Methods used by smallholder farmers are central to reducing the risk of the spillover of viruses from animals to humans, according to a senior associate with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
Small-scale farmers produce more diverse foods on smaller plots of land, which are also more resilient to environmental shocks, said Terry Sunderland in conversation with Matt Galloway, the host of The Current, a radio news program, which airs weekdays on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Reflecting on how food is produced, our diets, and whether we really need items that contribute to deforestation is crucial, said Sunderland, who is also a professor in the Faculty of Forestry at Canada’s University of British Columbia.
“Our whole food system is reliant on a very few commodities which require large amounts of land — and the transformation of land into agriculture is directly related to deforestation,” he added.
To avoid future pandemics, “we need to be proactive instead of reactive as a society and start looking at what we can do to avoid these situations in the future,” he said. “Channelling efforts into avoiding deforestation is one way.”