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Farming systems that support locally diverse agricultural production and high levels of biodiversity are in rapid decline, despite evidence of their benefits for climate, environmental health, and food security. Yet, agricultural policies, financial incentives, and market concentration increasingly constrain the viability of diversified farming systems. Here, we present a conceptual framework to identify novel processes that promote the emergence and sustainability of diversified farming systems, using three real-world examples where farming communities have found pathways to diversification despite major structural constraints. By applying our framework to analyze these bright spots in the United States, Brazil, and Malawi, we identify two distinct pathways—network and institutional—to diversification. These pathways emerge through alignment of factors related to social and ecological structure (policies, institutions, and environmental conditions) and agency (values, collective action, and management decisions). We find that, when network and institutional pathways operate in tandem, the potential to scale up diversification across farms and landscapes increases substantially.

Plants make up more than 80 percent of the human diet. As a result, they are critical for food security and ensuring that we all have access to enough, cheap, clean, and nutritional food to lead healthy and active living. This research focuses on plant diseases as they create a major threat to food security. Expert people are hired in traditional farming to physically evaluate line by line for host disease plants, which would be labor-intensive, time taking and potentially error-prone activity because it is done by people manually. This work focus on, supervised machine learning algorithms like RF, SVM, DT, KNN, NB, and KNN with image processing methods and also analysis algorithm results with each other and finds the best algorithm for plant disease classification. RF algorithm achieved 89 percent accuracy compared with other algorithms.

Agriculture plays a major role in developing countries like India, however the food security still remains a vital issue. Most of the crops get wasted due to lack of storage facility, transportation, and plant diseases. More than 15% of the crops get wasted in India due to diseases and hence it has become one of the major concern to be resolved. There is a need of automatic system that can identify these diseases and help farmers to take appropriate steps to get rid of crop loss. Farmers have followed the conventional method of identifying the plant disease with their naked eyes, and it not possible for all the farmers to identify these diseases the same way. With the advance in Artificial Intelligence, there is a need to incorporate the facilities of the computer vision in the field of agriculture. Deep Learning rich libraries and user as well as developer friendly environment to work with, all these qualities make Deep Learning as the favorable method to get started with this problem. In this paper we have used Deep Learning because of the advantages it offers to work with images especially in image classification to get improvised results. The methodology includes taking leaves of infected crops and label them as per the disease pattern. The images of infected leaves are processed pixel based operations are applied to improve the information from the image. As a next step feature extraction is done followed by image segmentation and at the last classification of crop diseases based on the patterns extracted from the diseased leaves. The CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) is used for the classification of diseases, for the demonstration purpose the public dataset is used consisting of around 87 K images (RGB type images) including healthy as well as diseased leaves.

Voices for Food was a longitudinal community, food pantry-based intervention informed by the social ecological model, and designed to improve food security, dietary intake, and quality among clients, which was carried out in 24 rural food pantries across 6 Midwestern states.Our objective was to evaluate changes in adult food security, dietary intake, and quality from baseline (2014) to follow-up (2016), and to assess the role of adult food security on dietary outcomes.A multistate, longitudinal, quasi-experimental intervention with matched treatment and comparison design was used to evaluate treatment vs comparison group changes over time and changes in both groups over time.Adult food pantry clients (n = 617) completed a demographic food security survey, and up to three 24-hour dietary recalls at baseline (n = 590) and follow-up (n = 160).Community coaching served as the experimental component, which only "treatment" communities received, and a food council guide and food pantry toolkit were provided to both "treatment" and matched "comparison" communities.Change in adult food security status, mean usual intakes of nutrients and food groups, and Healthy Eating Index-2010 scores were the main outcome measures.Linear mixed models estimated changes in outcomes by intervention group and by adult food security status over time.Improvements in adult food security score (-0.7 ± 0.3; P = .01), Healthy Eating Index-2010 total score (4.2 ± 1.1; Plt; .0001), and empty calories component score (3.4 ± 0.5; Plt;.0001) from baseline to follow-up were observed in treatment and comparison groups, but no statistically significant changes were found for adult food security status, dietary quality, and usual intakes of nutrients and food groups between the 2 groups over time. The intervention effect on dietary quality and usual intake changes over time by adult food security status were also not observed.Food pantry clients in treatment and comparison groups had higher food security and dietary quality at the follow-up evaluation of the Voices for Food intervention trial compared with baseline, despite the lack of difference among the groups as a result of the experimental coaching component.

The loess hilly and gully region of China supports a fragile ecosystem that has been subject to serious water loss and soil erosion in recent decades. In response, ongoing soil and water conservation and ecological restoration efforts have been conducted. A review of the region's development history indicates that the utilization mode of cropland in rural areas played an important role in the course of soil and water conservation and socioeconomic development. As a representative area, this study evaluated the status of the Yangjuangou catchment of Liqu Town, Baota District, Shaanxi Province. The dynamic processes, driving factors, variation characteristics, and intrinsic mechanisms of changes in cropland use since the 1980s were analyzed using remote sensing and participatory interview survey data. The results showed that changes in cropland use in Yangjuangou catchment occurred in four stages, including slope cropland utilization stage (1985–1998), the Grain for Green Project stage (1999–2007), agricultural structure adjustment stage (2008–2012), and cropland abandonment stage (2013–2017). These changes in cropland use were driven by policy, economic, socio-cultural, and environmental factors and showed certain characteristics. Specifically, cropland exhibited a “core-margin" funnel-shaped pattern in vertical space, with its changes tending to “flow” toward the core; its utilization intensity generally increased, and the area of intensive utilization and intensive elements gradually shifted. In recent years, spatial patterns gradually developed a sustainable “ecology-production" spatial pattern and abandoned cropland exhibited “contagion” spatial patterns. Finally, based on the behavior mechanisms of farmers and government, we found that the driving force for changes in cropland has changed over time. Initially, food demand on farmers and the goal of ecological safety promoted by the government were dominant. But more recently, the drivers have changed to development demand on farmers and the equal government objectives of promoting ecological safety, rural development, and food security. This study provides a microcosmic perspective on understanding the process and rules of changes in cropland use in the loess hilly and gully region. It also helps to understand the rural transition, providing a reference for developing rural development strategies and policies in this region.

Grain is not only the basic living materials of urban and rural residents, but an important strategic resource related to the national security. Therefore, grain security is an important aspect of national security. Farmers' willingness to grow grain is the key factor to guarantee food security. Based on the structural equation model, the main factors that influence the farmers' willingness to grow grain were studied in this paper by investigating 486 dispersed farmers in six counties (cities, districts) of three prefecture-level cities in Shandong Province. The study indicated that aside from the difficulty of measuring the influence of personal characteristic factors, the national grain subsidy policies, grain price, grain planting scale, other farmers' production behaviors, and promotion of agricultural technology affected the farmers' willingness to grow grain in varying degrees. Further regional multi-group analyses demonstrated that the farmers' willingness to grow grain showed an increasing trend from east to west in Shandong Province. Additionally, grain subsidy policies and family characteristic factors had obvious regional differences on the farmers' willingness to grow grain. Therefore, optimizing and improving the national grain subsidy policies, encouraging the management of a moderate scale, stabilizing prices of grain, increasing the propaganda of agricultural information and promoting agricultural technology were the key factors to increase the farmers' willingness to grow grain.

