Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of understanding relationships among physical and mental health, the environment, and economic conditions. In addition to widespread hospitalizations and increased mortality, the virus has caused great economic damage as entire industries have been forced to lay off workers and close down giving rise to increases in depression and anxiety as well as economic hardships. Because of the nature of the work involved, agricultural sectors around the world have been particularly hard hit. In low- and moderate-income countries where agriculture is still the main economic activity, longstanding efforts to raise agricultural productivity, increase rural incomes, and assure national food security are likely to have been stalled by the pandemic. Human health is both a cause and an effect of agricultural development. Poor health slows agricultural development through its effects on worker productivity while stagnant agricultural development may affect nutrition and food security thereby jeopardizing human health. Agricultural development is also closely tied to the health of domestic animals, wildlife, and the environments that we share.

For this Special Issue, we invite submissions addressing diverse aspects of the interface between agricultural development and human, animal, and ecosystem health. An appropriate framework for this Special Issue is provided by the One Health approach described by the US Centers for Disease Control as “... a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach—working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.” All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed by experts in the field and are due no later than 31 December 2023.

Dr. Elizabeth VanWormer
Dr. E. Wesley F. Peterson
Dr. Christopher R. Gustafson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• One Health
• agricultural development
• global public health
• economic development
• food security
• nutrition
• agricultural productivity