Opportunities and Challenges of the “One Health” Approach
Main Article Content
Abstract
Human health and wellbeing is greatly jeopardized by the twin global problems of undernutrition and malnutrition. These issues have plagued humanity since time immemorial because the underlying determinant of the problem has not been systematically addressed. Several ancient cultures emphasized the importance of good diet to human health, and also realized that nutritious diet comes from food (plants and animals) raised on a healthy soil. During the early 20th century, Lady Eve Balfour and Sir Albert Howard recognized the importance of soil health on diet quality and proposed the idea that “human health begins in soil”. Indeed, the root cause, degradation of soil quality caused by land misuse and soil mismanagement but aggravated by climate change, must be systematically addressed by adopting the “One Health” approach at local, county/district, state, regional, national and global level. People are mirror image of the soil on which they depend for food, water, air, minerals and the clean environment. Therefore, protection, restoration and sustainable management of soil functions to provide these services in perpetuity is critical to human health and wellbeing for the present and future generations. It is precisely in this context that the scope of the One Health approach must be broader beyond the human-animal health, and encompass the concept that health of soil, plants, animals, people, environment and the planetary processes is one and indivisible. The “One Health” concept is inter-disciplinary, scale neutral, and facilitates exploration of the innovative methods of disease prevention and management based on a holistic strategy. The systemic soil health needs to be improved by holistic approach, based on sustainable management of soil functions that strengthen and enhance its life support processes, it must be implemented to eliminate undernutrition, malnutrition, and other health-related issues so that human live in harmony with nature and in peace with the overall environment.
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