The concurrent degradation of public health and the state of the environment is linked in part to the insufficient integration of health promotion and sustainability components at the local, regional, and global levels. As a result of society's appropriation of natural resources and overexploitation of environmental services such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity, many health and sustainability issues occur. In other words, growing agricultural and food production intensification is causing a slew of public health and environmental issues. However, common root causes or drivers do not guarantee that health and sustainability components will be included in local, regional, or global policy texts or efforts.
Sustainability is only one aspect of the concept of sustainable development.
While sustainability is frequently understood as characteristics of, or indicators of, program implementation, sustainable development is a process toward a new normative horizon that implies a paradigm shift from a development based on inequity and overexploitation of natural resources and environmental services to one that necessitates new forms of responsibility, solidarity, and accountability.
The concept of health is regarded in a broader context than disease absence. Health is influenced by the biophysical environment and is part of the social dynamics of social organization, lifestyles, and consumption patterns. As a result, human health is governed by a complex context that includes the social and economic system, the biophysical environment, and the individual's features and behaviors. Health promotion necessitates a paradigm change from a view of health as the absence of sickness (the biomedical approach) to a socio-ecological view of health that emphasizes strength, resilience, and assets to health.
Both health concerns and sustainability difficulties have become more acute in the last decade, and it appears prudent to expect that the pressures to find solutions that meet both health and sustainability claims will not abate in the coming years—quite the opposite. Climate change may have a detrimental impact on productivity and production, as well as cause food supply issues and raise food insecurity. Modern life may result in bad dietary patterns and an increase in lifestyle diseases. Increased usage of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and GMOs may harm the environment and exacerbate health issues.
Furthermore, if the direction of intensification is not reversed, agricultural output intensification may bring additional health and environmental problems. Growing socioeconomic disparities between the North and the South, as well as within the highly industrialized countries are other problems pushing for integration of health and sustainability.
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