The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates forcefully that human health, the well-being of animals, and planetary health must not be viewed in isolation—and that they all depend to a large extent on the ways in which we produce, process, trade, and consume food. In this perspective essay, we argue for the centrality of food and agriculture to the epoch of the Anthropocene and why profound changes are needed more than ever. We close with some reflections on how the disruptions associated with the current pandemic also offer the opportunity for the necessary ecological, economic, and social transformation of our agri-food systems—toward healthy humans, animals, and a healthy and biodiverse planet.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Rosol, M., Rosol, C., (2025), "Food, Pandemics, and the Anthropocene – On the necessity of food and agriculture change", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i1.532)

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1. Agri-food
2. Anthropocene
3. climate crisis
4. COVID 19
5. One Health
6. Planetary Health

Original publication: Rosol, Marit; Rosol, Christoph. "Food, Pandemics, and the Anthropocene – On the necessity of food and agriculture change." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 9, no. 1, 2022. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i1.532. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.