scholarly journals The future of agriculture and food: Evaluating the holistic costs and benefits

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harpinder Sandhu ◽  
Alexander Müller ◽  
Pavan Sukhdev ◽  
Kathleen Merrigan ◽  
Abdou Tenkouano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Environmental Externalities ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Accounting Systems ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Global Agriculture ◽  
Agriculture And Food ◽  
Policy Systems

Inadequacies of the current agriculture and food systems are recognised globally in the form of damages to environment and human health. In addition, the prevailing economic and policy systems do not reflect these damages in its accounting systems and standards. These shortcomings lead to perverse and pervasive outcomes for society at large. Our proposal is to consider all social and environmental externalities – both negative and positive, in global agriculture and food systems and reflect them in an economic system by evaluating comprehensive costs and benefits. This can be done by adopting an innovative, universal, and inclusive framework (the ‘TEEBAgriFood’ framework) in order to stimulate appropriate policy responses.

scholarly journals Bottom-Up Transformation of Agriculture and Food Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2171
Author(s):  
Harpinder Sandhu
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Social Indicators ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Intensive Farming ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Global Agriculture ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Agriculture And Food

The global agenda for sustainable development includes the alleviation of poverty and hunger by developing sustainable agriculture and food systems. Intensive farming systems and its variations, such as sustainable intensification or ecological intensification, are currently being promoted as technologies that can improve agricultural productivity and reduce environmental impacts. However, these are focused only on per-hectare productivity with growing negative impacts on local culture and the environment. This study identifies the negative impacts of crop- and livestock-based farming systems on the Indo-Gangetic plains, as well as in the USA, China, and South America as an example of key challenges in global agriculture. These impacts are classified into environmental, social, economic, and health impacts. An alternative paradigm is proposed to overcome some of the shortcomings of current global agriculture. This new bottom-up paradigm is based on three indicators that are fundamental to achieve the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of agriculture and food systems. These are divided into technical, geographic, and social indicators and have been analysed for four farming systems—low-input, high-input, organic, and desired farming systems. Seven global geographic regions have been analysed in terms of their socio-economic indicators and status of agriculture in order to develop pathways for the implementation of the new paradigm. The pathway for change suggested in this paper includes a focus on research and training, policy and institutional changes, and an evaluation of the costs and benefits, and changes in production models that consider scale and sustainability metrics and include innovations in consultation with all stakeholders. This new paradigm has the potential to direct global efforts towards more local and regional solutions, which are community driven and constitute a ‘bottom-up’ approach.

Food, Water and the Consequences of Society Not Valuing the Environment

2019 ◽  
pp. 858-878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Allan
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
The Political ◽  
Environmental Services ◽  
Accounting Systems ◽  
The Impact

The first purpose of this chapter is to highlight the impact of the food system on environmental and human health. The delivery of secure affordable food is a political imperative. Unfortunately, the food system that delivers it is environmentally blind. Food prices do not effectively reflect the value of food and often seriously mislead on the costs and impacts of food production. For example, actual food production takes place in a failed market—the value of environmental services such as water and the supporting ecosystems are not taken into account. The second purpose is to summarize and expose the political economy of the different ‘market’ modes of the food system. It is shown that there are weak players such as underrewarded and undervalued farmers who support society by producing food and stewarding our unvalued environment. The inadequacies of accounting systems are also critiqued.

scholarly journals Enhancing the Glopan Food Systems Framework by Integrating Gender: Relevance for Women in African Agriculture

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8564
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mkandawire ◽  
Melody Mentz-Coetzee ◽  
Margaret Najjingo Mangheni ◽  
Eleonora Barusi
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Gender Barriers ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
African Agriculture ◽  
Agriculture And Food ◽  
Systems Framework

Globally, gender inequalities constrain food security, with women often disproportionately affected. Women play a fundamental role in household food and nutrition security. The multiple roles women play in various areas of the food system are not always recognised. This oversight emerges from an overemphasis on one aspect of the food system, without considering how this area might affect or be affected by another aspect. This study aimed to draw on international commitments and treaties using content analysis to enhance the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Security food systems framework by integrating a gender perspective. The study found that generally, there is a consensus on specific actions that can be taken to advance gender equality at specific stages of the food system. However, governance and social systems constraints that are not necessarily part of the food system, but have a significant bearing on men and women’s capacity to effectively participate in the food system, need to be addressed. While the proposed conceptual framework has some limitations, it offers a foundation on which researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders can begin conceptualising the interconnectedness of gender barriers in the food system.

scholarly journals Application of Novel Non-Thermal Physical Technologies to Degrade Mycotoxins

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 395
Author(s):  
Mohammad Yousefi ◽  
Masoud Aman Mohammadi ◽  
Maryam Zabihzadeh Khajavi ◽  
Ali Ehsani ◽  
Vladimír Scholtz
Keyword(s):  
Electron Beam ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Plasma Electron ◽  
Pulsed Light ◽  
Beam Radiation ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Electron Beam Radiation ◽  
Non Thermal Plasma ◽  
Agriculture And Food

Mycotoxins cause adverse effects on human health. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to confront them, particularly in agriculture and food systems. Non-thermal plasma, electron beam radiation, and pulsed light are possible novel non-thermal technologies offering promising results in degrading mycotoxins with potential for practical applications. In this paper, the available publications are reviewed—some of them report efficiency of more than 90%, sometimes almost 100%. The mechanisms of action, advantages, efficacy, limitations, and undesirable effects are reviewed and discussed. The first foretastes of plasma and electron beam application in the industry are in the developing stages, while pulsed light has not been employed in large-scale application yet.

scholarly journals The role of citizen science in addressing grand challenges in food and agriculture research

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1891) ◽  
pp. 20181977 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. F. Ryan ◽  
N. L. Adamson ◽  
A. Aktipis ◽  
L. K. Andersen ◽  
R. Austin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Food Science ◽  
Grand Challenges ◽  
Food Research ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Science Projects ◽  
Agriculture And Food

The power of citizen science to contribute to both science and society is gaining increased recognition, particularly in physics and biology. Although there is a long history of public engagement in agriculture and food science, the term ‘citizen science’ has rarely been applied to these efforts. Similarly, in the emerging field of citizen science, most new citizen science projects do not focus on food or agriculture. Here, we convened thought leaders from a broad range of fields related to citizen science, agriculture, and food science to highlight key opportunities for bridging these overlapping yet disconnected communities/fields and identify ways to leverage their respective strengths. Specifically, we show that (i) citizen science projects are addressing many grand challenges facing our food systems, as outlined by the United States National Institute of Food and Agriculture, as well as broader Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations Development Programme, (ii) there exist emerging opportunities and unique challenges for citizen science in agriculture/food research, and (iii) the greatest opportunities for the development of citizen science projects in agriculture and food science will be gained by using the existing infrastructure and tools of Extension programmes and through the engagement of urban communities. Further, we argue there is no better time to foster greater collaboration between these fields given the trend of shrinking Extension programmes, the increasing need to apply innovative solutions to address rising demands on agricultural systems, and the exponential growth of the field of citizen science.

scholarly journals An Overview of Near Infrared Spectroscopy and Its Applications in the Detection of Genetically Modified Organisms

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (18) ◽  
pp. 9940
Author(s):  
Soo-In Sohn ◽  
Subramani Pandian ◽  
Young-Ju Oh ◽  
John-Lewis Zinia Zaukuu ◽  
Hyeon-Jung Kang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
Genetically Modified Crops ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Agriculture And Food ◽  
Non Destructive

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has become a more popular approach for quantitative and qualitative analysis of feeds, foods and medicine in conjunction with an arsenal of chemometric tools. This was the foundation for the increased importance of NIRS in other fields, like genetics and transgenic monitoring. A considerable number of studies have utilized NIRS for the effective identification and discrimination of plants and foods, especially for the identification of genetically modified crops. Few previous reviews have elaborated on the applications of NIRS in agriculture and food, but there is no comprehensive review that compares the use of NIRS in the detection of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This is particularly important because, in comparison to previous technologies such as PCR and ELISA, NIRS offers several advantages, such as speed (eliminating time-consuming procedures), non-destructive/non-invasive analysis, and is inexpensive in terms of cost and maintenance. More importantly, this technique has the potential to measure multiple quality components in GMOs with reliable accuracy. In this review, we brief about the fundamentals and versatile applications of NIRS for the effective identification of GMOs in the agricultural and food systems.

Global trends in agriculture and food systems.

2009 ◽  
pp. 1-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. Knudsen ◽  
N. Halberg ◽  
J. E. Olesen ◽  
J. Byrne ◽  
V. Iyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Agriculture And Food
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