When the COVID-19 Crisis is Over What Will Have Changed?
I’ve been thinking about what “The Great Pause” from the COVID-19 Pandemic is going to teach us in the end. What will be different when we re-open the country, the world? Will we just go back to our old ways, or will we restructure our lives from the lessons we have learned?
I, for one, am choosing not to go back to the status quo. I do think it has to be a choice, however, because changing old habits is not easy. It may seem that this global disruption, which I have never seen in my lifetime, will be enough to shake us out of our complacency, but I am not so sure.
We are over a month into the self-quarantine, and stores cannot keep bath tissue. It flies off of the shelves within moments after stores open their doors. Fear cannot be the vehicle by which we navigate the future. Even fear of repeating what we are now experiencing is not enough to keep us from a repeat of this magnitude.
No. It has to be love. Saying that love makes the world go ‘round is not a romantic cliche. One of my favorite quotes comes from sea explorer, Jacques Cousteau, “People protect what they love.”
Throughout this pandemic, fear has spread like wildfire, and so has misinformation about what it takes to stay well. While there is nothing wrong with washing our hands and practicing social distancing, very little has been said about building up our immunity to prevent disease, or, at least, to suffer less if we do succumb to it.
There have been more instructional videos on how to sanitize the house with Lysol than how to eat or sleep to strengthen the body. Hand sanitizer has become a coveted commodity, and high-fat and junk foods have flown off of grocery store shelves.
The gulf between what defines optimum health and what most people believe about health has never been wider.
We are natural creatures. From nature. Of nature. Nature has rules. When those rules are broken, things go wrong, mighty wrong. When cows, which are herbivores, are fed the dried blood, remains, and/or bone meal from other cows and even other animals, they get sick. Mad Cow Disease showed us that animals which are not designed to eat other animals leads to illness and even death.
I am not going to name all of the ways that we are not living in harmony with our natural environment. This post is about what to do next. Yes, I do hope for, and will work for, change in the way animals are raised for food. We must implement practices that are sustainable for our planet. That will, ultimately, mean the price of animal foods will rise, as it should, to reflect the true cost of producing them.
Higher prices will not be the only change. Fewer people consuming so many animals will be another. People will look for healthy and satisfying alternatives. The earth will begin to restore itself. I see a brighter future ahead. When government subsidies are redirected from unsustainable animal agriculture to create sustainable farming practices, our health will return, and our land will recover.
If we follow a few simple guidelines, we can take the spin out of all the diet war debates.
Journalist Michael Pollan, after penning several best-selling books on food including In Defense of Food, said it best, “Eat real food, mostly plants, not too much.”
While I might sing the praises of a whole foods plant-based diet, simply reducing our insatiable demand for animal foods can result in big changes in our health and the environment. In fact, the solutions are right before us. They are simple but by no means easy.
However, if we are to forge a new future, away from fear of the next pandemic and toward building healthy immune systems and a healthy environment, we must embrace a major change in how we view health and the monumental role that food plays in creating that health.
Jacques Cousteau was not originally an environmentalist or ocean conservationist. In fact, he used to help companies locate oil deep beneath the sea floor. He eventually shifted his role to include doing everything possible to protect the oceans and seas. In the quote I shared at the beginning of this post, Cousteau did not only say, “People protect what they love.” He went further in his declaration, “People protect what they love, they love what they understand, and they understand what they are taught.”
It is time for a new lesson in human health and our planet’s health. When this pandemic is past, I hope picnics large and small become the new fad. We must reconnect to nature. If being holed up inside for weeks and months has taught us anything, it’s that we are not meant to live like this. We need fresh air, we need clean food, and we need each other. Let’s envision a future full of these things and a whole lot of love.
Photo by britt gaiser on Unsplash