didn't involve other animals.

In fact, they recently
sequenced the genome

by taking samples
from lung tissue of people

who had actually
died of the Spanish flu,

and they found genetic material

for avian viruses,
swine viruses.

So very clearly, there is
still some relationship

between the 1918 flu
and animal use.

We very clearly know
that the more recent epidemics,

the 1957 epidemic, the 1968
epidemic, 2009 swine flu,

these were all related
to our use of animals.

We're in
the middle of a pandemic.

So like, there's no
bigger wake-up call.

I don't...
I don't know what more we need

to start taking action on this.

Like, the only thing
that's going to stop us

from picking
up zoonotic disease

is stopping
messing with animals.

But, obviously,
we don't know for sure

where COVID came from.

People are very focused
on the wildlife trade

and even these lab leak
theories but, in particular,

people are
looking at wet markets.

So, because we don't have
anything like that over here,

to what extent can we wash
our hands of these issues?

I went to
document a wet market.

In these wet markets,

there were several
stalls that have live frogs,

bull frogs that
are kept in cages

and slaughtered on the spot.

They have
turtles kept in buckets

and they stay there in dirty
water, in their own feces.

They are not fed.

They are kept in stressful
and cramped conditions.

There are no hygiene
precautions whatsoever.

And this is
really an environment

that is really ripe for

having all kinds of pathogen
develop and transmit again

very easily from
one bucket to another bucket.

We cannot talk
about physical distancing

and apply
really strict measures,

prevent people from
visiting their loved ones

while allowing
these wet markets

to still
continue business as usual.

This is not okay.

Coronavirus, right?

Kung flu. Yeah.

Kung flu.

Asians around the world

have reported discrimination
linked to Coronavirus.

Those we've
spoken to fear the numbers

being verbally abused
and assaulted will rise

even more sharply
in the weeks ahead.

This year,

even from the end
of January, I would say,

before COVID-19 had hit the UK,

I was sitting on
the train to work.

And someone sat down,

looked at me
and got straight back up

covering their face with,
like, the collar of their coat.

And I looked
around and I'm like,

"They're not
doing it to anyone else.

It's pretty obvious
what's going on here."

The new strain
of coronavirus...

All the media report
only showed East Asian people.

We noticed, like,
a 60% decrease in overall sales

and then footfall
was so far down,

you'd see people walk
past and point and laugh.

I could notice
people saying things like,

"Don't bother supporting them.
Chinese people are dogs.

They eat dogs, they
eat bats. They're so dirty."

I've never known
a level of, like, racism,

as explicitly and as common
as during this time.

I definitely feel
that the finger is pointed

to people just
generally not in the West.

Inevitably,
when something bad happens

you can look to
blame someone else.

And, in doing so,
what you can end up doing

is alienating parts
of your own society.

I think
pointing the finger,

really, kind
of missing the crux of it,

which is that our own
patterns of consumption,

whether that's food,
fashion, entertainment,

are driving us down a road

that's not going to
be easy to come back from.

It's really interesting
looking at the conditions

of wet markets in China.

Animals stacked
on top of each other,

mired in their own feces
and urine, highly stressed.

Close human and animal contact.

And that's where we
suspect COVID-19 came from.

But if you take those
similar characteristics

and look at
factory farms in the West,

in the UK,
in America, all over Europe,

extremely similar situations
of incredibly stressed animals

who are denied all
that comes naturally to them.

And it's... it's when human
beings treat animals badly,

we see disease
mutating quite quickly

and then jumping
the species barrier.

So the...
The comparisons between

wet markets and factory farms,
I think, are incredibly fair.

And as a Western society,
we absolutely must look

at what's happening
in our own backyard first.

Even if we just
look at the wildlife trade

and ignore factory farming,
even that's not something

we can completely
wash our hands of.

♪

Yeah. It's easy to say

that the problem
started over there.

It's not our fault.

It's much harder to
turn the mirror onto ourselves

and look at how we
are increasing our risk

for these infectious diseases.

Every country is
involved in this wildlife trade

that leads to
things like the wet market,

that leads to animals
being shipped around the globe,

captured from the wild,
used in circuses,

used to stock zoos,

used for
laboratory experiments,

used as medicinal objects,

used for their fur
and their skin and their meat.

And the United States is
one of the biggest importers

and biggest
exporters of wildlife.

Europe is a big importer
and exporter of wildlife too,

so we're a huge culprit.

