I've seen lots of posts here and elsewhere about wet markets and how shutting them down is one thing we must do regardless of cultural sensitivities, but like so many things the way they are portrayed is with a massive bias in western media.
Depending on what you've read, most people think they are disgusting places where live and dead animals are kept next to each other and all sorts of animals are slaughtered there, many assume they are called wet markets because they are knee deep in blood and Chinese people habitually buy bats, pangolins and any other bizarre animal you can think of to munch as a snack on the way home.
Wet markets are in reality food markets, it means they sell fresh meat, fish and veg. They're known as wet markets because sellers use water to clean veg and fish before selling them. If you've been to a farmers market in the UK or France or the US, you've been to a wet market. In most of the seafood markets, the fish and other seafoods are kept alive, and are killed when sold so they are fresh, again as in the UK you can buy live lobsters, crabs and other shellfish for eating.
The big difference is the wildlife markets, which are attached to some wet markets, these should be closed down and China has just banned them (though there are some loopholes for trade in wild animals) These are where you see those horrible pictures of civets or dogs in cages in terrible conditions. China also has farms that keep bears in cages milking their bile, or others where tigers are farmed for their fur and bones. But before we condemn them and scream shut them down we need to look at western farming practices too.
Yes eating meat from wild animals happens in China. But game meat which is popular in Europe and the US is literally wildlife meat. In the US the most popular eaten game is Whitetail deer, Beaver, duck, Elk and squirrel. Venison, wild boar, rabbit and pheasant are popular in Europe. Is this really so different, it is people eating wild meat, so should we ban these as well.
Factory farming in the western world is sometimes also in atrocious conditions, swine flu (H1N1) has been genetically traced to factory pig farms in the US. In fact, last year, a survey of existing research (by Dr. Jason Rohr) found that since 1940, intensive agriculture was associated with more than 25 percent of all infectious diseases that emerged in humans and more than half of all infectious diseases that leaped from animals to humans.
Basically what I am trying to say here is the easy “Ban wet markets they are disgusting” call, which is often well meant, is not that easy. If we try telling China to ban all wetmarkets without understanding what they are and how some Chinese practices that we think are wrong are also present in the west (albeit with different animals) then we will get nowhere. We need to look at meat consumption as a whole globally, game meat in the west, wildlife markets in China, bush meat in Africa etc. We also need to look at our farming practices globally.
TLDR: wet markets are food markets you can’t close them all down. Eating wild animals isn’t as weird as you think it happens all over the world. If we want to stop another virus or disease popping up we need to change practices at home and across the globe and not just blame China.
Depending on what you've read, most people think they are disgusting places where live and dead animals are kept next to each other and all sorts of animals are slaughtered there, many assume they are called wet markets because they are knee deep in blood and Chinese people habitually buy bats, pangolins and any other bizarre animal you can think of to munch as a snack on the way home.
Wet markets are in reality food markets, it means they sell fresh meat, fish and veg. They're known as wet markets because sellers use water to clean veg and fish before selling them. If you've been to a farmers market in the UK or France or the US, you've been to a wet market. In most of the seafood markets, the fish and other seafoods are kept alive, and are killed when sold so they are fresh, again as in the UK you can buy live lobsters, crabs and other shellfish for eating.
The big difference is the wildlife markets, which are attached to some wet markets, these should be closed down and China has just banned them (though there are some loopholes for trade in wild animals) These are where you see those horrible pictures of civets or dogs in cages in terrible conditions. China also has farms that keep bears in cages milking their bile, or others where tigers are farmed for their fur and bones. But before we condemn them and scream shut them down we need to look at western farming practices too.
Yes eating meat from wild animals happens in China. But game meat which is popular in Europe and the US is literally wildlife meat. In the US the most popular eaten game is Whitetail deer, Beaver, duck, Elk and squirrel. Venison, wild boar, rabbit and pheasant are popular in Europe. Is this really so different, it is people eating wild meat, so should we ban these as well.
Factory farming in the western world is sometimes also in atrocious conditions, swine flu (H1N1) has been genetically traced to factory pig farms in the US. In fact, last year, a survey of existing research (by Dr. Jason Rohr) found that since 1940, intensive agriculture was associated with more than 25 percent of all infectious diseases that emerged in humans and more than half of all infectious diseases that leaped from animals to humans.
Basically what I am trying to say here is the easy “Ban wet markets they are disgusting” call, which is often well meant, is not that easy. If we try telling China to ban all wetmarkets without understanding what they are and how some Chinese practices that we think are wrong are also present in the west (albeit with different animals) then we will get nowhere. We need to look at meat consumption as a whole globally, game meat in the west, wildlife markets in China, bush meat in Africa etc. We also need to look at our farming practices globally.
TLDR: wet markets are food markets you can’t close them all down. Eating wild animals isn’t as weird as you think it happens all over the world. If we want to stop another virus or disease popping up we need to change practices at home and across the globe and not just blame China.