Food security and public health are issues that cannot be ignored. How should we transform into a healthy and sustainable food system?
In my opinion, the sustainable transformation of food for the future should take "reducing food consumption from illegal wildlife trade to protect the environment and reducing the spread of human viruses" as an important aspect.
The Lancet released a three-year survey report in 2019, saying that the global food system is unsustainable and that a rapid transformation is needed to feed 10 billion people by 2050.
According to the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released by IPBES in 2019, there are about one million species of animal and plant threatened by extinction, many of which will be extinct in decades, more than ever in human history.
If we want to promote human health and sustainable development and improve the sustainability of the food system, we must take the reduction of food consumption from illegal wildlife trade into account as an important policy recommendation - because 70% of human infectious diseases are mainly from other animals, and more than 100 kinds of human and animal diseases have been found, such as rabies, foot-and-mouth disease, tuberculosis, and AIV. There are a lot of viruses, bacteria and parasites in wild animals, which spread in the process of hunting, killing, processing and eating wild animals.
For a long time, human beings have been killing and eating wild animals because of their appetites, which not only reduces the population of animals and destroys the ecological balance.
The novel coronavirus (2019ncov) epidemic situation is a warning for us in the early part of this century, and the new outbreak of SARS, which is currently bringing huge public health challenges to China.
At present, we do not see this in a draft of an important global instrument.
In early February, we have submitted proposals to the relevant parties of the United Nations. It is suggested that important aspect should not be ignored when it comes to sustainable food transition and global policy recommendations. For the sustainable transformation of the food system in the future, the reduction of wildlife consumption must be included in it.
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/11307.html
By / Li Xue