Factory farms mainly responsible

The growth of factory farms, their proximity to congested cities in the developing world, and the globalized poultry trade all are culprits behind the spread of avian flu, while livestock wastes damage the climate at a rate that surpasses emissions from cars and SUVs, according to the findings on avian flu and meat production from a report released by the Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C.

At least 15 nations have restricted or banned free-range and backyard production of birds in an attempt to deal with avian flu on the ground, a move that ultimately may do more harm than good. "Many of the world's estimated 800,000,000 urban farmers, who raise crops and animals for food, transportation, and income in backyards and on rooftops, have been targeted unfairly by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO)," charges research associate Danielle Nierenberg. "The socioeconomic importance of livestock to the world's poor cannot be overstated."

In 2006, global meat production increased 2.5%, to an estimated 276,000,000 tons. Sixty percent of this occurred in the developing world, where half of all meat now is consumed thanks to rising incomes and exploding urbanization.

Higher demand for meat has helped drive livestock production away from rural, mixed-farming systems--where farmers raise a few different species on a grass diet--toward intensive urban production of pigs and chickens. Because of unregulated zoning and subsidies that encourage livestock production, chicken and pig "confined animal feedlot operations" (CAFOs), or factory farms, are moving closer to major urban areas in China, Bangladesh, India, and many countries in Africa.

Locating large chicken farms near cities might make economic sense, but the close concentration of the birds to densely populated areas can help foster and spread disease, Nierenberg warns. In Laos, 42 of the 45 outbreaks of avian flu in the spring of 2004 occurred on factory farms, and 38 were in the capital, Vientiane. (The few small farms in the city where outbreaks occurred were situated close to commercial operations.) In Nigeria, the first cases of avian flu were found in an industrial broiler operation; it spread from that 46,000-bird farm to 30 other factory farms, then quickly to neighboring backyard flocks, forcing alreadypoor farmers to kill their chickens.

Due mainly to the spread of avian flu and the culling of birds, global poultry output in 2006 was approximately 83,000,000 tons, roughly a one-percent decrease from the preceding year. Pig meat production, however, grew by three percent to 108,000,000 tons, an increase attributed to shifting consumption in Asia from chicken to pork because of concerns about avian flu.

Avian flu has existed among backyard flocks for centuries, but never has been found to evolve there into highly pathogenic forms such as the deadly H5N1 virus. In CAFOs, in contrast, where animals are concentrated by the thousands, diseases erupt and spread quickly. Trade in poultry from these operations is a culprit in spreading the disease to smallholder farmers.

Fowl specialists suggest that, rather than culling smaller, backyard flocks, the FAO, WHO, and other international agencies should focus the bulk of their avian flu prevention efforts on large poultry producers and on stopping disease outbreaks before they occur. The industrial food system not only threatens the livelihoods of small farmers, it potentially puts the world at risk for a widespread flu pandemic.

Intensive animal farming is deleterious to human health and economies as well as causing a great deal of ecological destruction. The growing numbers of livestock are responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions (as measured in carbon dioxide equivalent). They account for 37% of emissions of methane, which has more than 20 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and 65% of emissions of nitrous oxide, another powerful greenhouse gas, most of which comes from manure, concludes Nierenberg.

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