Pests, in their broad sense, have played an important part in the history of humankind. We could say that humans, crops and pests have walked together through life. Codices, glyphs, paintings and countless ancient documents, including the Bible and the Koran, bear witness to this. Humanity has been attacked by its own diseases, but also by those that limit them from obtaining food and deteriorate the environment. COVID-19, which is now troubling us and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March of 2020, became a part of the list of experiences we have suffered in the past, with pests or epidemics that caused millions of deaths by diseases or famines. It is paradoxical that this health contingency occurs when the United Nations General Assembly, on December 20th, 2018, in its resolution A/RES/73/252 decides to declare 2020 the International Year of Plant Health in order to “highlight the importance of plant health to improve food security, protect the environment and biodiversity and boost economic development” according to the pronouncement by the FAO. For the first time, in an era with great technological and scientific breakthroughs, humanity was aware of its vulnerability against the inevitable evolution of life forms in the face of dilemmas global impact caused by human beings. Thus, the pest or parasite makes its own declaration of existential pre-eminence through SARS-CoV-2 to remind us that the health of humans or plants is the essence of life and its continuity. But perhaps absolute health is not enough. It is necessary to find a balance in a world overwhelmed by giving so much in return for almost nothing to everyone living on it. If the sensor of our anthropocentric intervention of the world is climate change, then biological chaos is a masterpiece. The reemergence of pests and diseases considered eradicated, or those of zoonotic origin that had never accompanied our existence is a surreal dystopia that we will never be able to deny again.

In the case of the pests of our crops and foods, there are many examples of this advent of imbalance. In the book “The Great Plague,” by F. Löhr Von Wachendorf, with an extensive bibliography, its content is magnificent in involving philosophical aspects on plagues (^{Von Wachendorf, 1959}). The author named the first chapter “And they sat down to a lavish feast.” just by reading this one becomes completely involved in Von Wachendorf’s vision. The rest of the chapters are just as intriguing. For example, “The apocalyptic horsemen ride,” “Hunger is not the best cook,” “In the First World War, the winner was the potato pest, the tribute from France 2A small bug: 100,000 million gold francs.”

In Mexico, Mayans and Aztecs faced the langosta or locust and the chahuistle (maize fungus) since pre-Hispanic times (^{Rodríguez-Vallejo, 1992}). in the Museum of anthropology and history in Mexico City there is an excellent sculpture of a locust carved in pink stone, the stylized figure of which is very similar to those found in the Mayan ruins of Tikal in Guatemala. In the Chapultepec (which comes from náhuatl and means grasshopper hill), there is a sculpture of a grasshopper in its majestic courtyard.

In the book “Las cosas de Yucatán” (The Things of Yucatan) by Fray Diego de Landa, the author narrates events regarding crops taken from the oral traditions of the natives of the peninsula, such as droughts and locust (Saák in the Mayan language) and even registers the existence of at least 14 famines, some of them caused by the locust (^{de Landa, 1986}). one of the first measures to control or safeguard against this and other plagues was established through religious instances and process in viceregal times in Mérida, Morelia, Guadalajara and other areas of Mexico. There are text about religious events performed to ask several saints for help, as well as the establishment of tithes for their control and activities to save and protect harvested grains from rodents and weevils.

Between the 1920s and 1950s, international programs were established, with the participation of Mexico, against fruit flies, wheat rust and locusts. The protection of the northwest was considered, and included Sinaloa, Sonora and California, thus creating quarantine No. 2 with an area of inspection and treatment in Guadalajara. In 1947, the Comité Internacional de Lucha Antiacridia (CICLA) was established to fight the locust, with headquarters in Managua, Nicaragua. because of the good results, in 1953 it became the Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA). All these activities and programs were carried out before the creation of the FAO and the International Phytosanitary Protection Committee.

In those years, many plant health activities were strengthened between the USA and Mexico, such as the program on wheat rust with the support of the World Bank, the campaign to eradicate the foot-and-mouth disease, as well as the creation of the Oficina de Estudios Especiales, with the support of the USAID. Early on in those years, the world also underwent the Spanish flu, a disease that caused the deaths of many people in Mexico, and perhaps the first pandemic with a worldwide impact. If we are now suffering with the COVID-19 pandemic, people back then must have had greater difficulties with incipient health systems and investigation.

In all this historical context, it is crucial to find and drive a global prevention policy, seizing the momentum of the International Year of Plant Health 2020, a significant measure of the United Nations Organization. Today, more than ever, it is crucial to have prevention programs against biological adversities by strengthening official and private instances. An ability for good leadership, created adequately, with systemic and humanistic visions and actions, must be one of the most immediate actions. We must think about the future of all nations, of humanity, of nature, About the needs for human health and for agricultural wealth.