The top-down global response to bird flu
2006
This report from GRAIN looks at the power politics behind this global response to avian flu and its consequences for the poor. It finds that the agencies of the United Nations at the forefront of the international response to the virus, both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), are pursuing top-down strategies for eradicating bird flu that in turn are wiping out the foundations for long term, pro-poor solutions in the process.The report highlights how the FAO has turned its back on family poultry farming and contrasts the WHO's lack of concern for the impact of its bird flu measures on small farmers. The global approach to control bird flu co-ordinated by these agencies excludes local communities from decision-making and does not consider the dynamics of the disease in local contexts. There's no nuance, no understanding of people's needs and, worst of all, no appreciation of the capacity and knowledge that farmers have for managing this virus. The strategies are being carried out by governments, many of them neglectful if not hostile towards small farmers and the poultry biodiversity they sustain, with disastrous consequences for rural people.The report maintains that the solution being proposed - a complete shift to factory farming - merely brings us back to the source of the current bird flu crisis.
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