We are exposing
ourself to more animals,

we're shipping
them around the globe.

These animals are
treated incredibly horribly.

They're distressed and
their immune systems are down

so that they can very easily
catch infectious diseases.

And so the wildlife trade

brings together
a lot of sick species,

species which normally would
not interact with each other.

Are we hypocrites?
I sort of think we are

because we ignore
the parts of wildlife trade

that we want to ignore
because they serve our purpose.

And we cry out against
the parts of wildlife trade

that we've decided
are unacceptable.

The wildlife
trade is pervasive.

I mean,
it's kind of everywhere.

And it's not just
the things that we read about

in the headlines
of the papers, you know?

"Ivory trade,
rhino horn trade."

You know, tigers being traded,
pangolins being traded.

It's... it's things that we
sort of don't even think about.

And we are, in the West,
in the US, in Canada,

in Europe, in the UK,

consumers of many
of those products

that are
internationally traded.

Forests contain value,
huge value in timber species,

and so those arterial
roads that forged their way

into the forest means
that we have gone into the wild

in a way that is
massively destructive

and carries
with it enormous risk.

And back down
that road come the logs,

that come the wildlife,
comes the disease.

So, it's now
like a beating heart.

We are pumping
blood into the forest

and we're seeing
the blood sucked out of it.

And here we are.

HIV and Ebola were carried

by nonhuman
primates, chimpanzees.

But because
of the bush meat trade...

And because of the logging
industry that really destroyed

a lot of the natural
habitat of these animals,

it brought humans really
much closer to these animals.

And we suspect that
it is that combination,

the logging industry
and the bush meat trade

that caused the first
HIV infection in a human.

And we suspect
that's how we got Ebola.

When we're destroying the
natural habitats of animals,

we are increasing
the opportunities for humans

to come into
contact with species

that may carry
infectious diseases

that we may not
have encountered before.

The wildlife
trade is destructive.

It's destructive
to ecological habitats.

It's destructive
to many species

and it's destructive
for us because it increases

our risk
of infectious diseases.

We don't need it.
That needs to end.

♪

I think the problem is,
one of the central problems is

that we are just consumers,
consumers on a massive scale.

Just the sheer number of people

and the fact
that they need to eat

and they need
somewhere to sleep

and they're going to
have things in their house

if they're lucky
enough to have a house.

And all of those things
drive the engine of consumption

around the world.

And what we
don't realize is that

that will be the cause
of our own destruction

because we are not
the stewards of the planet.

We're the exploiters
of the planet right now.

History has taught us

and what we're
seeing now is teaching us

that anywhere and any way

that we treat
animals badly or unnaturally,

it leads to problems.

Not only for the animals,
but also for us.

So, um, you want
to tell me what that letter is?

Um, so, I am
currently under investigation

by the Royal College
of Veterinary Surgeons,

which means that I'm at risk

of having
my license to practice revoked.

And, um, why
are you under investigation?

...I publicly
spoke about my experience

within the pig industry.

So that's all you've done?

You've literally just
spoken about your experiences?

Uh, yes, pretty much.

Uh and, uh, essentially,
what their problem is with that

is that
my comments could undermine

the integrity of, uh,
the veterinary profession

and damage the reputation.

And how does
it feel receiving that letter?

I suppose quite
shocked and quite scared

because I don't, um...

I don't feel I ever
did anything wrong as a vet.

And I feel like I was
a very, um, a very good vet.

And uh, and it feels
a little bit of an injustice.

Um, since then, I've kind of
looked through previous cases

that have gone
to court of vets and nurses

under disciplinary
action and...

you've got
actual pedophiles,

um, sex offenders,

drink drivers
who've caused death

um, theft of controlled
drugs, that sort of thing.

So, to be lumped in with
actual criminals when I've...

I've purely, you know,

given a few truthful opinions
of my own experience, um,

is quite challenging
to take, to be honest.

♪

♪

Like I told you, they don't
even want to talk to me.

That's why
I'm talking to you right now.

They don't want to talk to me.

It... it...
It's just ridiculous.

And I feel like if people knew

before they got
into the business

what they would
have to go through,

if they made a complaint
or was dissatisfied,

what they would
have to go through

to get an answer to something,
uh, they wouldn't get into it.

♪

Was there anything

to do with
this particular film

that was, uh, an impacting
factor in all this?

Yes. Uh, so the...

The company cites Rudy's,
um, allowing a film team

to come into his barns
as a reason for termination.

