A coalition of environmental, public health, and animal welfare organizations is calling on the World Bank to halt its financing of industrial livestock farms, warning that they contribute to the spread of bird flu and could cause another global pandemic.
In a letter obtained by Devex, groups including Friends of the Earth U.S. and Compassion in World Farming urged World Bank President Ajay Banga to immediately stop funding factory farms, conduct an independent review of their role in disease transmission, and redirect investments toward more sustainable agricultural systems.
"Industrial-scale factory farms create ideal conditions for the rapid transmission, mutation and amplification of viruses, increasing the likelihood of spillover to other species — including humans," the letter says. "Yet the World Bank Group continues financing industrial animal agriculture — undermining global health security while claiming to prioritize pandemic prevention."
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