Sustainable agriculture and rural development (SARD) plays a crucial role in maintaining natural resources, protecting the ecological environment, enhancing global food security, eradicating poverty, and even promoting rural revitalization. To understand the degree of implementation of SARD in the Shenfu coalfield under climate change, three villages that had different levels of energy development were selected. The linear trends and the Mann-Kendall method were used to analyse the climate change characteristics in the study area and a coordinated development model was employed to measure both the SARD coordination and its coordination degree and to analyse the perceptions of farmers, the adaption strategies they have employed, and the factors influencing the success of SARD. The results demonstrate that the climate in the study area has generally become warmer and drier, and this change has increased the vulnerability of the ecological environment and has had adverse impacts on local SARD. Farmers' perceptions of climate change are in line with climate records, but their perceptions of temperature change exhibit a certain time lag. In addition, their adaptation strategies are conducted autonomously, and they vary among the three villages. Based on these results, it is recommended that the local government implement additional policies relating to carbon capture and storage technologies to reduce the adverse effects of climate change. Factors influencing the success of SARD in the three villages are as follows: rapid urbanization; low incomes provided from crop farming; the outflow of primary and middle school students together with the accompanying population; climate warming and the increased frequency of extreme weather events; and environmental pollution and secondary geological disasters caused by coal mining. For all three villages, only by ensuring the synchronization of energy development and environmental protection can SARD be realized in the study area. Countermeasures that can be used to promote SARD in the Shenfu coalfield are proposed in this paper, and they include adjusting the industrial structure in the study area with respect to water conditions, selecting appropriate crop varieties, and accelerating the development of the alfalfa industry in response to national initiatives.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted many aspects of daily life, including dietary intake; however, few studies have reported its impacts on dietary behaviors and food security across multiple countries.We examined self-reported impacts of COVID-19 on food behaviors, food security, and overall diet healthfulness in 5 countries.Adults aged 18-100 years (n = 20,554) in Australia, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States completed an online survey in November and December 2020 as part of the International Food Policy Study, an annual, repeat cross-sectional survey. Survey measures assessed perceived impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating food prepared away from home, having food delivered from a restaurant, and buying groceries online, as well as perceived food security and overall diet healthfulness. Regression models examined associations between each outcome and sociodemographic correlates.Across all countries, 62% of respondents reported eating less food prepared away from home due to the pandemic, while 11% reported eating more. Some participants reported having less food delivered from a restaurant (35%) and buying fewer groceries online (17%), while other respondents reported more of each (19% and 25%, respectively). An average of 39% reported impacts on their food security, and 27% reported healthful changes to their overall diet. The largest changes for all outcomes were observed in Mexico. Participants who were younger, ethnic minorities, or had lower income adequacy tended to be more likely to report food-related changes in either direction; however, these relationships were often less pronounced among respondents in Mexico.Respondents reported important changes in how they sourced their food during the pandemic, with trends suggesting shifts towards less food prepared away from home and more healthful diets overall. However, changes in diet and food behaviors occurred in both healthful and less healthful directions, suggesting that dietary responses to the pandemic were highly variable.

Despite the contribution of cowpeas to food security and the crop's numerous nutritional and health attributes, consumers in South Africa have labelled cowpeas, among other leguminous crops as a “poor people's food”; this contributed to the gradual decline in the cultivation and use of the crop. This, in turn, resulted in the observed high reliance on limited number of plant based protein crops and excessive consumption of livestock products. In this paper, three aspects are interrogated, i.e., genetic resource management, production constraints as well as the trade performance and consumption of cowpeas in South Africa. A clear understanding of these aspects renders an informed decision upon which recommendations for the necessary practical interventions that are needed to be put in place to spur the development of target products and cowpea's value chain. The assessment of genetic resource management and seed production constraints of cowpeas was based on a review of relevant literature, while descriptive analysis of secondary data spanning a period of 10 years (2010-2019) obtained from Trade Map and FAOSTAT databases was used to interrogate the trade performance and consumption of cowpeas. Findings reveal that seed production constraints are largely anchored on the limited attention government and policy making institutions have accorded to the seed system of orphaned crops, thereby compromising their potential by failing to supply affordable good quality seeds to smallholder and commercial farmers. However, South Africa has one of the largest and most diverse collections of cowpea germplasm housed at the Agricultural Research Council. With regard to trade performance and consumption, results show that South Africa is a net exporter of cowpeas, with a 10 years’ period annual average worth R2.9 million. Given that South Africa does not re-export cowpeas, yet on average 4848 tonnes are produced annually, it is a clear indication that the country produces lightly more than what is consumed domestically – on average 4634 tonnes per annum. Therefore, recommendation is made to bolster cowpea production and productivity through mainstreaming the legume seed system towards boosting local and export markets as well as strongly enhancing local consumption by creating awareness of the nutritional and health benefits of cowpeas. Furthermore, there is a need to increase awareness about the nutritional and health benefits of cowpeas and other leguminous crops, among other socio-economic benefits. This is important in spurring cowpeas consumption domestically, while countering the over reliance on animal products as protein sources and the associated risks such as such as high greenhouse gas emissions and obesity for people.

Background The food system is a social determinant of health and leverage point for reducing diet-related racial inequities. Yet, food system interventions have not resulted in sustained improvement in dietary outcomes for underrepresented minorities living in neighborhoods with a history of disinvestment. Research is needed to illuminate the dynamics structuring food systems in racialized neighborhoods to inform intervention development. Objective Conduct participatory research examining the complexity and inequity of food systems in historically redlined neighborhoods to identify feedback mechanisms to leverage in efforts to transform system outcomes for racial equity. Methods We conducted a mixed-methods study in Cleveland, Ohio, USA from 2018-21 using participatory system dynamic modeling with 30 academic and community partners, in-depth qualitative interviews with 22 key stakeholders, and public convenings with 250 local food policy council affiliates. Data were synthesized into causal loop diagrams depicting feedback mechanisms reinforcing or balancing neighborhood-level food system dynamics. Results We identified 10 feedback mechanisms structuring nutrition equity, which was identified as a meta-goal for food systems in racialized neighborhoods. Feedback mechanisms were organized in three domains: 1. meeting basic food needs with dignity (i.e., side hustle, government benefits, emergency food assistance, stigma and stereotypes), 2. local food supply and demand dynamics (i.e., healthy food retail, job security, food culture and norms), and 3. community empowerment and food sovereignty (i.e., community power, urban agriculture, risk of gentrification). Five exogenous factors moderate feedback dynamics: neighborhood crisis, neighborhood investments, household costs, government benefit funding, and voter participation. Conclusions We identified nutrition equity as an overarching goal for local food systems, which reflects a state of having freedom, agency, and dignity in food traditions resulting in people and communities healthy in body, mind, and spirit. It is a transformative goal designed to spur system-level interventions that further racial equity through improved local food system dynamics.

