The importance of plant health in One Health

Plant health is the foundation of food security and is interconnected with human, animal and environmental health. Healthy plants provide nutrient-rich diets for humans and animals and help promote a balanced ecosystem. Pest-infected plants can trigger a cascade of negative effects on food supplies and induce outbreaks of zoonotic diseases transmitted through harmful pathogens. Pesticides play a role in pest management but their overuse and poor management cause biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, ecosystem dysfunction, food safety concerns and pesticide resistance.

Plants are life – we depend on them for 80 percent of the food we eat and 98 percent of the oxygen we breathe. But we lose as much as 40 percent of crops to pests, setting back global efforts to ensure food security, harming precious biodiversity and impacting economies and livelihoods.

This year, the International Day of Plant Health calls on everyone to raise awareness and take action to keep plants, animals, humans and the environment healthy.

When we protect plants, we protect lives.