🌱 Agriculture and global health: key takeaways from our One Health 2026 webinar
REPLAY
FARM x One Health Webinar
“Nourishing and protecting: agriculture at the heart of global health»
How do agricultural systems influence our health, our ecosystems, and our societies?
Wednesday, April 8
12 PM to 1:30 PM (Paris time) with questions and answers
Many of you from all over the world connected on Wednesday, April 8th for our webinar "Nourish and protect: agriculture at the heart of global health", organized as part of the One Health Festival 🎉.
Hosted by Matthieu BRUN, scientific director of the FARM Foundation, and introduced by Christian HUYGHE, chairman of the Scientific Council, this exchange showed how much agriculture directly influences human health, animal health and ecosystem health.
The interventions highlighted several key structural issues:
Global health (One Health) begins in the fields, As Christian Huyghe reminded us, agricultural practices have an impact on the quality of our food, on animal health, and on the balance of ecosystems. Understanding this link is essential for fully integrating agriculture into the One Health approach. Three points were addressed:
1. Moving beyond the "Pasteurian" vision of health : to make environments more resilient to the emergence of diseases and pests.
2. Recognizing the great complexity of living things and in particular that of the microbiota (the collection of microorganisms — bacteria, microfungi, protists — living in a specific environment).
3. Transforming health governance and facilitate dialogue between healthcare communities: everyone holds a part of the solution.
The transition to more sustainable production systems relies on strong alliances. between farmers, industry stakeholders, researchers and public decision-makers, a point highlighted by Thibaut Soyez, which presented the lessons learned from the FARM Foundation 2026 International Conference. Evolving crop protection requires sharing risks, knowledge, and tools to transform divergent interests into a common goal. Producers' efforts must also be supported and rewarded.
Reducing pesticide use in tropical agricultural sectors is possible., as shown Clément Rigal, coordinator of the ECOFFEE initiative. Trials conducted in Costa Rica and Brazil on coffee prove that it is possible to maintain yields while significantly reducing the use of pesticides. ECOFFEE, which brings together researchers and businesses, illustrates how cooperation between stakeholders and agronomic solutions can reduce risks to human and environmental health.
The diversity of cultivated plants is a major asset for food resilience, a teaching supported by Lucile Sainmont, PhD student at CRBA and ISARA. She has shown how local varieties of legumes, selected with farmers, make it possible to obtain crops that are better adapted to the territories, more nutritious and more resistant to climatic hazards.
Catering services can become a powerful driver of the food transition, as illustrated Emmanuel Brehier, co-founder of HARi&CO, A company that promotes French legumes to offer accessible and delicious plant-based alternatives. By structuring local supply chains and supporting communities, it becomes possible to improve nutrition while reducing the environmental footprint.
Strengthening health prevention in rural areas relies on local actors, a point highlighted by Sabine Patricot From AVSF. Community animal health assistants are an essential link in reducing zoonotic risks and improving access to veterinary services. A video from a producer involved in the program APPSA demonstrated how these agents contribute to safer use of veterinary medicines and better daily animal health.
🌍 A webinar rooted in current One Health issues
Following the Global Health Summit in Lyon, which highlighted the importance of better linking health, environment and food at the international level, the FARM Foundation has partnered with One Health Festival, a collection of more than 150 events worldwide, to contribute to this collective dynamic.
A big thank you to our six panelists, and to all the people connected from France, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Togo, DRC, Madagascar, Benin and many other countries, who were able to ask their questions and enrich the discussions!
Practical information
• FARM x One Health Festival 2026 Webinar
• Nourishing and protecting: agriculture at the heart of global health
How do agricultural systems influence our health, our ecosystems, and our societies?
• Date : Wednesday, April 8, 2026, from 12:00 to 13:30 (Paris time), with a question and answer session
• Format: webinar in French
• Webinar replay: https://youtu.be/gi94-DUuq4M
• Free event with registration (Registration closed) : https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/1984978932421?aff=oddtdtcreator