He was terminated not
because he did anything wrong,

not because he violated
anything in his contract.

He was terminated

because he was speaking
out against the company.

I think the industry
hopes that Rudy will...

Will be a signal to other
farmers, "You better shut up

or you're going to get
your contract canceled."

The industry
works incredibly hard

to stop people from
exposing its secrets.

So, given that
you're being told,

"You're not allowed to
talk about these things,"

does that mean that you
will stop talking about them

and that you can't be a part
of this film anymore as well?

No. I won't be silenced.

I've only ever acted
in accordance with the oath

I swore on entry
to the profession.

So, no amount of bullying
or threats will stop me

from doing what
I know to be right,

particularly when
there's another issue

we haven't spoken about yet

that's infinitely
more pressing than my career

and potentially much more
devastating than a pandemic.

Right, are you
comfortable and everything?

Brilliant. Okay.
Um, if we start off

and you just...
Just tell me who you are

and what roles you
have had in the past

and what you're doing now.

Professor Dame Sally Davies.

I'm the Master of Trinity
College and the Special Envoy

on Antimicrobial Resistance
for the UK government.

Until this time last year,

I was the Chief Medical
Officer for England

and the most senior medical
adviser to the UK government.

And, um,
given your experience,

what is it that
worries you most about

where human health is heading?

It's really interesting.

Climate change
is of the moment.

The younger generation
have really taken it up.

And I'm delighted
because it matters.

But actually AMR will
kill us before climate change

and we need
everyone to understand that.

AMR is a pandemic,
it's just a slow growing one,

unlike COVID which
happened really fast.

What we're seeing is that bugs

with their bacteria,
viruses, parasites, fungi

are evolving to
develop resistance

to the very medicines
we use to treat them.

And, unfortunately,
the end result if this goes on

will be really dreadful.

And I've talked about
the post-antibiotic apocalypse

where, you know, you'd see
a lot longer stays in hospital,

much higher mortality

and go back to
the era before penicillin.

Antimicrobial resistance
keeps me awake at night.

What this really looks like,

if we don't have effective
antibiotics in the future,

is taking your brother,
your child, your wife

to hospital in
their prime of life

and knowing as you arrive

that there's
nothing that can be done.

That's what this really means.

♪

So,
antibiotic resistant infections

or antibiotic
resistant bacteria

evolve whenever
we use antibiotics.

And so the main driving force
is the overuse of antibiotics.

The other major factor, though,

is poor hygiene, poor water.

You know,
lack of wastewater treatment

in lower and middle income
countries is a major problem.

So those two things together,
poor hygiene and high drug use

is what fuels this whole
crisis that we're in today.

Antibiotics actually have been
a victim of their own success.

They've been so useful.
So, since 1928,

when Fleming discovered
the first antibiotic

and it got mass produced,
we've just taken it for granted

that these antibiotics
are always going to be there.

And that will always have
a means to treat an infection,

which isn't
the case anymore, really.

There is a big issue

when it comes to
the overuse of antibiotics,

but the problem is,
even if all doctors

stopped
prescribing antibiotics,

the animal industry are
getting so many antibodies

that what we do makes
very little difference.

For the past five to 10 years,

doctors have
felt it is important

to reduce over
prescription of antibiotics.

And this is important
because we want to limit

the antibiotic resistance that
we're seeing in our patients.

What's more
frustrating, I think, to me

and other doctors like me

who are aware of the risk
is that we have no control,

there's no monitoring,
there's no limitation

currently on antibiotic
use in factory farms.

This is a box
of kind of the remnants

of... of documents
and conference notes, etc.,

that I've kept from
my years in the pig industry.

It is quite strange
coming out into sort of,

you know, re-looking at this

and looking at the sheer volume
of antibiotics that I was using

and that I used
sort of regularly.

Hundreds of tons worth
of feed with antibiotics added.

Most of the pigs bred
and slaughtered for meat

will at some point
require antibiotics.

And most
of the time it's because of

how we're keeping them
and what we're doing to them.

You know, you can't cut
off someone's teeth and tail

and put them into a really
contaminated, cold environment

and expect them
to not need some sort of help.

Antibiotics go hand-in-hand

with factory farms.

These animals would not survive
long enough to be productive,

to be able to produce
the meat that the agribusiness

is counting on
without antibiotics.

