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Tobacco use is associated with an annual global economic cost of two trillion dollars and mortality of half of its regular users. Tobacco leaf cultivation is the starting point of the tobacco cycle. Tobacco farming employs millions of small-scale tobacco farmers around the globe, most of whom are out growers who rely on the tobacco industry. This paper aims to map the regions of greatest tobacco production globally (i.e., the US, Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, and Zambia) and tobacco use rates in these locations. Smoking rates were higher in those areas, except for India, where important population subgroups reported an upward trend for tobacco smoking. In general, there was a relationship between tobacco farming and tobacco smoking. Tobacco farming may lead to a higher risk of tobacco use and lower adherence to tobacco control policies. Therefore, promoting viable alternative livelihoods for tobacco farmers must have dual benefits. Additionally, specific health prevention policies might be necessary for those populations reporting higher tobacco use and lower perception of tobacco-related health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article has as objective to analyze the emergence in El Salvador of family farming and the social category family farmer. To that purpose, this article uses mainly two theoretical concepts: family farming and policy transfer. Evidence suggests that the appropriation of the social category "family farmer" in El Salvador responds to an update of formerly used concepts small producer or commercial producer. Hence, it's not possible to find technical, theoretical or methodological grounds to justify the use of family farmer as new social category in El Salvador. The adoption of family farmer comes as a result of a policy transfer enhanced by three vectors: political affinity between Brazil's and El Salvador's presidents, bureaucrat's paper and work performed by intergovernmental organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanotechnology is regarded by many authors as the base for the next industrial revolution. The prefix "nano" is equivalent to 10 m. Manipulation at the nanometric level can modify properties such as color, conductivity, reactivity, melting point, among others, creating new applications for materials. It is seen as a multidisciplinary science with applications in distinct sectors, such as physics, chemistry, biology, materials, and information, among others. In Brazil, the policies of support to nanotechnologies started in 2001, and since 2007, nanotechnologies were identified as a strategic area for the Brazilian government, due to their innovation potential, market growth, and the benefits related to their use. The food and agriculture sector, object of this study, is among the areas that can be benefited from using nanotechnologies. Considering the importance of the sector for the Brazilian economy, this paper aims to identify and to describe the research that involves nanotechnology in the food and agriculture sector. To do this, an application through the software VOSviewer has been made by means of studies published in the database Scopus. To identify how investigations have evolved over time, the search was divided into three different periods: 2001-2005, 2006-2009 and 2010-2013. The results pointed out four trends: 1. use of the biosensors, especially for contamination detection; 2. use of active packaging, biodegradable and containing indicators of deterioration and contamination; 3. encapsulation for delivery of nutrients; and 4. risks and benefits, regulatory frameworks. The results may provide means to develop policies that support and promote nanotechnology to the food and agriculture sector, as well as to suggest research objects for identifying the current phase of these technologies in Brazil. The prospection made also contributes to identify business opportunities for Brazilian businessmen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The present paper aims at evaluating the effect of regional policies in the agricultural field. [•] Regional systems are evaluated through the Directional Output Distance Function (DODF). [•] The DODF approach considers pollutant emissions as undesirable output. [•] Results show that there is a link between public policy and environmental performance of agricultural systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]