Showing papers on "Food systems published in 2011"

Solutions for a cultivated planet

Abstract: Increasing population and consumption are placing unprecedented demands on agriculture and natural resources. Today, approximately a billion people are chronically malnourished while our agricultural systems are concurrently degrading land, water, biodiversity and climate on a global scale. To meet the world's future food security and sustainability needs, food production must grow substantially while, at the same time, agriculture's environmental footprint must shrink dramatically. Here we analyse solutions to this dilemma, showing that tremendous progress could be made by halting agricultural expansion, closing 'yield gaps' on underperforming lands, increasing cropping efficiency, shifting diets and reducing waste. Together, these strategies could double food production while greatly reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture.

Global food losses and food waste: extent, causes and prevention.

Abstract: This publication is based on studies carried out from August 2010 to January 2011 by The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK) on request from the FAO. The two studies on global food losses (one for high/medium-income countries and one for low income countries) have been carried out to serve as a basis for the international congress Save Food!, 16-17 May 2011, at the international packaging industry fair Interpack2011 in Dusseldorf, Germany. The study highlights the losses occurring along the entire food chain, and makes assessments of their magnitude. Further, it identifies causes of food losses and possible ways of preventing them. The results suggest that roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year. This inevitably also means that huge amounts of the resources used in food production are used in vain, and that the greenhouse gas emissions caused by production of food that gets lost or wasted are also emissions in vain.

Food crises, food regimes and food movements: rumblings of reform or tides of transformation?

Abstract: This article addresses the potential for food movements to bring about substantive changes to the current global food system. After describing the current corporate food regime, we apply Karl Polanyi's 'double-movement' thesis on capitalism to explain the regime's trends of neoliberalism and reform. Using the global food crisis as a point of departure, we introduce a comparative analytical framework for different political and social trends within the corporate food regime and global food movements, characterizing them as 'Neoliberal', 'Reformist', 'Progressive', and 'Radical', respectively, and describe each trend based on its discourse, model, and key actors, approach to the food crisis, and key documents. After a discussion of class, political permeability, and tensions within the food movements, we suggest that the current food crisis offers opportunities for strategic alliances between Progressive and Radical trends within the food movement. We conclude that while the food crisis has brought a retrenchment of neoliberalization and weak calls for reform, the worldwide growth of food movements directly and indirectly challenge the legitimacy and hegemony of the corporate food regime. Regime change will require sustained pressure from a strong global food movement, built on durable alliances between Progressive and Radical trends.

Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class, and Sustainability

Abstract: Popularized by such best-selling authors as Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, and Eric Schlosser, a growing food movement urges us to support sustainable agriculture by eating fresh food produced on local family farms. But many low-income neighborhoods and communities of color have been systematically deprived of access to healthy and sustainable food. These communities have been actively prevented from producing their own food and often live in "food deserts" where fast food is more common than fresh food. Cultivating Food Justice describes their efforts to envision and create environmentally sustainable and socially just alternatives to the food system. Bringing together insights from studies of environmental justice, sustainable agriculture, critical race theory, and food studies, Cultivating Food Justice highlights the ways race and class inequalities permeate the food system, from production to distribution to consumption. The studies offered in the book explore a range of important issues, including agricultural and land use policies that systematically disadvantage Native American, African American, Latino/a, and Asian American farmers and farmworkers; access problems in both urban and rural areas; efforts to create sustainable local food systems in low-income communities of color; and future directions for the food justice movement. These diverse accounts of the relationships among food, environmentalism, justice, race, and identity will help guide efforts to achieve a just and sustainable agriculture.

Climate change, water and food security.

Abstract: The impacts of climate change on the global hydrological cycle are expected to vary the patterns of demand and supply of water for agriculture - the dominant use of freshwater. This report summarizes knowledge of the anticipated impacts of climate change on water availability for agriculture and examines the implications for local and national food security. It analyses expected impact of climate change on a set of major agricultural systems at risk and makes the case for immediate implementation of "no-regrets" strategies which have both positive development outcomes and make agricultural systems resilient. It is hoped that policy makers and planners can use this report to frame their adaptation responses when considering both the water variable in agriculture and the competing demands from other users.

