Scientists say One Health approach to plant health is vital to achieving sustainable global food security (Eureka Alert) 

Eureka Alert published an article stating that a team of scientists argue that a One Health approach to plant health is vital if we are to sustainably feed a growing population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050. The researchers, who published a commentary in the CABI Agriculture and Bioscience journal, suggest that a One Health perspective can help optimize net benefits from plant protection to realize greater food security and nutrition gains. Senior research fellow Vivian Hoffmann is a lead author of the commentary which focuses on two primary trade-offs that lie at the interface of plant health with animal, ecosystem, and human health. Hoffmann and the researchers say that protecting plant health through the use of agrochemicals versus minimizing risks to human health and antimicrobial and insecticide resistance is one consideration. Hoffmann said, “Increasing crop yields through healthy plants is critical to achieving food security for a growing global population. But agricultural production also poses threats to environmental processes that underpin human health.” She added, “Interventions to encourage plant health practices that balance ecological concerns and food production will need to consider the constraints, needs, and motivations of farmers, including those mediated by gender.” There is a need for context-specific analysis and, as such, greater capacity for cost-benefit analysis in low land middle-income countries as a matter of priority.