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Traditional and indigenous food systems have existed for centuries and were in balance with local food supplies, globally. However, between the mid 20th and early 21st century the green revolution dramatically altered food production, which in turn affected the inclusivity of traditional production systems within food systems and subsequently, traditional dietary intakes. This change was accompanied by lifestyle changes and spurred a global nutrition transition. Today the world faces a global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. A new call to action to create food systems that nourish people and sustain the planet is needed. Traditional and indigenous food systems have lo...
"Companies in food- and agribusiness chains and networks are facing ever-faster changes in the business environment, to which they must respond through continuous innovation. Societal concerns regarding animal welfare and environmental issues have to be met in a very competitive, increasingly global environment. The growing concern of consumers regarding the quality, traceability and environmental friendliness of products and processes call for fundamentally new ways of developing, producing and marketing products. New ways of organizing food supply networks, with new ties between firms and even between formerly separate sectors -such as the health and the food sector- are needed to cope with these new demands. This publication focusses on the dynamic response to these changes in chains and networks. Important topics include among others: critical success factors for design and control of innovative chains and networks, globalization of the business environment, effects of institutional and policy change, governance structures, technologies for managing interaction and design of information architectures for chains and networks."
Analysing the ongoing changes and dynamics in rural development from a functional perspective through a series of case studies from the global north and south, this volume deepens our understanding of the importance of new functional and multifunctional approaches in policy, practice and theory. In rural areas of industrialized societies, food production as a basis for growth and employment has been declining for many decades. In the Global South, on the other hand, food production is still often the most important factor for socio-economic development. However, rural areas both in the industrialized north and in the global south are facing new challenges which lead to significant changes and threats to their development. New forms of food production, but also new functional (e.g. housing or business parks) and often multifunctional approaches are being discussed and practiced yet it remains unclear the extent to which these result in better or more sustainable development of rural areas.
Large quantities of water are appropriated to produce the feed annually consumed in global livestock production. Rising concerns about increasing competition for water resources and projected increase in demand for livestock products make it imperative to look for strategies to sustainably increase livestock production, with water being one key natural resource to consider. Using a combination of different datasets, a mechanistic livestock model, and a dynamic vegetation model, we estimate the annual consumptive water use (CWU) in the global livestock sector associated with crops and fodder cultivated on cropland and grazed biomass from pastures.
Africa is confronted with the triple burden of malnutrition; it is also faced with the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. In many African countries, large proportions of the population rely on agriculture not only for their food - but also for their livelihoods. A transformed agricultural and food system is thus a necessary condition for addressing this double-triple challenge. Additionally, post harvest and food waste and losses reduce the availability of sufficient quantities of safe, edible and preferable foods. At least one third of food produced at farm level is lost due to inappropriate storage, infrastructure and agro-processing technologies in developing countries; and one third of food purchased is wasted at household and retail level.
Tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft promote the free flow of data worldwide, while relying on foreign temporary IT workers to build, deliver, and support their products. However, even as IT companies use technology and commerce to transcend national barriers, their transnational employees face significant migration and visa constraints. In this revealing ethnography, Amy Bhatt shines a spotlight on Indian IT migrants and their struggles to navigate career paths, citizenship, and belonging as they move between South Asia and the United States. Through in-depth interviews, Bhatt explores the complex factors that shape IT transmigration and settlement, looking at Indian cultura...
Tropentag is the largest interdisciplinary conference in Europe focusing on development- oriented research in the fields of tropical and subtropical agriculture, food security, natural resource management and rural development. It is clear that a just and sustainable transformation of our food systems is urgently needed: climate change, conflicts, rising food and fuel prices, and growing social and income inequalities are exacerbating the vulnerabilities of our food systems. The theme invites diverse contributions that explore different pathways for transforming food systems and the trade-offs and synergies involved, ranging from more technical solutions, such as climate-smart agriculture and biofortified crops, to more systematic solutions for changing the underlying relationships of our food systems, such as agroecology and alternative food networks.
The theme of 2016 is ”Solidarity in a competing world - fair use of resources”. While on the one hand, one part of the world is profiting from natural resources, the other part of the world is suffering with hunger, malnutrition, human diseases, low income, violence and lately is also challenged through climate change. There is need to rethink and engage in a fair share of all resources between the continents and nations. This includes huge engagement into the management of natural resources to solve the long list of environmental threats expressed through ongoing erosion, loss of soil fertility and loss of biodiversity, and topped by climate change having strong impact on the productivity in agriculture, fishery and forestry, and the use and quality of water and of energy in the South.