Pandemic Karma: Destroying Forests to Raise certain Foods Put us Closer to
Viruses
THE CONVERSATION
08/26/2020
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By Terry Sunderland | -
As the global population has doubled to 7.8 billion in about 50 years,
industrial agriculture has increased the output from fields and farms to
feed humanity. One of the negative outcomes of this transformation has been
the extreme simplification of ecological systems, with complex
multi-functional landscapes converted to vast swaths of monocultures.
From cattle farming to oil palm plantations, industrial agriculture remains
the greatest driver of deforestation, particularly in the tropics. And as
agricultural activities expand and intensify, ecosystems lose plants,
wildlife and other biodiversity.
The permanent transformation of forested landscapes for commodity crops
currently drives more than a quarter of all global deforestation. This
includes soy, palm oil, beef cattle, coffee, cocoa, sugar and other key
ingredients of our increasingly simplified and highly processed diets.
The erosion of the forest frontier has also increased our exposure to
infectious diseases, such as Ebola, malaria and other zoonotic diseases.
Spillover incidents would be far less prevalent without human encroachment
into the forest.
We need to examine our global food system: Is it doing its job, or is it
contributing to forest destruction and biodiversity loss - and putting human
life at risk?
What are we eating?
The food most associated with biodiversity loss also tends to also be
connected to unhealthy diets across the globe. Fifty years after the Green
Revolution - the transition to intensive, high yielding food production
reliant on a limited number of crop and livestock species - nearly 800
million people still go to bed hungry; one in three is malnourished; and up
to two billion people suffer some sort of micronutrient deficiency and
associated health impacts, such as stunting or wasting.
Forest cut down for an agricultural field
A large soy field cuts into the forest in Brazil.
(Shutterstock)
The environmental impacts of our agricultural systems are also severe. The
agricultural sector is responsible for up to 30 per cent of greenhouse gas
emissions, soil erosion, excessive water use, the loss of important
pollinators and chemical pollution, among other impacts. It is pushing
planetary boundaries even further.
In short, modern agriculture is failing to sustain the people and the
ecological resources on which they rely. The incidence of infectious
diseases correlates with the current loss of biodiversity.
Deforestation and disease
Few viruses have generated more global response than the SARS-CoV-2 virus
responsible for the current pandemic. Yet in the past 20 years, humanity has
also faced SARS, MERS, H1N1, Chikungunya, Zika and numerous local outbreaks
of Ebola. All of them are zoonotic diseases and at least one, Ebola, has
been linked to deforestation.
Farming large numbers of genetically similar livestock along the forest
frontier may provide a route for pathogens to mutate and become
transmissible to humans. Forest loss and landscape change bring humans and
wildlife into ever-increasing proximity, heightening the risk of an
infectious disease spillover.
An estimated 70 per cent of the global forest estate is now within just one
kilometre of a forest edge - a statistic that starkly illustrates the
problem. We are destroying that critical buffer that forests provide.
Zoonoses may be more prevalent in simplified systems with lower levels of
biodiversity. In contrast, more diverse communities lower the risk of
spillover into human populations. This form of natural control is known as
the "dilution effect" and illustrates why biodiversity is an important
regulatory mechanism.
The pandemic is further heightening pressures on forests. Increased
unemployment, poverty and food insecurity in urban areas is forcing internal
migration, as people return to their rural homes, particularly in the
tropics. This trend will no doubt increase demands on remaining forest
resources for fuel wood, timber and further conversion for small-scale
agriculture.
Wet markets under scrutiny
The links between zoonoses and wildlife has led to many calls during the
current pandemic to ban the harvest and sale of wild meat and other forms of
animal source foods. That might be too hasty a reaction: wild meat is an
essential resource for millions of rural people, particularly in the absence
of alternative animal food sources.
It is, however, not necessarily essential for urban dwellers who do have
alternative sources of animal protein to purchase wild meat as a "luxury"
item. Urban markets selling wild meat could increase the risk of zoonotic
spillover but not all wet markets are the same. There are countless wet
markets throughout the world that do not sell wildlife products and such
markets are fundamental to the food security and nutrition as well as the
livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, international agencies,
including the Committee on World Food Security, have been concerned about
the long-term viability of our current food system: could it provide diverse
and nutritious diets while maintaining environmental sustainability and
landscape diversity? The current pandemic has highlighted major shortfalls
in our environmental stewardship.
We must harness the interconnected nature of our forests and food systems
more effectively if we are to avoid future crises. Better integration of
forests, agroforests (the incorporation of trees into agricultural systems)
at the broader landscape scale, breaking down the institutional, economic,
political and spatial separation of forestry and agriculture, can provide
the key to a more sustainable, food secure and healthier future.The
Conversation
Terry Sunderland, Professor in the Faculty of Forestry, University of
British Columbia
This article is republished from