To test the hypothesis that food insecurity is associated with greater prevalence of vision impairment (VI).Cross-sectional, nationally representative survey of US adults.Adults 50 years and older were included. Food security category (ie, full, marginal, low, or very low) was assessed by the US Household Food Security Survey Module. Objective presenting VI (PVI) and self-reported VI (SRVI) were assessed by examination and survey, respectively. Separate logistic regression models were constructed with food insecurity category as a predictor of PVI or SRVI. Models were adjusted for age, gender, race, education, income, cigarette use, alcohol use, body mass index, and physical activity. Age-stratified analyses (age 50 through 64 years vs 65 years and older) were also conducted.Mean age of participants (n = 10,078) was 63.4 years; 8,518 (89.9%) were fully food secure, 1,033 (7.2%) had PVI, and 2,633 (20.1%) had SRVI. Compared with full food security, adjusting for sociodemographic confounders, those with marginal (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.31; 95% CI, 0.97-1.76), low (aOR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.17-2.23), and very low (aOR, 2.71; 95% CI, 1.75-4.20) food security had higher odds of PVI. Compared with full food security, those with marginal (aOR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.23-2.02), low (aOR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.11-1.92), and very low (aOR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.41-2.41) food security had higher odds of SRVI. The associations between food insecurity and PVI were greater in magnitude in those 65 years and older compared with those age 50 through 64 years.In this nationally representative sample of US adults 50 years and older, severe food insecurity was increasingly associated with greater prevalence of VI in a dose-response manner.

Recently, many developing countries have implemented several bioeconomy plans to transform their rural economies and improve food security at local, national, and regional levels. Yet, there are limited success stories and examples of a competitive bioeconomy in Africa while levels of poor and food in-secured population remain high. Drawing on the novel concepts of biomass value-web, national innovation system and Porter's Diamond model, this paper analyses the emerging biomass opportunities and institutional challenges limiting sustainable bioeconomy growth in Africa. Using the Nigerian maize sector as a case study, qualitative data obtained from 54 stakeholders through 14 interviews, six focus group discussions, and six Net-maps served as a foundation for our network and content analyses. Results revealed numerous opportunities to further upgrade the current maize biomass value-web. However, the challenge of low farm productivity, inadequate infrastructure, low biomass demand and utilization by industrial firms at the mid-stream, deficient innovation and support system and inconsistent government plan pivoted on several institutional challenges such as weak and uncoordinated institutional arrangement and unfavorable institutional environment to limit competitive bioeconomy growth in the sector. The study concludes that important institutions in various innovation subsystems would need to actively perform harmonizing activities within a favorable institutional environment before competitive bioeconomy growth can be attained in Africa.

There is limited examination about coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19)-related food handling concerns and practices that cause chemical or microbial contamination and illness, particularly among those with food insecurity. We investigated consumer food handling concerns and practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether they differed by food insecurity status. An online survey was distributed among Chicago, IL, residents between 15 July and 21 August 2020 (n = 437). Independent t tests and Fisher's exact tests were used to identify differences in food handling concerns and practices between those with and without food insecurity (alpha = 0.05). Survey items included questions about food handling practices that were considered safe or neutral (i.e., washing hands and produce with water, sanitizing food packaging) and unsafe (i.e., using cleaning agents to wash foods, leaving perishable foods outside) by using 5-point Likert-style scales or categorical responses (i.e., yes, no). Participant responses fell between "slightly" and "somewhat" concerned about contracting COVID-19 from food and food packaging (mean ± standard error [SE]: 2.7 ± 0.1). Although participants reported washing their hands before eating and before preparing foods at least "most of the time" (mean ± SE: 4.4 ± 0.0 and 4.5 ± 0.0, respectively), only one-third engaged in unsafe practices. The majority of participants (68%) indicated that they altered food handling practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic and received information about food safety from social media (61%). When investigating differences in concerns and practices by food insecurity status, food insecure participants were more concerned about COVID-19 foodborne transmission for all food items (all P0.001) and more frequently performed unsafe food handling practices than those with food security (all P0.001). Results from this study suggest more investigation is needed to understand barriers to safe food handling knowledge and practices, particularly among those with food insecurity.

China is the world's largest consumer of pork and grains. However, African swine fever (ASF) and the COVID-19 outbreak have greatly impacted the pork supply and food security in China. How can food security and the pork supply be ensured under the dual impacts of COVID-19 and ASF? This is a major problem to be urgently solved by the Chinese government. This study indicated that the main pork production and sales areas in China were separated, which reflected the spatial imbalance between the supply and demand. The total area of suitable selected sites for pig farms in China is 21.5 million ha. If only the areas with levels of high and moderate suitability are considered as potential sites for pig farms, the potential pork production can reach 56.1 million tons in China, which is slightly lower than demand. Due to the impact of the ASF epidemic, the food consumed by pigs has been reduced by 34.7 million tons. However, with increasing pork productivity in the future, the self-sufficiency rate of grains may further decline. On the premise that the quality of people's life is not affected, the diversification of meat supply channels should be realized in an orderly and sustainable way, which might conductive to alleviate the pressure on food supply. This study provides a theoretical reference for the spatiotemporal layout of the swine industry and addresses the issue of food security in China under the influence of ASF and the COVID-19 outbreak., Graphical abstract Image, graphical abstract

Objective To explore associations between food insecurity, health behaviors, and academic performance among undergraduates at a private, urban US university. Methods A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted among a convenience sample of New York University undergraduates. Multivariable logistic regression estimated associations of food security (using the 6-item US Household Food Security Survey Module) and health behaviors (fruit/vegetable, beverage and alcohol intakes, and sleep), self-rated health, and academic performance. Results Of the 257 students who completed the survey, 41% reported food insecurity. Food insecurity was associated with approximately 2-fold higher odds of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption (adjusted odds ratio, 1.97; 95% confidence interval, 1.14–3.41) and fair/poor health (adjusted odds ratio, 2.29; 95% confidence interval, 1.23–4.25). Conclusions and Implications Increased awareness of food insecurity and associated health behaviors among students has implications for higher education's provision of on-campus food support programs.

Spatially explicit global cropping system data products, which provide critical information on harvested areas, crop yields, and other management variables, are imperative to tackle current grand challenges such as global food security and climate change. These cropping system datasets are also very useful for researchers as they can support various scientific analyses in research projects. Yet, effectively searching, navigating, and fully understanding various global datasets can be a daunting task for researchers and policy analysts. In this review, we first compare a few selected global data products, which use crop census and statistical data as the main data source, and identify key problems and challenges of the global crop mapping such as data accuracy and consistency. We then pointed out the future perspectives and directions in further improving the global cropping data products. Collective mechanisms and efforts with the support of open-access data hosting platforms, standard protocols, and consistent financial support are necessary to produce high-quality datasets for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Moreover, machine learning and data fusion approaches can also be further explored in future mapping exercises.

