Biophilia on the Dinner Plate: One Health, Wicked Problem, and Post Normal Science
Thursday, Feb 16, 2023
1:30pm - 3:30pm
Lecture by:
Dr. David Waltner-Toews
Health (as defined by the WHO) is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. One Health is the latest of many attempts to integrate the health of people, other animals, and the environments we share. These approaches were designed as strategies to promote sustainable human communities and to prevent infectious-disease epidemics. One Health presents us with a wicked problem, that is, a problem that resists solutions because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements, and in which the effort to solve one aspect of the problem may reveal or create other problems. Normal science brought to the verge of achieving a globally sustainable agri-food system, but in the process has created as many new problems as it has solved. In this context, Post Normal science was created to involve extended peer communities to address problems characterized by high levels of factual uncertainty, ethical conflicts, and requiring an urgent policy response. Indigenous and deep ecology worldviews grounded in biophilia, that is, a passionate love of all living things, ask us to take a radical shift in perspective. Today, when we look at the food on our dinner plates, we are faced with complex issues of gender, economic power and disparity, technology, animal welfare, political power, climate change and sustainability. Eating, for thoughtful people, has become fraught. In this presentation, I will explore some ways forward.
About Dr. David Waltner-Toews
Dr. David Waltner-Toews
David Waltner-Toews is a veterinary epidemiologist and University Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph. He was founding president of Veterinarians without Borders / Vétérinaires sans Frontières – Canada (www.vetswithoutborders.ca/) and a founding member of Communities of Practice for Ecosystem Approaches to Health in Canada (www.copeh-canada.org). He has worked on every continent except Antarctica on ecosystem approaches to health. In 2010, in London, England, the International Association for Ecology and Health presented him with the inaugural award for contributions to ecosystem approaches to health, and was a speaker in the “Speakers of Renown” series that celebrated the 40th anniversary of Canada’s International Development Research Centre
In 2019 he received an award from the World Small Animal Veterinary Association recognizing “veterinarians who have exhibited exceptional acts of valour and commitment in the face of adversity to service the community.” In 2022 he was appointed as an Officer in Order of Canada, one of the highest honors given by the Canadian government for citizens who make extraordinary contributions to the country. He was cited “for his leadership and expertise in ecosystem approaches to health, and for supporting development worldwide.”
Besides being an author of many scholarly books and over 100 peer-reviewed papers, he has published six books of poetry, a collection of recipes and dramatic monologues, a collection of short stories, two novels and various books of popular science including A Conspiracy of Chickens: a memoir