A food systems approach to researching food security and its interactions with global environmental change

Abstract: There is growing concern that satisfying societal demand for food over coming decades will be increasingly challenging. Much of the debate centres on increasing food production which has always been–and remains–an important strategy to alleviate food insecurity. However, despite the fact that more than enough food is currently produced per capita to adequately feed the global population, about 925 million people remained food insecure in 2010. Meeting future demand will be further complicated by deleterious changes in climate and other environmental factors (collectively termed ‘global environmental change’, GEC). This paper lays out a case for a food systems approach to research the complex food security/GEC arena and provides a number of examples of how this can help. These include (i) providing a framework for structuring dialogues aimed at enhancing food security and identifying the range of actors and other interested parties who should be involved; (ii) integrating analyses of the full set of food system activities (i.e. producing, storing, processing, packaging, trading and consuming food) with those of the food security outcomes i.e. stability of food access, utilisation and availability, and all their nine elements (rather than only food production); (iii) helping to both assess the impacts of GEC on food systems and identify feedbacks to the earth system from food system activities; (iv) helping to identify intervention points for enhancing food security and analysing synergies and trade-offs between food security, ecosystem services and social welfare outcomes of different adaptation pathways; and (v) highlighting where new research is needed.

The future of food and farming

Abstract: The UK Government Chief Scientist takes stock of the enormous challenges facing governments and citizens in balancing the competing pressures and demands on the global food system, not least in providing an adequate and sustainable nutrition for a rapidly-expanding population against the background of climate change. There are grounds for optimism in scientific and technical innovation, and in a growing consensus that global poverty is unacceptable and has to be ended. But the decisions ahead are difficult, and bold action is required to achieve the sustainable and fair food system the world so desperately needs.

Climate change and variability in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review of current and future trends and impacts on agriculture and food security

Abstract: Sub-Saharan Africa has been portrayed as the most vulnerable region to the impacts of global climate change because of its reliance on agriculture which is highly sensitive to weather and climate variables such as temperature, precipitation, and light and extreme events and low capacity for adaptation. This article reviews evidence on the scope and nature of the climate change challenge; and assesses the impact of climate change on agriculture and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. From the review, it is apparent that the climate in Africa is already exhibiting significant changes, evident by changes in average temperature, change in amount of rainfall and patterns and the prevalence of frequency and intensity of weather extremes. The review also revealed that although uncertainties exist with regards to the magnitude of impacts, climate will negatively affect agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, as result of current and expected climate change, the area suitable for agriculture, the length of growing seasons and yield potential, particularly along the margins of semi-arid and arid areas, are expected to decrease. These impacts will affect all components of food security: food availability, food accessibility, food utilisation and food stability and hence increase the risk of hunger in the region. The review thus confirms the general consensus that Sub-Saharan Africa is the most vulnerable region to climate change. It suggests that, policymakers and development agencies should focus on formulating and implementing policies and programmes that promote farm level adaptation strategies currently being practiced by farmers across the region.

Agriculture and food systems in sub-Saharan Africa in a 4 ◦ C+ world

Abstract: Agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa faces daunting challenges, which climate change and increasing climate variability will compound in vulnerable areas. The impacts of a changing climate on agricultural production in a world that warms by 4°C or more are likely to be severe in places. The livelihoods of many croppers and livestock keepers in Africa are associated with diversity of options. The changes in crop and livestock production that are likely to result in a 4°C+ world will diminish the options available to most smallholders. In such a world, current crop and livestock varieties and agricultural practices will often be inadequate, and food security will be more difficult to achieve because of commodity price increases and local production shortfalls. While adaptation strategies exist, considerable institutional and policy support will be needed to implement them successfully on the scale required. Even in the 2°C+ world that appears inevitable, planning for and implementing successful adaptation strategies are critical if agricultural growth in the region is to occur, food security be achieved and household livelihoods be enhanced. As part of this effort, better understanding of the critical thresholds in global and African food systems requires urgent research.

Future protein supply

Abstract: The food system appropriates over 30% of all ice-free land, 70% of available freshwater and 20% of energy. Sustainable food production for 2.3 billion more people in the next four decades requires societal transition and industrial transformation. Protein supply is crucial, nutritionally and environmentally. Livestock products have disproportionate impacts on biodiversity loss, freshwater depletion, climate change and other issues. Use of natural resources must be reduced by applying the biorefinery principle and closing cycles. The food industry can contribute to a sustainable future by development of novel plant protein products (NPFs) and continual innovations in food preservation and waste reduction.