Overdependence on exotic plant species constitutes a major setback for the consumption of wild fruits and vegetables among South Africans. The country is not spared from the adverse effects of climate change which play a substantial role in altering the ecosystem and have a ripple effect on food security. Wild fruits and vegetables have been identified to be underutilized despite the country's struggle in nourishing its population. This paper reviewed the impacts of climate change on the phenology, physiology, and economic benefits of wild fruits and vegetables in South Africa. Furthermore, spatial-based data was used to evaluate the possible productivity of wild fruits and vegetables through land use/land cover (LULC) assessment. The result showed that South Africa had varied vegetation and land cover dynamics. For example, Northern Cape and Western Cape Provinces are dominated by shrubland and barren land, thus unsuitable for fruit and vegetable production. In contrast, Limpopo, North-West, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Free State, some parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape Provinces are covered with grassland and cultivated areas which made them good for vegetable farming and potential ground for wild fruit and vegetable cultivation. Thus, there is a need to develop cultivation strategies for edible wild fruits and vegetables with known nutritional characteristics to expand knowledge about nutritional benefits and options in utilizing the wild species. This will boost the country's economy, help to improve diet, and can play a crucial role in food security.

Sleep architecture in older age is an important public health concern. However, little is known about the effect of food insecurity on sleep quality among older people. We provide the first representative study of the association between food insecurity and poor sleep quality (PSQ) in older adults in the sub-Saharan African context.Data were drawn from the 2016-2017 AgeHeaPsyWel-HeaSeeB Study in Ghana. Past 30-day food insecurity was assessed with two items on the frequency of hunger and breakfast-skipping due to lack of food and resources. Participants reported night- and day-time sleep problems and sleep duration. Multiple OLS regressions were used to evaluate the hypothesized associations.Data on 1201 adults aged ≥ 50 years (mean = 63 [SD = 12]; women = 63%) were analyzed. In the full OLS adjusted model, moderate (β = .144; p .001) and severe (β = .184; p .001) levels of food insecurity were positively and significantly associated with PSQ. Also, older adults reporting moderate (β = -.153; p .001) and severe (β = -.128; p .001) food insecurity hadfewer sleep hours than those who were food-secure. Women and those aged ≥ 65 were at higher risks of PSQ in the context food insecurity.Addressing food insecurity may be an effective policy and public health intervention for improving sleep quality and overall well-being in older age.

Tef is a highly nutritious gluten-free Ethiopian cereal with food-feed potential. However, its productivity is affected by lodging, weed infestation, terminal drought, small seed size, and shattering. Following the recent availability of tef genome sequences, we highlight the need to harness the benefits that this underutilised crop offers to improve food security.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the perspectives of urban-dwelling American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) older adults regarding determinants of healthy eating, food insecurity, and opportunities for an urban clinic to improve resources. METHODS: Semistructured interviews (n = 24) with older adults (aged ≥ 60 years) at 1 urban AI/AN serving clinic. Telephone-based interviews were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Four overarching themes were revealed: (1) hunger-mitigating resources exist but do not necessarily lessen food insecurity; (2) multiple layers of challenges related to social determinants of health present barriers to healthy nutrition for AI/AN older adults; (3) unique facilitators rooted in AI/AN culture can help decrease food insecurity; and (4) many clinic-based opportunities for programs to improve food insecurity exist. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Findings provide a foundation for urban-serving AI/AN clinics to develop healthy eating resources for their older adult patients. Greater benefit would result from resources that build on cultural strengths and address older adult-specific challenges to healthy eating.

In China, the traditional early and late season double rice (DR) system is declining accompanied by the fast increase of two newly developed cropping systems: ratoon rice (RR) and rice–crawfish (RC). Three methodologies: economic analysis, emergy evaluation and life cycle assessment (LCA) were employed to evaluate the economics and sustainability of this paddy cropping system change. Economic analysis indicated that the income and profit of the RC system were far larger than those of RR and DR. The income to costs ratio of RR and RC increased by 25.5 and 122.7% compared with that of DR, respectively. RC had the highest emergy input thanks to increasing irrigation water, electricity, juvenile crawfish and forage input while RR showed a lower total emergy and nonrenewable emergy input, such as irrigation water, electricity, fertilizers and pesticides than DR. The environmental loading ratios decreased by 16.7–50.4% when cropping system changed from DR to RR or from DR to RC while the emergy sustainability indexes increased by 22.6–112.9%. The life cycle assessment indicated lower potential environmental impacts of RR and RC, whose total environmental impact indexes were 35.0–61.0% lower than that of DR. Grain yield of RR was comparable with that of DR in spite of less financial and emergy input of RR, but RC had a much lower grain yield (a 53.6% reduction compared to DR). These results suggested that RR is a suitable cropping system to achieve the food security, economic and environmental goals.

Background In 2020, the United States had approximately 85,000 new diagnoses of Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Food insecurity is both a direct and indirect detriment to health outcomes. The rate and risk factors for food insecurity among lymphoma patients are unknown, as the unemployment rate soars far above pre-COVID19 pandemic levels further heightening the economic stresses of a lymphoma diagnosis. Methods Data regarding the food security status were obtained from the cross-sectional National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A raw score compiled from a series of 10 food security questions was used to determine the Food Secure and Food Insecure groups. Respondents who reported a history of lymphoma from 2011 to 2019 were included in the analysis. Results Of the 921 patients reporting a history of lymphoma 9.06% were considered Food Insecure. The sociodemographic subgroups with the highest risk of being Food Insecure included respondents living below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level, non-US citizens, the uninsured, and those on Medicare. Conclusion Food insecurity is common among lymphoma patients. Therefore, oncologists across the country should be aware of the sociodemographic risk factors for food insecurity in order to assist in mediation, maximizing the efficacy of treatments. Research regarding the impact of food insecurity on therapy compliance and patient outcomes is warranted in future studies.

Background: The nexus of agri-food and sustainability in economic development has recently attracted the interest of policymakers, as global challenges like climate change and food security are revisited and reassessed. The critical role of food production in economic development has been emphasized through targeted agricultural quality policies. Many developed countries worldwide, including EU member states, have introduced food quality policies that could support sustainability.Scope and approach: This paper combines knowledge obtained by several groups in a broad EU study and the reflections on policy-related results by EU-stakeholders, streamlined by a Delphi analysis.Current work presents research-based policy recommendations and statements on various quality schemes, introductory inferred from expert opinions throughout Europe, gauged through a modified policy Delphi framework.Key findings and conclusions: A roadmap of policy and practical proposals have been identified for all key stakeholders involved in these initiatives, implying the need to reshape the supply chain dynamics to continuously improve producers, processors, retailers, and consumers within the EU and definitively worldwide. Furthermore, implementing a holistic approach considering environmental and socio-economic features can improve the effectiveness of EU food quality policies.

Household cooking, particularly in developing countries like Ghana, is typically done using traditional cookstoves and unclean fuels. The costs of these high polluting cooking methods and fuels are significant at the private and social levels. This is for instance mirrored in the thousands of premature deaths associated with household air pollution in Ghana annually, but also in the impact of climate change on changing weather patterns, food security, and air quality. Accordingly, efforts are focused on delivering cleaner cooking technologies to mitigate and help reverse the growing impact. While these interventions have associated benefits, they also come with costs. A comparison of these benefits and costs is necessary for ascertaining the possible reasons behind the drag in uptake and determining the need or otherwise for national policy. This study used a number of mathematical models and equations to estimate and compare the benefits and costs of households switching to improved cooking technologies. The results show negative private benefits of US$0.81, US$0.42, and US$0.89 per household per month for adopting wood, charcoal and LPG improved cookstoves (ICS), respectively. In contrast, overall net benefits—which accounts for social and environmental benefits—are significantly positive for all technologies at US$5.70, US$1.09, and US$33.50 for the respective ICS. Accordingly, national policy to incentivize the adoption of these technologies by households is justified.

