The development community increasingly recognizes the many links
between human health and the practice and products of
agriculture. Some policymakers and practitioners are now
pursuing opportunities for using these links to achieve both
more productive agriculture and better health. The global health
community is bracing for the possibility of a pandemic of avian
influenza, or bird flu—a disease that has to date been
transmitted to humans through contact with infected poultry. The
anxiety over bird flu highlights the previously often-overlooked
link between agriculture and human health. In fact, agriculture
is tied to human health at the most basic level. Agricul-ture
produces food, fiber, and medicine and provides livelihoods to
millions of farmers so that they can purchase other necessities
of life that contribute to their good health. Moreover, the
chain of cause and effect goes both ways. Good health affects
agriculture by boosting people’s capacity for work and thus
increasing how much they can produce.