Studies have shown that

we have seen
antibiotic resistant bacteria

in the animals in factory farm,

in the workers who are
working in factory farms,

in the meat that's being
sold in the grocery stores,

in the soil,
in the land, in the air.

Downstream from factory farms,

we are finding
antibiotic resistant bacteria.

There is no doubt
that the feeding of animals

in factory farms
heavily, heavily contributes

to this ridiculous rise
in antibiotic resistance.

So it
was discovered that if you fed

really low doses
of antibiotics in animal feed,

that the animals
would grow faster.

By 2006, the European Union
banned the use of antibiotics

as growth promoters.

But this didn't
resolve the problem

because they
were still available

for routine use on
veterinary prescription.

And essentially antibiotic use,
the misuse just continued on.

And there is
no doubt whatsoever

that if we continue
along that path,

we are heading for
an antibiotic apocalypse.

Do you have any idea

if the birds are being
given anything? Antibiotics?

I have no idea.

All I know is
what's on the feed ticket

and that's fiber, protein, fat.

But that...
That don't tell you nothing.

But you'll see...

You seen the birds
when there's eight-days-old

and you'll see 'em
when they 29-days-old, today.

And you'll see the difference.

So, you know
there's got to be something.

I don't know what it is.
Ain't never checked into it.

So you're saying

that's kind of not natural?

No, no, no, it's not natural.

More than
70% of the entire use

of antibiotics worldwide
is being used in farm animals

to prop up this
disease-ridden system.

We have the new
pandemic already emerging,

a pandemic
of people dying every year

because
of antibiotic resistance,

because of the way
that we've kept animals

for all of these years.

What we see is

a lot of people
during a pandemic

don't actually die
from the virus itself,

but they die from

the secondary bacterial
infections that follow.

And if we're going
to continue to see arise

in infectious diseases,
because the wildlife trade,

because of ecological
environmental destruction,

because of factory farming,
we need antibiotics.

♪

Are those guidances sufficient

in terms of making sure
that antibiotic use is safe?

They're called guidances
because they were voluntary.

This isn't a regulation
that the FDA is legislating.

This is a suggestion
to the companies

that are
selling the antibiotics,

"Hey, guys, maybe
stop selling these things."

In the UK, the industry
is quite good at saying,

"Oh, we're not
the only ones to blame,"

or "Animal agriculture
isn't the only problem,"

and therefore sort of ridding
themselves of blame entirely.

And I think there'd
be a lot of chatter around.

"Oh, well, we're
making a conscious effort

to reduce usage."

But it's...
It's not quick enough.

Yes. Over the last five years,

we've had a target to hit
and we have dropped down,

but it's sort
of gone like that.

So, we had it, really...
When we started monitoring,

it really dropped down
"cause we realized that

what we were
doing was ridiculous.

And then it's
sort of got to a point

where the amount
of antibiotics we're using now

is clearly what we need
to keep those animals alive

in a system which is
not good for those animals.

Short of, you know,
knocking down half the farms

that we have here
and starting again,

I don't think
we're going to achieve

a huge drop in... in usage.

What's really
scary is that this issue

of this coming
post-antibiotic era

is essentially being
swept under the carpet.

Yes, some things are being done

but you scroll
back five years ago

and half
the world's antibiotics

were being fed to farm animals.

Now it's 70% or more.

Things are going
in the wrong direction.

Continue as we are,
then the prediction is

that 10 million people a year
by the middle of the century

could be dying because
we squandered antibiotics.

In some ways,
you know, it sounds hyperbolic,

you know,
"The End of Medicine,"

but without fixing
the underlying problem,

the systemic problems
that lead to the cycle

of new drug followed
by resistant bacteria,

new drug, resistant bacteria,
new drug resistant bacteria,

if we don't fix that system,

then eventually
we're going to just run out,

run out of ways to
safely kill these pathogens.

And that's not
a place we want to be in.

Yeah. I don't
think the prospect

of the end of medicine
is exaggerated at all.

I think it's perfectly feasible
an it is, it's been forecast.

I mean, it's clear that we're
doing many, many things wrong

which are a huge
risk to human health.

And, for some reason,

our governments
are still funding it.

♪

So we asked
the Department

for Environment, Food,

and Rural Affairs if
they'd be part of this film,

just so we could
ask them a few questions

but they've refused
our requests though.

So, as a politician,
why do you think that is?

I think it's that they wouldn't
want to be pinned down.

So I think, it's...

My worry would be that

they've become
a bit more entrenched

in the old-school
way of thinking

and, um, didn't want
to be put on the spot,

didn't want to be challenged.

