| GRAIN-report on the role of big businesses |
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14 March
A new report by GRAIN shows how bird flu is being used to advance the teams into wetlands and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was waving the finger of blame at Asia and Africa's abundant household poultry, GRAIN and other groups pointed out that large-scale industrial poultry farms and the global poultry trade were spreading bird flu -- not wild birds nor backyard flocks. Today, this has become common knowledge, even though little is being done to control the industrial source of the problem, and governments still shamelessly roll out the wild bird theory to dodge responsibility. However a more sinister dimension of the bird flu crisis is becoming more apparent. Today, more than ever, agribusiness is using the calamity to consolidate its farm-to-factory-to-supermarket food chains as the small-scale competition is criminalised. Meanwhile pharmaceutical companies mine the goodwill invested in the global database of flu samples to profit from desperate, captive vaccine markets. At the centre of this story are two UN agencies (FAO and the WHO) using their international stature, access to governments and control over the flow of donor funds to advance corporate agendas. Quote from the report: "Agribusiness clearly suffers, at least in the short-term, when bird flu breaks out. But, whether in Indonesia or Russia, India or Egypt, governments and the various international agencies have quickly come to the industry's defense, and have even managed to turn the bird flu crisis into an opportunity for the larger corporations to consolidate their control over the long term. These corporations, from CP in Thailand to Tyson in the US, have worked hard to ensure that this happens." |