An agricultural perspective on One Health

The One Health approach encourages us to sustainably balance and optimize four health spheres (human, animal, plant, and environmental health), based on the many interconnections and interdependencies among them. Here, a series of reflections on One Health from an agricultural perspective are presented. The overarching objective is not to place agricultural research under the protective umbrella of the now salient One Health approach (for all intent and purposes, there is no doubt that agriculture is a key element of the One Health arena), but rather to explore the possible contribution of the One Health concept to the development of a much needed sustainable and resilient agriculture, and vice versa, the possible contribution of agriculture to the One Health concept. In this latter sense, we present a somewhat provocative hypothesis, namely, that agroecosystems, being highly-managed key socio-ecological systems, are ideal candidates for demonstrating the usefulness of the One Health approach in sustainably balancing and optimizing the four health spheres by means of implementing agricultural One Health Living Labs.