So, what is it you feel

they don't want to talk about?

And do you think they accept
that this is even a real issue?

Animal agriculture
is very influential

in terms of relationships
with politicians

and, um, trying to
influence the political agenda.

They've... They've moved from
denying there's an issue at all

and thinking it's just like the
cranks that talk about this,

to now there's an
acknowledgement as an issue,

so they're playing
lip service to the fact

this is something
that we recognize

that we need to
do something about.

Yeah, I think we're
now in that territory

where it's... it's, how can
we make them act now that

they've had to acknowledge
that there's an issue?

When it comes
to governments in America,

why aren't they doing
more to address these issues?

When people elect someone,

they think they're electing
in their congressperson

or a state senator
or their local elected.

They didn't realize
that there's a hidden arm

to politics and decision-making
in this country

and it's those who are
paid by large corporations

to lobby government
and influence the decision.

The lives of voters are
really put to the back burner

and the lives
of those lobbyists

and those special interests

have controlled
these important decisions

that are impacting our
kitchen tables every day.

The fact that our
governmental agencies

are kind of in bed, really,

with big agribusinesses
is a crime

because rather than
protecting us, the people,

our governmental agencies

are protecting agribusiness
industries instead.

Government mantra
is often about cheap food

and that is why
we have factory farming,

essentially to produce
cheap meat for the masses.

But what that disguises is the
true cost of that cheap meat.

What's happened
is that for years

the... the factory farm industry

has had the government
in its pockets.

It's had millions
of pounds to throw at lobbying

and... and making sure
that it gets its way.

And so what's happened
is that factory farming

is now locked in
to our food system.

The governor
of South Dakota says

she is trying to help
reopen the pork plant there,

the site of one
of America's biggest outbreaks.

More than 800 cases
linked to that plant,

many of them immigrants.

Update now on the outbreak

and the dilemma many
essential workers face.

It's frustrating
because the very industries

and the practices
that have caused this issue

are being treated as essential,

and the workers
treated as essential workers.

And what that means is that

they're kind of being treated
like disposable entities.

And we know that
living near these places

and working on
these places means that

you are going to be
disproportionately affected

not only by COVID-19,
but other disease issues

and health issues.

We see
a wide variety of illnesses

in patients who live
and work around factory farms.

One of the things that
we notice with factory farms

is a decrease in
air quality around them.

And it's due to a few factors.

One of them is the risk
of aerosolized endotoxins.

Another one is the chemicals
that we're seeing,

so the pesticides.

But also chemicals like
ammonia from the excrement

and things like that.

And, finally, we know there's
a larger proportion of things

like gram-negative
bacteria or faecal bacteria

that are known to
cause illness in humans.

Uh, one of my colleagues
had a patient

who had a multi-drug resistant
urinary tract infection,

incredibly rare
resistance pattern.

No real reason for
this patient in particular

to have this type
of infection. No risk factors.

Her only risk factor was
when you Googled her address,

she lived within
a mile of a factory farm.

I'm not a doctor,
I'm not a scientist,

but I can tell you
this, as I'm flying over

those factory farms
and I can smell...

Sometimes I can smell that hog
waste at 2,000 feet in the air,

uh, my common sense tells me

that this is
a health risk, a health hazard.

If you
look put about 11 o'clock,

you can see a pretty
large hog-facility out there.

Pigs in eastern
North Carolina are producing

more faecal waste
each and every day,

as is produced by all
the people in the states

of North Carolina,
California, New York, Texas,

New Hampshire and North Dakota.

And they're putting
it in these huge ponds,

these cesspools
that they call lagoons.

And when they fill up,
they simply dump it

on the ground under
the pretext of growing crops.

Runs into our rivers.

Fish begin to die.
The people get sick.

It's no secret
why these farms...

They're not farms...
Why these factories are here.

It's money. It's big money.

And it's coming at the expense
of the people who live nearby.

The people
who work in factory farms,

the people who
live near factory farms

are far more likely to be
low-income people of color.

This is in part
because the industries have

a tendency to preferentially
place their farms

in these communities
of disenfranchised populations.

We are being
denied clean air, clean water

and they don't
even seem to care.

Majority of all
these dirty industries,

these CAFOs,
whatever, landfills,

they're are located
in communities of color.

Latino and Native American
communities,

that's where they are.

But the owners are not Black.

They're not Latino.
They're not Native American.

