FYI vs FAO

FYI is "For Your Information"
FAO is, among other things, "Food & Agriculture Organization"
FAO is an agency of the United Nations.
The UN Report, “Mapping H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza risk in Southeast Asia: ducks, rice and people” claims:
26 March 2008 – Ducks, rice and people – and not chickens – have emerged as the most significant factors in the spread of avian influenza in Thailand and Viet Nam ....

FAO estimates that approximately 90 per cent of the world's more than 1 billion domestic ducks are in Asia, with about 75 per cent of that in China and Viet Nam. Thailand has about 11 million ducks.

Through the use of satellite mapping, researchers looked at a number of different factors, including the numbers of ducks, geese and chickens, human population size, rice cultivation and geography, and found a strong link between duck grazing patterns and rice cropping intensity.
In Thailand, for example, the proportion of young ducks in flocks was found to peak in September-October; these rapidly growing young ducks can therefore benefit from the peak of the rice harvest in November-December.
“These peaks in congregation of ducks indicate periods in which there is an increase in the chances for virus release and exposure, and rice paddies often become a temporary habitat for wild bird species,” the agency said in a news release.

So .......... I guess that means it is OK for me to go to the Wings Over the Prairie duck jamboree in Stuttgart, Arkansas this Thanksgiving ..... Stuttgart is covered with rice fields and WILD (not domestic) ducks. First in the nation for rice production in 1994, Arkansas farmers harvested 1.4 million acres of rice, with 43 percent of the total U.S. rice acreage. Arkansas is home to the world's largest rice processing and exporting company, Riceland Foods, Inc., a farmer-owned cooperative at Stuttgart, now a Fortune 500 company.

Obviously ducks and rice go together like raising rabbits and fishing worms. The UN isn't trying to get rid of ducks, rice, or people. Instead, the findings of the research can help target control efforts and replace indiscriminate mass vaccination. So if you are Catholic and planning to go to church/mass this Sunday, you don't have to worry about mass vaccination.

Rice grows in rice paddies ..... swamps .... not exactly California beaches & California grills.
The Beach Boys are famous for a tune "Wouldn't it Be Nice"
The Duck Farm parody "Wooden Beans & Rice" ..... should it have been "Ducks & Riacin"?

Wouldn't beans & rice be so much colder
If we didn't heat them up so long
And wouldn't beans and rice go good together
Even if we ate them all month long.

Salt and pepper make it that much better
Beans & rice go really good together.

Wouldn't beans & rice be good to bake up
In the place of having a beef stew
And after having cooked all day together
Heaping platefuls might just pass right through

In a skillet make a plate for two
If the beans are old they'll taste like new
Wooden beans & rice.

Maybe in the sink we wash with soap and spray away the goo
Otherwise the stuff will stick and it will act like glue
And who'd want to carry
A plate that is hairy
Wooden beans & rice

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wooden beans & rice.