Towards the real green revolution? Exploring the conceptual dimensions of a new ecological modernisation of agriculture that could ‘feed the world'

Abstract: The challenge to produce enough food is more urgent than ever. We argue that the dominant food regime has responded to this challenge by a ‘narrow’ ecological modernisation process within agriculture which may decrease environmental effects to a certain extent, but also causes new negative side-effects and exposes some important missing links. In this paper we explore what might be a ‘real’ ecological modernisation process, including social, cultural, spatial and political aspects. The central question concerns: is there evidence in practice that agro-ecological approaches can contribute to the future demand for food production, especially in developing countries? We illustrate this by describing examples from Africa, Brazil and China, showing a rich variety of such approaches in agricultural practices. Our conclusion is that agro-ecological approaches could significantly contribute to ‘feeding the world’, and thereby contribute to a ‘real green revolution’; but that this requires a more radical move towards a new type of regionally embedded agri-food eco-economy. This is one which includes re-thinking market mechanisms and organisations, an altered institutional context, and is interwoven with active farmers and consumers’ participation. It also requires a re-direction of science investments to take account of translating often isolated cases of good practice into mainstream agri-food movements.

Are local food and the local food movement taking us where we want to go? Or are we hitching our wagons to the wrong stars?

Abstract: Much is being made of local food. It is at once a social movement, a diet, and an economic strategy—a popular solution—to a global food system in great distress. Yet, despite its popularity or perhaps because of it, local food (especially in the US) is also something of a chimera if not a tool of the status quo. This paper reflects on and contrasts aspects of current local food rhetoric with Dalhberg’s notion of a regenerative food system. It identifies three problematic emphases—the locavore emphasis, the Wal-Mart emphasis, and the Pollan emphasis—and argues that they are shifting local food (as a concept and a social movement) away from the deeper concerns of equity, citizenship, place-building, and sustainability. It is suggested that local food activists and advocates might consider the use of multiple methodologies and forms of expression to explore the integration and reintegration of local food into diverse and redundant place-based practice. A short case study of a low-income, urban neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan, illustrates the value of contextual analysis for more fully enabling the local food movement and a regenerative food system.

World livestock 2011 - livestock in food security.

Abstract: It begins by presenting a global overview, examining the role that livestock play in human nutrition, the world food supply and access to food particularly for poor families. Next it moves from the global level to a human perspective, examining the way in which livestock contributes to the food security of three different human populations –livestock-dependent societies, small-scale mixed farmers and urban dwellers.

Disarray in World Food Markets: A Quantitative Assessment

Abstract: List of figures List of tables Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations and glossary Symbols Introduction and Summary Part I. World Food Markets and their Behaviour: 1. Changing patterns of world food prices, production and trade 2. Distortionary policies affecting food markets 3. Reasons for the pattern of food price distortions Part II. Effects of Food Market Distortions: 4. The theory of food market distortions: a graphical approach 5. A model of world food market behaviour 6. Effects of existing policies Part III. Food Policy Reform: 7. Effects of gradual liberalization of OECD food markets 8. Economic reform in the centrally planned economies: the great enigma 9. Policy implications and prospects for reform Appendices Bibliography Index.

Agriculture and Development: A Brief Review of the Literature

Abstract: After 20 years of neglect by international donors, agriculture is now again in the headlines because higher food prices are increasing food insecurity and poverty. In the coming years it will be essential to increase food productivity and production in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and with smallholders. This however requires finding viable solutions to a number of complex technical, institutional and policy issues including land markets, research on seeds and inputs; agricultural extension; credit; rural infrastructure; storage; connection to markets; rural nonfarm employment and food price stabilization. This paper reviews what the economic literature has to say on these topics. It discusses in turn the role played by agriculture in the development process and the interactions between agriculture and other economic sectors; the determinants of the Green Revolution and discuss the foundations of agricultural growth; issues of income diversification by farmers; approaches to rural development; and finally issues of international trade policy and food security which are at the root of the crisis in agricultural commodity volatility in the past few years.

Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism

Abstract: "Weighing In" takes on the 'obesity epidemic,' challenging many widely held assumptions about its causes and consequences. Julie Guthman examines fatness and its relationship to health outcomes to ask if our efforts to prevent "obesity" are sensible, efficacious, or ethical. She also focuses the lens of obesity on the broader food system to understand why we produce cheap, over-processed food, as well as why we eat it. Guthman takes issue with the currently touted remedy to obesity - promoting food that is local, organic, and farm fresh. While such fare may be tastier and grown in more ecologically sustainable ways, this approach can also reinforce class and race inequalities and neglect other possible explanations for the rise in obesity, including environmental toxins. Arguing that ours is a political economy of bulimia - one that promotes consumption while also insisting upon thinness - Guthman offers a complex analysis of our entire economic system.

The applications of nanotechnology in food industry.

Abstract: Nanotechnology has the potential of application in the food industry and processing as new tools for pathogen detection, disease treatment delivery systems, food packaging, and delivery of bioactive compounds to target sites. The application of nanotechnology in food systems will provide new methods to improve safety and the nutritional value of food products. This article will review the current advances of applications of nanotechnology in food science and technology. Also, it describes new current food laws for nanofood and novel articles in the field of risk assessment of using nanotechnology in the food industry.

Energy Intensity of Agriculture and Food Systems

Abstract: The relationships between energy use in food systems, food system productivity, and energy resource constraints are complex. Moreover, ongoing changes in food production and consumption norms concurrent with urbanization, globalization, and demographic changes underscore the importance of energy use in food systems as a food security concern. Here, we review the current state of knowledge with respect to the energy intensity of agriculture and food systems. We highlight key drivers and trends in food system energy use along with opportunities for and constraints on improved efficiencies. In particular, we point toward a current dearth of research with respect to the energy performance of food systems in developing countries and provide a cautionary note vis-a-vis increasing food system energy dependencies in the light of energy price volatility and concerns as to long-term fossil energy availabilities.

Edible backyards: a qualitative study of household food growing and its contributions to food security

Abstract: Food security is a fundamental element of community health. Informal house-lot food growing, by providing convenient access to diverse varieties of affordable and nutritious produce, can provide an important support for community food security. In this exploratory assessment of the contribution home food gardening makes to community food security, in-depth interviews were conducted with gardeners in two contrasting neighborhoods in Toronto, Canada. A typology of food gardeners was developed, and this qualitative understanding of residential food production was then assessed from a community food security perspective. It was found that growing food contributes to food security at all income levels by encouraging a more nutritious diet. The sustainability of household food sourcing and gardeners’ overall health and well-being also increased with food production. Secure access to suitable land to grow food and gardening skills were the most significant barriers found to residential food production.

The State of the World′s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

Abstract: The current article is a synthesis of the state of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in the world,based on the Second Report of the State of the World′s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.The content covers state of diversity,in situ conservation,ex situ conservation,evaluation and use,national programme and management,regional and international cooperation,access and benefit sharing and the contribution to food security and sustainable agricultural development.It also identified the gaps and put forward the suggestions for strengthening the conservation and development of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in China.

Food security in Southern African cities: The place of urban agriculture

Abstract: Several decades of research on 'urban agriculture' have led to markedly different conclusions about the actual and potential role of household food production in African cities. In the context of rapid urbanization, urban agriculture is, once again, being advocated as a means to mitigate the growing food insecurity of the urban poor. This article examines the contemporary importance of household food production in poor urban communities in 11 different Southern African Development Community (SADC) cities. It shows that urban food production is not particularly signifi cant in most communities and that many more households rely on supermarkets and the informal sector to access food. Even fewer households derive income from the sale of produce. This picture varies considerably, however, from city to city, for reasons that require further research and explanation.

Supermarket Expansion and the Informal Food Economy in Southern African Cities: Implications for Urban Food Security

Abstract: The new international food security agenda proposes small farmer production as the solution to growing food insecurity in Africa. A striking omission in this agenda is any consideration of the dimensions and determinants of urban food security. In Southern African towns and cities, lack of access to food is key to the food insecurity of poor urban households. This article reviews the current state of knowledge about the food sources of such households, paying particular attention to the expansion of supermarket supply chains, their impact on informal food suppliers and the relative insignificance of urban agriculture. The article also presents and analyses the significance of findings from a recent eleven-city survey of food insecurity in Southern Africa conducted by the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN).