Potential of World Agro-Food Sphere: Pluralism of Assessments

Author(s):  
E. Kovalev

In 2007-2008 the world food crisis has substantially aggravated. This is a good reason to ponder over the fate of our technological civilization and a reminder of the finite nature of the resources used by the mankind. These resources include minerals, land suitable for cultivation, water and, at last, the technologies for securing the growing world population with the foods. The crisis has opened the eyes of many enthusiasts of the scientific and technological progress to some of its bitter fruits, in particular, to the polarization of food production and consumption, hunger and poverty of millions human beings, environmental pollution, progressive exhaustion of resources. Still, there are enough reasons to be optimistic. Earth's civilization has survived many turning points and has always found the way out and the methods to resolve the problem. It may be hoped that the humanity will also found the way out from the maze of problems that showed up as a result of the food crisis, at least in the foreseeable future.

Author(s):  
Saurabh Kumar Srivastava ◽  
Ankita Anshul ◽  
Pramod Pathak ◽  
Jayshri Bansal

The world population crossed seven billion during year 2011 and is expected to touch the mark of 9.3 billion by the year 2050. This increase in number of people all over the world will invariably lead to an increase in demand of food at a humongous scale. In a report prepared for the Global Food Security Programme, Bond et al. (2013) pointed that against the whopping 50-70% inflation projected in food demand, around 868 million people are struggling with under nourishment all over the globe whereas approx. one third of global food production ends up as waste. As a developing nation still battling the devils of poverty, corruption and skewed income distribution, India has not been able to solve or manage the conundrum of food wastage over the years and each year witnesses tons of food going to garbage at various stages of production, supply and consumption. However, it is crucial to investigate and assess the causes and impact of food wastage in order to take steps towards reducing losses and wastage in the entire food production and consumption system. This paper endeavors to uncover the causes and cases of food wastage in Indian households and commercial enterprises. It also underlines the various stages of food production and delivery that contribute to wastage of food in various ways. The paper concludes with taking an account of various causes leading to food wastage in Indian scenario and suggestions on strategies to reduce the scale of food wastage India.


Author(s):  
Eleonore Stump
Keyword(s):  

This chapter considers shame in its major varieties and shows that each of these kinds of shame has a defeat in the atonement of Christ. It then considers guilt in all its elements, including the brokenness in the psyche of the wrongdoer and the bad effects on the world resulting from his wrongdoing, and it shows that, on the interpretation of the doctrine of the atonement argued for in this book, the atonement can remedy all human guilt. Consequently, through the atonement of Christ, a person in grace is freed from guilt and reconciled with God and with other human beings as well, and his guilt is defeated in his flourishing. On this interpretation of the doctrine, one can see the way in which the atonement of Christ makes sense as a solution to the main problem that the atonement was meant to remedy.


Author(s):  
Frederick Schauer

Law is not a natural kind, but is instead an artifact. Like all artifacts, the artifact of law is created by human beings. But what human beings create can be re-created, and thus the artifact that is law is always open to modification or revision. And if law is open to modification or revision, then so too is our concept of it. This chapter explores the way in which one form of jurisprudential scholarship is that which seeks not to identify what our concept of law now is, but, rather, what our concept of law ought to be, in light of any number of moral or pragmatic goals.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194277862110000
Author(s):  
Sheila Margaret McGregor

This article looks at Engels’s writings to show that his ideas about the role of labour in the evolution of human beings in a dialectical relationship between human beings and nature is a crucial starting point for understanding human society and is correct in its essentials. It is important for understanding that we developed as a species on the basis of social cooperation. The way human beings produce and reproduce themselves, the method of historical materialism, provides the basis for understanding how class and women’s oppression arose and how that can explain LGBTQ oppression. Although Engels’s analysis was once widely accepted by the socialist movement, it has mainly been ignored or opposed by academic researchers and others, including geographers, and more recently by Marxist feminists. However, anthropological research from the 1960s and 1970s as well as more recent anthropological and archaeological research provide overwhelming evidence for the validity of Engels’s argument that there were egalitarian, pre-class societies without women’s oppression. However, much remains to be explained about the transition to class societies. Engels’s analysis of the impact of industrial capitalism on gender roles shows how society shapes our behaviour. Engels’s method needs to be constantly reasserted against those who would argue that we are a competitive, aggressive species who require rules to suppress our true nature, and that social development is driven by ideas, not by changes in the way we produce and reproduce ourselves.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
Yaxin Sang ◽  
Juan-Carlos Mejuto ◽  
Jianbo Xiao ◽  
Jesus Simal-Gandara

Agro-industries should adopt effective strategies to use agrochemicals such as glyphosate herbicides cautiously in order to protect public health. This entails careful testing and risk assessment of available choices, and also educating farmers and users with mitigation strategies in ecosystem protection and sustainable development. The key to success in this endeavour is using scientific research on biological pest control, organic farming and regulatory control, etc., for new developments in food production and safety, and for environmental protection. Education and research is of paramount importance for food and nutrition security in the shadow of climate change, and their consequences in food production and consumption safety and sustainability. This review, therefore, diagnoses on the use of glyphosate and the associated development of glyphosate-resistant weeds. It also deals with the risk assessment on human health of glyphosate formulations through environment and dietary exposures based on the impact of glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA—(aminomethyl)phosphonic acid—on water and food. All this to setup further conclusions and recommendations on the regulated use of glyphosate and how to mitigate the adverse effects.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Ghislain de Marsily

In 2000, the World population was 6.2 billion; it reached 7 billion in 2012 and should reach 9.5 billion (±0.4) in 2050 and 11 billion (±1.5) in 2100, according to UN projections. The trend after 2100 is still one of global demographic growth, but after 2060, Africa would be the only continent where the population would still increase. The amount of water consumed annually to produce the food necessary to meet the needs varies greatly between countries, from about 600 to 2,500 m<sup>3</sup>/year per capita, depending on their wealth, their food habits (particularly meat consumption), and the percentage of food waste they generate. In 2000, the total food production was on the order of 3,300 million tons (in cereal equivalents). In 2019, about 0.8 billion inhabitants of the planet still suffer from hunger and do not get the nutrition they need to be in good health or, in the case of children, to grow properly (both physically and intellectually). Assuming a World average water consumption for food of 1,300 m<sup>3</sup>/year per capita in 2000, 1,400 m<sup>3</sup>/year in 2050, and 1,500 m<sup>3</sup>/year in 2100, a volume of water of around 8,200 km<sup>3</sup>/year was needed in 2000, 13,000 km<sup>3</sup>/year will be needed in 2050, and 16,500 km<sup>3</sup>/year in 2100. Will that much water be available on earth? Can there be conflicts related to a food deficit? Some preliminary answers and scenarios for food production will be given from a hydrologist viewpoint.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. eabc8259
Author(s):  
Izabela Delabre ◽  
Lily O. Rodriguez ◽  
Joanna Miller Smallwood ◽  
Jörn P. W. Scharlemann ◽  
Joseph Alcamo ◽  
...  

Current food production and consumption trends are inconsistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature. Here, we examine how, and under what conditions, the post-2020 biodiversity framework can support transformative change in food systems. Our analysis of actions proposed in four science-policy fora reveals that subsidy reform, valuation, food waste reduction, sustainability standards, life cycle assessments, sustainable diets, mainstreaming biodiversity, and strengthening governance can support more sustainable food production and consumption. By considering barriers and opportunities of implementing these actions in Peru and the United Kingdom, we derive potential targets and indicators for the post-2020 biodiversity framework. For targets to support transformation, genuine political commitment, accountability and compliance, and wider enabling conditions and actions by diverse agents are needed to shift food systems onto a sustainable path.


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