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) support Latinx farmworkers in rural spaces across the U.S. Faith drives FBOs to operate in unique ways; however, there is little understanding about how faith shapes FBOs that work in food systems. At the same time, food justice scholars consistently call for making systemic changes to labor and immigration policies while working in solidarity with farmworkers. Even with these arguments, there is still a lack of food justice scholarship investigating immigration, rural spaces, and the FBOs that support farmworkers. Drawing on data from a five-month ethnography with the Valle Vista Farmworker Ministry, this paper begins to address these gaps. This article details how faith guides Valle Vista's activities, analyzes how faith impacts its ability to address injustices, and posits possibilities for food justice actors to study and ally with FBOs. Results reveal that Valle Vista's affiliation with the Church and people's faith guided the FBO in distinct ways. The Church influenced Valle Vista to focus on charity, a perspective aligned with food security, while individual actors' faith drove them to speak out against injustices and design educational and advocacy programs to support farmworkers, activities that aligned with a food justice perspective. These findings indicate that although some food justice actors may be hesitant to work with FBOs, especially with their focus on charity, FBOs could be sites for investigation and collaboration for food justice actors who endeavor to work in rural spaces with farmworkers.

The present agriculture food supply chain (AFSC) faces numerous challenges about the growing demand for food items and consumer preference regarding food safety. In addition to growing concerns about sustainability, stringent government regulation, food security, and traceability issues force the managers, industries, and practitioners working in AFSC to adopt new tools, techniques, and methodology to model current food supply chain issues and correspondingly design the food logistics network. To this effect, the purpose of this article is threefold: the first focus is to identify the various challenges in AFSC, second is to review the research contribution in the field of designing agro-food supply chain network (AFSCN), while the third aspect is to investigate performance measurement system of AFSC through various performance indicators. For this, 108 articles are reviewed, and the main research findings are discussed in different aspects. Technology adoption and integration in design AFSCN are exciting prospects for future AFSC research. In addition, the digital transformation of AFSC is gaining wide acceptance across all agro-stakeholders and practitioners. Similarly, other research trends are further emphasized, and possible future challenges are also identified.

Background There is recognition that a reduction of consumer demand for foods that have large environmental footprints is necessary. Recent innovations in food production technologies (“food frontiers”) claim to offer gains in ecological sustainability and global food security, thereby transitioning our food system toward a more sustainable future. Yet, scientific evidence to support these claims has not been critically reviewed for several high-profile innovations. Scope and approach In this paper, we undertake a critical review of the literature on five food frontiers: cellular agriculture, climate-driven northern agricultural expansion (NAE), controlled environment agriculture (CEA), entomophagy, and seaweed aquaculture. We estimate the feasibility of each frontier’s widespread implementation by 2050 and their potential positive impacts on food system sustainability. We highlight uncertainty regarding ecological tradeoffs and future production potential in the literature, research gaps, and policy pathways that may maximize the benefits of these food frontiers. Key findings and conclusions Entomophagy, cellular agriculture, CEA, and seaweed aquaculture have similar positive impact values. Yet, CEA appears to be the most feasible technology to implement at scale. The mixed potential impacts of NAE suggest that such expansion poses multiple risks to the global food system. Standardized approaches to modeling environmental parameters in life cycle analyses are required, so that predicted impacts can be reasonably compared within and among these bodies of literature. Further critical social scientific engagement is needed to better understand the political and institutional frameworks in which these food frontiers will be implemented.

Violent conflicts are frequently associated with detrimental or neutral effects on economic, social, and environmental development; by extension, one might expect similar effects on agrobiodiversity. However, as this study suggests, the impacts of conflicts are not necessarily all negative or neutral. Indeed, conflicts may also create favorable political conditions for the implementation of community-driven agrobiodiversity management. Drawing on ethnographic research in the indigenous central region of Chiapas, Mexico, where the insurgent Zapatista movement (EZLN) has a strong influence, we examine the impact of the agrarian conflict between this indigenous movement and the Mexican government on the development of agrobiodiversity conservation initiatives. Two research questions guide this paper: (1) What has been the impact of the conflict on communities’ subsistence agriculture and seed sovereignty? and (2) To what extent has the local seed sovereignty movement—an outgrowth of the Zapatista conflict—influenced agrobiodiversity conservation? Our findings suggest that the conflict has led to the implementation of grassroots agroecology and food and seed sovereignty projects that could ultimately strengthen agrobiodiversity in the communities under the influence of the Zapatista movement. We suggest that these projects highlight two elements essential for long-term agrobiodiversity conservation: first, the strategic relationship between agrobiodiversity conservation and these communities’ food security and seed sovereignty, particularly in the context of conflict; and second, the central role that peasant communities play in the preservation, reproduction, and evolution of agrobiodiversity. We conclude that the overall long-term impact of the Zapatista conflict on local agrobiodiversity has in fact been positive.

Food allergies affect 32 million Americans. Restricted diets due to food allergies can be difficult to maintain especially when the household is food insecure. Food insecurity is defined as the inability to acquire food for household members due to insufficient money or resources for food. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many people to face food insecurity for the first time with Latinx, Native American, and Black communities disproportionately affected. Because of the increase in food insecurity, this work group developed a survey regarding food insecurity screening. This survey was sent out to a random sample of American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology members to assess food insecurity knowledge and practices. The majority of survey participants did not routinely screen their patients for food insecurity. The biggest barrier identified to screening was lack of knowledge of how to perform a screen and resources available when a patient screened positive. This work group report provides guidance on how to implement and perform a food insecurity screen, including federal resources and assistance programs.

