During September, the GBADs team met with representatives from Cefas, APHA and CABI to discuss the UK government funded One Food project, which has initiated a partnership with the South African government.

The group of partners are joined together to illustrate the impact of selected biotic and abiotic hazards on the maize and poultry value-chain sectors in South Africa.

The ‘One Health’ concept builds on the interdisciplinary food systems approach and involves sustainably balancing the health of the environment, people, and food sources (animals and crops/plants). The GBCL initiative is aiming to provide actionable and data driven evidence on the magnitude and factors contributing to crop losses to enable the global plant health community to make informed decisions related to improving food security and trade whilst the GBADs programme aims to measure animal health burdens and their impacts on human lives and economies.

Jonathan Rushton, Programme Manager of the GBADs team, said, “This collaboration represents a significant step forward toward a unified assessment of the burdens which impact the crop and livestock sectors, which are traditionally segregated.

“Through our interdisciplinary research, we can facilitate informed policy decisions for cost-effective mitigation of hazards, enabling us to meet rising global food demands and minimising negative impacts of the food system on public health and the environment in the process.”

A thorough day of discussions and planning for the future months of the One Food Project. For more information about the Global Burden of Crop Loss visit: https://croploss.org/ .You can also find  the APHA Science Blog ‘One Food for One Health.’