So why aren't they
in their neighborhoods?

We feel like it's intentional

that they site themselves
in these communities.

We call environmental racism,

putting stuff in some some place

that you wouldn't
put in your own community.

You know,
you don't want it near you

so you just put it over here
and you put it on people,

you know, that you
think can't fight back.

Every house along this street,

you can count
at least one person

in the household
that had cancer.

A couple of days,
I started to go outside

to play with
my dogs and it smells so bad,

I just didn't even try
to go outside and... and play.

I don't think it's
people of color just

being overlooked here. I think
they're overlooked everywhere.

They are least
likely to be represented,

um, in any elected position.

Um, and if they eventually do

get someone
elected in a position,

there usually aren't
enough of those voices

to actually make a change.

This thing is a constant war

on... on Black and Brown
people in these communities.

And we deserve to live free

from this type of, uh,
uh, constant aggression.

You start to see a, a trend
of the same health problems.

You start to see
respiratory issues.

You know, you start to see high
blood pressure in children.

When [ think of my children,

I think that's
why I fight so hard

because I do want
my children to live in a world

where they don't have to think
about environmental injustices.

People are dying from
things that don't have to be

just so somebody
can make a profit.

♪

Here, we gotta stay positive.

Evilness,
fear and those kinds of things

will doom and destroy you.

And we're going to get it done.

We've lost some great people

that have been
working on this along the way

but God doesn't
intend for everybody

to see the end-product.

When it
comes to factory farming,

we know we've got
all of these issues:

Um, anti-microbial resistance,

infectious disease,
racial injustice,

with all of this
coming from factory farms,

does that mean that
the solution is switching

to free-range and cage-free
and small-scale farms?

In my experience
of smaller farms,

they're not really
what I think people

like to imagine when they say,

"Oh, I only buy
from a small family farm."

Um, probably some of the worst
concoctions of disease

I've ever seen
have been on small farms

because they don't
have the income to afford

comprehensive
diagnostic testing

and perhaps
preventative health care.

You know, part of the reason
why African swine fever

has ripped through
China in the way that it has

is because there were
so many backyard farmers.

So, in terms
of disease surveillance

and knowing what's going
on within an animal population,

it's almost impossible
to regulate huge numbers

of, of small farms.

And it's also just
deeply impractical, you know?

If people do
want free-range meat,

we'd have to
have about 12 planets.

♪

Clearing land for livestock
grazing and feed cropping

is the number-one driver
of deforestation worldwide.

Feeding the current
demand for animal products

with many smaller farms
would increase that land use.

♪

So whether we factory
farm animals or raise them

in small farms,
it's not sustainable.

If you look at
the numbers, right,

human population
is about 7.8 billion.

And the population of animals,

a big killer is
about 80 billion a year.

Which means the Earth
is not just supporting us,

she's also
supporting all the animals

we are raising for food.

And our animals eat
7.3 billion tons of food.

So we deforest land to
feed our animals, to feed us.

So animal exploitation
is the number-one reason

why we are in an
unsustainable situation.

So when we say, "We'll go
back to small-scale farming,"

we are basically
saying the problem

is not that we're
eating animal foods,

the problem is
that the riffraff

are eating animal foods.

You know,
if you can make the poor people

stop eating animal foods,

there'll be plenty for
the rich to eat animal foods.

So it is a very classist,
colonialist argument to make.

And I am just shocked
that anyone would make it

in this day and age.

You cannot
feed the whole world

the same diet
we are eating at the moment.

If we do carry on, we're not
going to have a planet left.

So, for instance,
in this country

we use about a million hectares
of South American rainforest

to feed our livestock.

So that's someone else's land.

And that's just the UK?

And that's...
That's just the UK.

You're feeding
those animals resources

that can be fed
directly to people.

My concern is with
the desire to keep making meat,

where is the land
going to come from?

Globally,
we're very concerned

about deforestation
at the moment.

There's a lot
of emphasis on, you know,

retain our forest
lands to combat climate change.

And looking at the Amazon,
vast swathes are cleared

for cattle grazing
and for livestock feed growing.

But when you look at
a countryside like this,

we've already done it here.

Like, most
of Britain's forest land

has been cleared
already for agriculture

and that's
reflective across the globe.

Biodiversity itself

is a protective mechanism

against the emergence
of zoonotic diseases.