Summary Climate change is transforming coral reefs, threatening supply of essential dietary micronutrients from small-scale fisheries to tropical coastal communities. Yet the nutritional value of reef fisheries and climate impacts on micronutrient availability remain unclear, hindering efforts to sustain food and nutrition security. Here, we measure nutrient content in coral reef fishes in Seychelles and show that reef fish are important sources of selenium and zinc and contain levels of calcium, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids comparable with other animal-source foods. Using experimental fishing, we demonstrate that iron and zinc are enriched in fishes caught on regime-shifted macroalgal habitats, whereas selenium and omega-3 varied among species. We find substantial increases in nutrients available to fisheries over two decades following coral bleaching, particularly for iron and zinc after macroalgal regime shifts. Our findings indicate that, if managed sustainably, coral reef fisheries could remain important micronutrient sources along tropical coastlines despite escalating climate impacts., Highlights • Coral reef fishes are important sources of essential dietary nutrients • Nutrients available to fisheries increased after mass coral bleaching • Iron and zinc were higher in reef fishes caught on macroalgal habitats • Coral reefs can remain key sources of nutritious food despite climate impacts, Science for society Tropical small-scale fisheries supply nutritious and affordable seafood to hundreds of millions of people, including catches from coral reefs that are vulnerable to marine heatwaves. Climate changes therefore threaten seafood supply in places where food insecurity is most prevalent, but what is the nutrient value of climate-impacted coral reefs? We analyzed nutrient content of 43 tropical reef fish species in Seychelles and found that coral reef fish contain similar levels of iron, selenium, and zinc as chicken, pork, and beef and higher levels of calcium and omega-3 fatty acids. By integrating nutrient data with fish surveys collected before and after mass coral bleaching, we show that high post-bleaching fish biomass led to greater nutrient supply for fisheries, particularly for iron and zinc. Sustainable management of reef fisheries can therefore continue to support tropical food and nutrition security, despite climate impacts to reef ecosystems., Marine heatwaves are transforming coral reefs, yet the nutritional value of reef fisheries and climate impacts on micronutrient availability remain unclear. We show that reef fish contain levels of calcium, iron, selenium, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids equivalent to or greater than other animal-source foods. Using monitoring data from Seychelles, we also find nutrient availability to fisheries increased after mass coral bleaching, due to greater herbivore productivity. Sustainably managed reef fisheries can support food and nutrition security along climate-impacted tropical coastlines.

Background Access to sufficient, safe, culturally appropriate, and nutritious food is essential for maintaining both physical and mental health. Despite a growing body of evidence suggesting that sexual minority (SM) people experience significant disparities in socioeconomic and material resource security, there remains a paucity of empirical studies examining the prevalence of food insecurity among SM people relative to their heterosexual peers. Objectives To determine the prevalence of adult and household food insecurity across sexual orientation groups in the United States after adjusting for multiple covariates. Methods We combined 7 cycles of US NHANES, 2003-2016 (N = 21,300) to examine sexual orientation-based disparities in adult food security among lesbian/gay (n = 373), bisexual (n = 606), same-sex experienced (SSE, n = 693), other sexual minorities (OSMs, n = 88), and heterosexual (n = 19,540) people. Food (in)security was measured using the US Food Security Survey Module and categorized as secure, marginally insecure, moderately insecure, and severely insecure. Results Severe adult food insecurity was higher among bisexuals (17.16%; 95% CI: 14.36, 20.38), SSE (13.71%; 95% CI: 11.34, 16.48), OSMs (12.50%; 95% CI: 7.04, 21.24), and lesbians/gays (13.14%; 95% CI: 10.07, 16.97) compared with heterosexuals (8.23%; 95% CI: 7.85, 8.62). Multivariable multinomial logistic regression analysis adjusting for gender, race/ethnicity, age, citizenship, education, household size, income, cycle year, emergency food use, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation showed that bisexuals, OSMs, SSE, and lesbians/gays were more likely to experience moderate to severe food insecurity compared with heterosexuals. Conclusions SM people are significantly more likely to experience increased likelihood of food insecurity relative to their heterosexual peers.

Conservation agriculture (CA) is shimmering up as a potential solution to food security, biodiversity, mitigating climate change effects on agriculture and water scarcity challenges. Adoption of CA found to be related not only ecological factors, but also depends on the characteristics of the adopter, their level of perception and the decision-making process. This paper examines the interactions and inter-relationship among climate change perception, energy perception, and level of knowledge on CA as dependent variables with a set of operating agro-economic, social-ecological, communication variables from new alluvial zone of West Bengal. Total of 65 farm households are surveyed using non-random snowballing sampling method. From the study it has found that farmers’ perception on energy, climate change perception, and knowledge on CA are interwoven with each other. As the farmers of the study region are in initial stage of adoption they need access to proper CA-related information and Upgradation of functional education through training, workshops, or demonstrations. Here are the points of interventions for successful on-farm adoption of CA. While land fragmentation and fuel cost are came up as two important predictors.

Background Aerated food products are becoming increasingly popular among consumers due to their visual appeal and peculiar sensory properties. Foam formation and stabilization are typically achieved using clean label surface-active molecules such as proteins. In recent years, the need to address pressing global challenges like food security and sustainability has steered the attention of food companies towards the replacement of animal proteins with plant-based ones. This trend has promoted the development and commercialization of a variety of plant protein-enriched ingredients that differ widely in their techno-functionality. Scope and approach The aim of this study was to provide a review of the foaming properties of selected plant proteins and to describe how these are influenced by the extraction processes as well as by physical, chemical and enzymatic treatments. Key findings and conclusions The characterization of the foaming properties of plant proteins has been the subject of extensive research over the past couple of decades. However, drawing general conclusions based on the outcomes of different studies is a complex endeavor, even for protein ingredients derived from the same plant species. This is not only due to differences in terms of cultivars, environmental factors, farming practices and extraction processes, but also in the methods and conditions used to generate and analyze foams. Nevertheless, this review highlights the potential of different approaches to improve the foaming properties of plant proteins, including the optimization of extraction conditions, the use of physical, chemical and enzymatic treatments, and the modulation of their interactions with other food components.

Individuals threatened by environmental risks may choose migration as a survival or adaptation strategy. However, various factors such as attachment to place may encourage immobility despite disaster risks. Since the collapse of the USSR, residents of Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains have faced significant political and socioeconomic difficulties and been exposed to environmental hazards such as floods, rockslides, landslides, and avalanches. These hazards put human security, infrastructure, food security, and accessibility to mountainous areas at risk and call into question aspirations to remain. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Bartang Valley, this article addresses immobility in a context of changes and risks. The concept of place attachment is used to explore people-place relationships, voluntary immobility and in-situ adaptation. Results show that place attachment is shaped by cultural, socioeconomic, ecological, and historical variables and that the relationship between place attachment and mobility is complex. The strong place attachment of the Bartangis influences immobility aspirations, short-distance displacements, and return after international out-migration. Findings suggest a mutually reinforcing relation between place attachment, immobility aspirations, and adaptive capacity to disasters, which points to a need for more attention to voluntary immobility and people-place relationships within environmental mobilities research.

As agriculture seems to be a crucial part in food security as well as economic development of a country, selecting crops for cultivation is a most important aspect in an agricultural planning. It relies on variety of parameters which includes weather condition, soil property and government policies. The suggested system helps the farmers to select suitable crop based on season and region of sowing. It will in-turn help the farmers by improving the net profit to them. By considering different datasets with respect to five parameters such as rainfall, temperature, slope, humidity and soil moisture of horticulture data, the system builds a model or method using which can suggest list of crops which is mainly helpful for the farmers in his/her decision making.

