One health and the agricultural transition in food animal production

In the spirit of this important new journal, this paper seeks to explore the implications of agricultural transitions for human and animal health, as well as the sustainability of regional and global ecosystems. To understand the broad reach of these transitions this paper draws on the concept of One Health, which emphasizes the relatedness of human, animal, and environmental health in disease control and prevention strategies. Agricultural transitions are an important part of human history from the Neolithic to the present. These transitions began with simple developments in technology and social organization followed by increasingly more complex innovations that have responded to and stimulated profound changes in human society as well as the life of domesticated animals. Transitions in agriculture have stimulated transitions in diet and culture, leading to a feedback demand for further changes in agriculture to support new dietary practices and cultural conditions. In the 20th century, these transitions in agriculture have occurred with increasing speed and depth, involving fuel powered vehicles and machinery, synthetic chemicals that advance agronomy through supplying essential nutrients such as nitrogen and through controlling pests and weeds, and biotechnological methods for improving crop strains and animal breeds. The latest transition is industrialization, involving technology as well as the management and economics of agricultural production. These transitions are so profound and far reaching that it is appropriate to define them as revolutions with far reaching implications for human society as well as the natural world from microbes to the planet. In this paper I focus on the last transition as it has been expressed in food animal production, including poultry, livestock, fish and other aquatic biota, recognizing that the transitions in plant production were essential to this transition.