A claim for plant health as a key component of the one health concept.
Albajes R, López MM, Jiménez Díaz RM
Invasive Species
Invasive pests and climate-driven range shifts are already reshaping which crops and garden plants can survive where you live — and the global food trade keeps introducing new threats faster than current plant health systems can respond.
Scientists have long talked about how human, animal, and environmental health are all connected — but plants keep getting left out of that conversation. This review makes the case that plants deserve a seat at the table, since they feed us, support wildlife, and form the base of nearly every ecosystem. Climate change, invasive species, and even international conflicts are all putting plant health under pressure in ways that ripple directly into food safety and human well-being.
Key Findings
Plants are systematically underrepresented in the One Health framework despite being the foundation of food security and multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Antimicrobial resistance is developing in parallel across human, animal, and plant pathogens, and resistance to pesticides and herbicides is accelerating among crop pests, diseases, and weeds.
Three major external drivers — climate change, invasive alien species, and international armed conflicts — are compounding threats to plant health at a global scale by shifting pest distributions, disrupting trade biosecurity, and degrading agricultural infrastructure.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Plants are the missing piece in the 'One Health' framework, which links human, animal, and environmental health. This review argues that plant health is foundational to food security, antibiotic resistance, and climate resilience — and must be treated as an equal partner alongside humans, animals, and ecosystems.
Abstract Preview
The concept of health has historically been more closely linked to the well-being of humans than to that of animals, plants or the environment. In contrast, the One Health concept, which emerged in...
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