Objective Nutritional and financial needs increase during pregnancy, making pregnant women particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. Our objective was to document the prevalence of food insecurity among pregnant women receiving prenatal care in an urban centre in Canada and to identify factors associated with food insecurity. Methods This cross-sectional study recruited pregnant women receiving prenatal care at one of two Toronto hospitals: Site 1 and Site 2 (serving a more disadvantaged population) between October 1, 2018 and October 1, 2019. Demographic information was collected, and the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module was used to assess food security. Comparisons were made using χ2 tests, two-tailed t tests, or Mann-Whitney tests for categorical and continuous variables, as appropriate. Binary logistic regression and multivariate analyses were performed to assess associations with food insecurity and differences between hospitals sites. Results We recruited 626 participants (316 at Site 1 and 310 at Site 2). Prevalence of food insecurity was 12.8% among all participants with Site 2 having nearly 5 times the prevalence of Site 1 (66/310 [21.3%] vs. 14/316 [4.4%]; P = 0.001). Several factors were associated with food insecurity, with non-White ethnicity (OR 2.04; 95% CI 0.98–4.25, P = 0.055] and lower household income (OR 37.53; 95% CI 14.04–100, P Conclusion This Canadian study documented the prevalence of and factors associated with food insecurity in pregnancy. Targeted interventions to help low-income women and programs geared towards non-White women may be beneficial in addressing food insecurity among pregnant women.

Among US households with children, 14% are food insecure. Household food insecurity (FI) is associated with poorer health outcomes and increased hospital admissions. There is less known about caregivers' ability to obtain adequate food during hospitalization (inpatient FI).We conducted a mixed methods study of primary caregivers of hospitalized children 0 to 18 years. A modified US Household Food Security Survey was used to identify inpatient FI. Associated factors were identified using logistic regression adjusted for covariables. Caregiver semistructured interviews were conducted to elicit perceptions on food accessibility and effects of and solutions for inpatient FI.The prevalence of inpatient FI was 43%. Household FI was present in 38% of families. Inpatient FI was associated with household FI (P.01). In multivariable analysis, odds of inpatient FI were increased among caregivers with annual household income$30,000 (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.14), public transportation use (aOR 6.33), living30 miles from the hospital (aOR 2.80), self-rated fair/poor health (aOR 3.31), maternity leave (aOR 4.75), and past/current Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit utilization (aOR 2.52). Qualitative analysis identified barriers to food access, such as lack of affordable options, and found that caregivers made sacrifices for their hospitalized child, including skipping meals. Caregivers viewed their presence at their child's bedside and personal nourishment as important factors affecting their child's care.Inpatient FI may affect a significant proportion of hospitalized children's caregivers. Pediatric hospitals should ensure that caregivers have access to food in order to fully engage in their child's care.

Objective To identify factors associated with campus food pantry (CFP) visits and evaluate outreach strategies. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Ten University of California campuses. Participants University of California CFP student users (n = 1,513) completed a survey in 2019. Variables measured Students reported reasons for CFP visits, how they heard about the CFP, monthly CFP visits, and food security status. Sociodemographic information was obtained through institutional records. Analysis Poisson regression for associations of monthly CFP visits (dependent) with sociodemographic variables (Model 1), reasons for CFP visits (Model 2), and outreach strategies (Model 3). Logistic regression for associations between reasons for CFP visits and food security status (dependent; Model 4). Results On average, students made 3.66 (SD, 4.75) CFP visits in the past month. Factors associated with more CFP visits included being first-generation to attend college, Filipino/Pacific Islanders, homeless, older, and male (Model 1). Not wanting to run out of food and hearing about the CFP through basic needs staff were associated with more CFP visits (Models 2 and 3). Students who visited the CFP because of financial insecurity had higher odds of food insecurity (Model 4). Conclusions and Implications Findings suggest that CFPs provide critical emergency food assistance for students at risk of food insecurity.

The honey bee Apis mellifera is a model organism for sociogenomics and one of the most important managed pollinators. High mortalities experienced by honey bee colonies over the past several decades are expected to have a substantive effect on crop pollination and global food security. These threats and the availability of a growing number of genomic resources for the honey bee have motivated research on how genetics and genomics can be practically applied to manage bee health. The authors review 3 such applications: (1) Certification of bee lineages using single-polymorphism markers; (2) breeding bees using marker-assisted selection; (3) diagnosing honey bee stressors using biomarkers.

Throughout these past decades, climate change has featured among one of the most complex global issues. Characterized by worldwide alterations in weather patterns, along with a concomitant increase in the temperature of the Earth, climate change will undoubtedly have significant effects on food security and food safety. Climate change engenders climate variability, which are significant variations in weather variables and in their frequency. Both climate variability and climate change are thought to threaten the safety of the food supply chain through different pathways. One such pathway is their ability to exacerbate foodborne diseases by influencing the occurrence, persistence, virulence and, in some cases, toxicity of certain groups of disease-causing microorganisms. Food safety can also be compromised by various chemical hazards such as pesticides, mycotoxins and heavy metals. With changes in weather patterns such as lower rainfall, higher air temperature and higher frequency of extreme weather events amongst others, this translates to emerging food safety concerns. These include shortage of safe water for irrigation of agricultural produce, greater use of pesticides due to pest resistance, increased difficulty in achieving a well-controlled cold chain resulting in temperature abuse, or occurrence of flash floods which cause run-off of chemical contaminants in natural water courses. Together, these can result in foodborne infection, intoxication, antimicrobial resistance and long-term bioaccumulation of chemicals and heavy metals in the human body. Furthermore, severe climate variability can result in extreme weather events and natural calamities, which directly or indirectly impair food safety. This review discusses the causes and impacts of climate change and variability on existing as well as emerging food safety risks, and also considers mitigation and adaptation strategies to address the global warming and climate change problem.

To determine the association between food insecurity and disordered eating behaviors (DEBs) in undergraduate college students.Cross-sectional data of college students (n = 533) were collected from February to April 2020. Food security was measured with the US Department of Agriculture's Adult Food Security Survey Module. Disordered eating behaviors were measured with the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire. Associations were examined statistically with Pearson chi-square tests of independence and general linear regression models.Across all food security ranges, linear trends detailed significant associations between food insecurity and global DEBs (β = 0.17; P0.001), eating concern (β = 0.27; P0.001), shape concern (β = 0.17; P = 0.001), and weight concern (β = 0.21; P0.001), but not restraint (β = 0.10; P = 0.08).Food insecurity was consistently related to DEBs. Future research may consider longitudinally examining this relationship, as food insecurity and DEBs may be associated with worse health outcomes among vulnerable college students.

Precise mapping and forecasting of rice cropping systems are essential for guaranteeing regional and even global food security. The central areas of China are the dominant Chinese rice-producing areas. However, due to limited land and a scarcity of skilled rural labourers in China, it has been difficult to meet the growing demand for rice production in recent years. Furthermore, the complex topography and climate in central China make it difficult to map paddy rice accurately. This paper maps the spatial pattern of rice in central China by using multiple data sources and a phenology-based time-series similarity approach, explores the driving forces for rice patterns through grey relational analysis (GRA), and presents a simulated future rice cropping system map by adding socio-economic factors to a cellular automata-Markov (CA-Markov) model. This study concluded that for 2015, the overall classification accuracy of rice was 88.12%, with a Kappa coefficient of 0.90. The planting acreage accuracies for single- and double-season rice in 2015 were 89.51% and 77.00%, respectively, and the corresponding R2 value for both were 0.80. From 2005 to 2015, the planting acreage of single-season rice significantly increased, while the planting acreage of double-season rice generally decreased. The planting acreage of total rice exhibited an overall increasing trend during 10 years. The cumulative temperature, slope and distance to water bodies were key influencing factors for the spatial distribution of rice. Compared with that for 2015, the simulated total planting area of rice for 2030 was slightly higher, and the spatial pattern of double-season rice exhibited an obvious southward trend. These findings show that the proposed rice mapping and forecasting method is effective. This method allows us to predict future rice patterns precisely under the influence of human activities in complex cropping conditions and various rice cropping systems.

