The Importance of Plant Health, Food Security, and Cultivators

By Kyla Tarog, PNHS-MAIN

It is said that humans can inform others when they’re in pain or feeling unwell while on
the other side, plants are incapable of doing so, much less informing humans that they’re
infected by different diseases. Nature and plants are the essential sources of living throughout
the world–hence affecting the agricultural needs and circulation of the environment we’re
residing in. They provide the air we breathe while we provide carbon dioxide for them to
‘breathe’. They also provide and sustain half of the food we consume by giving edible plants for
animals and fruits and vegetables for humans. In contrast, we give them nutrients and breed
them to have resistance to different pests, which indicates how important are humanity and
plants to each other.

Teens in this generation are not aware of the importance of plant health, thus making
them neglect the efforts of our farmers and leaving them unappreciated. However, because of
our farmers, we have safe food to eat and because of their efforts of removing and minimizing
the pests from our crops, we’re safe from the pathogens that can harm our health. Although we
face different droughts, climate change, and calamities… we have food to eat because of their
efforts along with the professionals who are studying the health of nature. There are multiple
plant diseases that can affect the crops they cultivate; these diseases can be caused by
different pathogens that hinder several processes of the plants such as their photosynthesis and
their growth, that eventually spoils or destroys our crops, therefore causing the decline of the
plants that minimized the production of the food we eat. Although these diseases and viruses do
not usually cause infection to human health–they’re critical for the plant’s health and to our
economy. These diseases do not affect human health directly, however, the way they affect the
plants’ health also causes the production of food to decrease which affects human health in a
different way. It is said that with just 15 crops, plants provide 90% of the world’s food energy
intake. Without enough food from plants, famine and poverty will increase in different parts of
the world because the natural food we consume comes from nature; much more affects our
economy and agriculture for poor health reflects poor individual performance. Excessive
consumption of meat will also affect human health thus making it obviously unhealthy for it
causes different diseases such as salmonella that can be found in poultries. Plants are either
used as medicine or food for humans, which also helps humanity to thrive in terms of starvation
which is why it has a heavy role in food security not just for the present but also for the future.
The improvement of plant health in our current generation will have a beneficial impact on the
future generation; it will secure their needs and will help them thrive even in the harshest
environmental change.

The case in the Philippines is much more difficult because the country faces an
inefficient amount of food because of inflation, the high retail food prices made the food items
unaffordable. In my opinion, planting wiser and becoming more knowledgeable in plant health
will help improve pest control in the Philippines. Preventing ourselves from spreading pests in
different lands by taking different plants in different borders will minimize the situation, and
becoming wiser will prevent the farmers from resorting to pesticides that can contaminate
harmful substances in our crops that can both harm our health and kill natural pests eliminators.
Some of our farmers are not capable of reading or understanding the terms if we’ve given them
a book about pest control, however, prolonged guidance with further and wider knowledge will
give different results. Many people do not understand their worth and continue ridiculing them
because of their occupation and financial status, and somehow pressing them down--
neglecting their efforts and underestimating them. They did not have proper education but their
existence is essential for us to thrive, therefore, the improvement also lies and depends on our
farmers and land cultivators.

Plant health has a great impact on our food security because healthy plants’ occurrence
foreshadows an efficient amount of food that can sustain our people’s needs. Why it’s
connected to our economy? Because having healthy workers, people, and officials will make our
community healthier and will make our economy move smoother. Which makes, “Healthy
population mirrors healthy community,” truly credible.

Source:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316516039_Impact_of_Plant_Diseases_on_Human_H
ealth

https://bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-3059.2011.02501.x

https://opentextbc.ca/meatcutting/chapter/diseases-associated-with-meat/

http://www.fao.org/in-action/improving-food-and-nutrition-security-in-the-philippines/en/

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-systems-southeast-asia/0/steps/83785

http://www.fao.org/plant-health-2020/about/en/