The more biodiversity
you have, generally,

the less likely there is
to be a zoonotic emergence

because the diversity
of life, the mosaic of species,

prevents any one pathogen from
building up in large amounts.

So as we reduce biodiversity,

we increase the chances
of zoonotic emergence.

So it's a lose/lose
situation for the human race

if we're going
to continue down this road.

And I'm happy
to say that you're going

to see the first shot
done right here, right now.

In the current pandemic,

we're at a place where we
are now looking for answers,

vaccines, treatments, how
to get people off ventilators,

on ventilators.

I still think
we're missing the point.

90% of the people who
have died from COVID-19

have had at least
one underlying disease.

That's a lifestyle illness:
Diabetes, high blood pressure.

So rather than just mopping
up with drugs and treatment,

why don't we get to
the fundamental root cause?

We know that animal
products, again, not just meat

but dairy, fish, eggs,
all of these have been linked

to increased
rates of heart disease,

type two diabetes,
stroke, Alzheimer's,

some forms of cancer.

COVID-19 did not create
the crisis of chronic diseases.

For far too long,
we have been attempting to push

these diseases
under the proverbial rug.

Uh, but COVID-19 sort
of forced us to move that rug

and show what's under there.

And the chronic diseases

affect the deaths and
hospitalization of COVID-19.

Our top killers
are mostly lifestyle related

and much of that is
related to the consumption

of saturated fat,
animal protein

and, of course,
these animal products.

I feel like my career

is dedicated
to cleaning up the mess

that, um, factory farming and
animal agriculture is causing

with these... these major
public health problems.

If we think that

there may be tens of thousands

of potential COVID-19 like
viruses out there,

that given the opportunity,

could cause an epidemic
or pandemic in people,

we can't go out
and develop vaccines

to every one of those
tens of thousands of viruses

and treatments for
every one of them and so on.

We have to have
general principles

that we can learn from,

such as,
"What are the risk behaviors?"

♪

I feel bad.

I've got
a great-grandson being born

as I'm talking
to you right now.

My granddaughter is in
the hospital giving birth.

And I... I don't think
that that boy, Parker,

is going to
have much of a life.

There's no guarantee
that we're going to be able,

as humans,
to live on this planet forever

and in the way we're going,

personally,
I don't think we will.

There's enough left
for me in my lifetime.

There's enough left.

And there's enough left
for my daughter and my son.

But is there enough
left for my granddaughter, Amy,

and for Parker, who's
coming in this world today?

I don't think so.

It's very hard
to communicate the scale

of what we're facing.

But I'm going to try and speak
into my own experiences

of direct
involvement in practices

which are not
only drawing us closer

to the climate emergency,

but are creating
human pandemics,

global health crises,

and bringing us ever
closer to a manmade disaster.

♪

Yeah. Are you surprised

by the amount
of comments you've got online?

Um...

Not especially.

I mean, it was
never going to be good, um,

coming out of sort
of multi-billion pound industry

and completely sort of
denouncing all their practices.

Obviously, as a vet that's done

a particular
job for four years,

if I'm saying I did
this and this is what happened,

like, I'm not making that up.

Like, it's quite frustrating.

Um, it would have
been very easy to stay

in a relatively well-paid job,

getting flown around the world,

wined and dined by
pharmaceutical companies,

like doing a secure job,
you know and just carried on,

uh, but I didn't feel like
that was the right thing to do.

So how...
How are you making money...

If... if you don't mind, we
don't have to talk about this.

How... How are you making?

Basically, I'm not.

I'm doing this
because I feel like I need to.

I don't quite
know how to work it out,

like, financially,
but, um, yeah.

What will you do

or is there a plan of, like,
how to eventually make money?

No.

No, I think, um...

Yeah, I don't know.

♪

So what would your solution be?

Oh gosh.

I try not to get too political.

Can I just say
we should all be vegan?

Solve the problem straight off.

If everybody on
the planet was vegan,

we could release, well,
billions of hectares of land

for wildlife, basically,

because we wouldn't
need that land to grow food,

to feed animals, to feed us.

Because that's
the most inefficient way

of growing food.

If we just ate what we grew,

then there would be plentiful
supplies of food on the planet,

not just for
the eight billion people

that we're racing towards now,

but for, you know,
many, many billions more.

Um, this planet could
be much more sustainable

if we didn't eat meat and we
didn't eat animal products.

You know,
it's contentious to say that

but actually
that's where the science

tells us we have to go

if we're going to survive
on this planet as a human race.