Background Following the COVID-19 pandemic (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus) at the beginning of 2020, containment measures have been taken by different countries around the globe. Citizens were forced to stay in quarantine, affecting their food consumption habits and food sector. These impacts have not yet been properly understood. Thus, it is important to describe the consequences of COVID-19 on food consumption habits globally, especially in the context of developing countries, such as Brazil. Scope and approach In this study, the Brazilian's food consumption habits and perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic were assessed, highlighting the food consumption changes and selection of food products. Consumer perceptions about issues related to food safety and food marketing were also assessed. An online survey was performed and data were analyzed by descriptive analysis; independence and per cell chi-square test; and factor analysis. Key findings and conclusions Brazilians perceptions indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic context (assessed in May 2020) changed their food consumption and purchase. Respondents stated that they are eating and buying a greater amount of food, indicating a perception of a less healthy diet, mainly by women. On other hand, they are prioritizing homemade preparations and fresh food. Moreover, they reduced their shopping trips to markets and are starting to use delivery services and shopping platforms. Basic products of animal, vegetable, and bakery origin are being preferred during this period, in addition to economical packaging and products. Brazilians also indicated that they are more concerned with food safety and hygienic practices. However, at a time when global health is threatened, government agencies must create measures that ensure the food supply and consumer's awareness, in order to guarantee the country's food security during the current crisis.

Agricultural produce consumes various resources and impacts the environment significantly. Domestic trade affects China’s regional cultivated land use and its associated agricultural inputs and outputs, causing great inequity among regions through indirect cultivated land use. This study designed a new meta-coupling framework to diagnose inequity in China’s cultivated land use. Intra-coupling analysis shows that agricultural elements had a close and positive connection with one another, and cultivated land use plays a key role in determining other inputs and outputs. In the tele-coupling process, cultivated land suppliers were always concentrated in less developed regions. Receivers were mainly located in developed regions. Similar regularity is also obvious in examining flowing characteristics of other land’s inputs and outputs. Eastern China showed a relatively extensive amount of cultivated land input and output, while dispersive distribution in middle and western China, especially in terms of the high densities water use in the west. The regional comprehensive intra-coupling effect shows that fully agriculturally efficient regions were always concentrated in undeveloped or less developed regions, which mainly existed in middle and northern China. The regional comprehensive tele-coupling effect also revealed regional inequity. This study considers developed regions greater beneficiaries in interregional trade when analysing economic profit, resource consumption, and environmental damage. In undeveloped regions, these elements have a more profound and lasting negative influence. Thus, enhancing resource utilization efficiency and regional responsibilities should be reconsidered.

Heat stress (HS) caused by rapidly warming climate has become a serious threat to global food security. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food crop for over half of the world’s population, and its yield and quality are often reduced by HS. There is an urgent need for breeding heat-tolerant rice cultivars. Rice plants show various morphological and physiological symptoms under HS. Precise analysis of the symptoms (phenotyping) is essential for the selection of elite germplasm and the identification of thermotolerance genes. In response to HS, rice plants trigger a cascade of events and activate complex transcriptional regulatory networks. Protein homeostasis under HS is especially important for rice thermotolerance, which is affected by protein quality control, effective elimination of toxic proteins, and translational regulation. Although some agronomic and genetic approaches for improving heat tolerance have been adopted in rice, the molecular mechanisms underlying rice response to HS are still elusive, and success in engineering rice thermotolerance in breeding has been limited. In this review, we summarize HS-caused symptoms in rice and progress in heat-stress sensing and signal cascade research, and propose approaches for improving rice thermotolerance in future.

Egypt lies in a dry region of the world. The management of water resources in dry areas is necessary to maintain the limited quantities of water available and to achieve an appropriate level of development, food security and stability. The current study aims to estimate the water footprint (WF) of Egyptian crops in the old and new lands inside and outside the Nile Valley and Delta. In addition, comparison of the WF of Egyptian crops with the global WF, and calculating the economics of the green and blue WF of Egyptian crops. Methodology of assessment was adopted from the water footprint assessment manual. Meteorological data during the study period were obtained from the weather station at Agricultural Research Center, and from Egyptian Meteorological Authority. Data of crop productivity were obtained from the Economic Affairs Sector-Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. The results showed that the contribution of green water to the total water footprint of Egyptian crops was small compared to blue water. Average total green plus blue water footprint (WFgreen+blue) of Egyptian crops was about 680 m3/ton. Egyptian crops recorded low WF values compared to the average global WF. In addition, average net return of the WFgreen+blue of Egyptian crops amounted to 10.25, 5.23 and 5.00 LE/m3 for winter field crops and vegetables, summer field crops and vegetables, Nili and perennial crops, respectively.

A precarious food security situation implies that many countries in the Global South may not achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) of zero hunger by 2030. We focus on the case of Uganda and explore food demand and food security implications for 2030, where 33% (15 million) of the population of 44 million are poor. Matooke (cooking bananas), cassava, and (sweet) potatoes are traditional foods in Uganda; however, the consumption of maize, wheat, and rice has been rising with increases in income and urbanization. Using the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) datasets of Uganda, this study estimated the demand for matooke, cassava and potatoes, maize/coarse grains, wheat and rice, vegetables, and meat and fish in 2030. Our findings confirm that with increases in income and demographic changes, the demand for these food items will increase drastically. To attain SDG2 of zero hunger, as well as food and nutrition security, this study calls for further investments in Uganda's agricultural sector to enhance domestic production capacity to meet the growing demand for food.

The 2030 agenda for sustainable development sets goals to strengthen the economic, environmental, and social sectors of the world. Among the main objectives are to eradicate poverty in the world, guarantee food security and human well-being, as well as the sustainable production of resources. The most important challenges are in rural areas where it is difficult to access food, electricity, fuel, and sanitary services. To overcome resource limitations, the optimization of the water-energy-food nexus has been proposed to boost the economic development of disadvantaged rural communities, this has been addressed through the correct management of available resources to ensure that the inhabitants have access to basic social services and a healthy diet. In this work, a mathematical model is provided for the sustainable production via integration of water, energy, and food in disadvantage rural communities, determining the optimal mix of technologies to supply the utility demands and the variety of food to cover nutritional requirements. The model formulation is a Stochastic Mixed Integer Linear Program, and it considers the population change and the water and energy demand as uncertain parameters. A Mexican community was selected as case study demonstrating the applicability of the model. Results show that it is feasible to create a system that enables the community to be self-sufficient and provide a balanced diet for inhabitants using renewable technologies and considering waste treatment. Moreover, with the proposed integration, it is possible to reduce the poverty and marginalization index by 8% per year with proper profit management.