We've been here
on this farm now for 33 years.

I've been farming
organically for over 45.

We grow a whole range
of vegetables and some fruit.

Everything's
grown without the use

of any animal inputs at all.

So we don't use animal manure,

Or any product
from animals whatsoever,

we're using just the land
we have for our production.

We get very good yields.

We get very
high quality produce.

So what
would you say to somebody

who has said, "There's
no way of feeding everybody

without using animal inputs?"

Well, that, again,

is something we've
proved to be completely wrong.

I mean, our production
is actually, per acre,

is far higher than,
than most other farms would be

because we're not dependent

on somebody else's
land to support.

So, actually, you know,

our production
is very much higher.

Our footprint
compared with a farm

producing livestock
is incredibly tiny.

So, you know, the question
really should be, you know,

"Can we afford not
to farm in this way?"

Rather than, "Can we
afford to farm in this way?"

Because actually, this
is a much more productive way

of producing food.

We do need to take
back control of our health.

The good news is
that this is possible.

So, personally,
I have a plant-based diet

and I... I have that

because I believe it's
the healthiest diet to have.

And most studies
will tell us that by having

a totally
plant-based diet low in fat,

low in sugar,
reduced amount of salt,

it indicates that you will
have a healthier lifestyle.

Your diet becomes
more nutrient dense

rather than calorie dense
and that is good for everybody.

This will not be
the last pandemic.

I believe that
if we take this seriously

and get to the root cause,

we have a chance
of really staving off.

So many
illnesses in the future.

We tell our school children,

"You have to eat meat,

otherwise you
won't get enough protein,”

which is an outright lie.

We tell them,
"You have to drink milk,

otherwise we won't
get enough calcium."

This is an outright lie.

So when we build an
entire civilization on lies,

it is unsustainable.

Because sustainability is about

getting into
alignment with the truth.

All that is
true is sustainable.

Lies are not sustainable.

One of my mentors, Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, stated that,

"We spend a lifetime pulling
people out of the river.

No one goes
upstream and prevent them

from falling in,
in the first place."

Right now,
we're dealing with sick care

instead of health care.

If we go upstream
and teach young people

about, uh, healthy foods

and how to consume them,
how to grow them,

if we switch from
waiting from people to get ill

and go to preventing
them from getting ill,

if we go upstream, by doing so,

we'll live
a more healthy lifestyle.

It's not about living forever.

It's about having a quality
of life while you are alive.

We don't have to
wait for our governments

to do the right thing because

I guarantee we're
going to be waiting

for a long, long time.

So what would each
of us can do in the meantime

is really take
a hard look at what we eat.

Ultimately, what's good
for animals is good for us.

When we treat animals
with kindness and respect,

we also benefit.

There is just no downside to
having this increased empathy

and to treating animals better.

There is no downside to that.

There's only upsides to that.

There's only benefits,
not only for the animals,

but also for us.

Despite everything
I just talked about,

um, with you today,

I actually am optimistic
about the future.

And maybe it's a bit
of a, a Pollyannaish attitude.

I don't know.
Or maybe I'm just a sucker,

but I am optimistic
because I do believe that

empathy is an integral
part of who we are as a species

and that that
will continue to grow.

And with that recognition,

I do believe that our behaviors
will change for the better.

♪

We know
that our use of animals

undeniably
contributes to the climate

and ecological emergency,

is undeniably inhumane
for animals and for people.

And we know that we're going
to see the end of medicine

as we know it
within our lifetimes

if we don't all take
responsibility to change.

♪

I mean, it was awful.

It was really...
really horrible stuff going on

and really horrible things

that I had to
kind of be involved in, um.

And I think perhaps if I hadn't
gone on and shared that

in the hope that I can make
some sort of positive change,

then it would
just be carried with me

through the rest of my life.

Everything'll stay
the same if nobody speaks out.

Change is inevitable.

The transformation
of intention.

Transformation is
something that we choose to do

because we are uncomfortable
with the status quo.

And we say, "We can
do something about this.

We can actually
make this change happen.”

So getting to
a sustainable civilization

is getting to a civilization
that is aligned with the truth,

that is aligned with morality.

We have to transform ourselves

if we really want
to transform the world.

O

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Oh, you know, I meant to say...

I don't know if this
is what you were asking,

but when you were asking,
"What worries me day-to-day?"

I meant to say that currently

our complete lack of faith
in science is worrying me.

Okay, so I'll...
I'll add that, um.