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Reducing food waste is an important initiative to ensure food security and mitigate climate change. Previous studies have largely ignored the influence of reference points on food waste behavior and the role of human-to-human relational interactions, failing to capture their role in guiding residents' food waste behavior (RFWBs). To address this gap, this study proposes a model that examines the role of reference dependence, normative internalization, and symbolic expectations in RFWBs, while introducing network embeddedness as a moderating variable. Using data collected from 981 respondents online, ordinary least squares were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that reference dependence and normative internalization had a positive effect on reducing RFWBs with regression coefficients of 0.178 and 0.293 respectively, while symbolic expectations also had a positive effect on RFWBs with a regression coefficient of 0.227. Additionally, Network embeddedness played a significant moderating role in reference dependence, normative internalization, and symbolic expectations with RFWBs. This paper is theoretically innovative and the relevant findings fill the current research gap in the field of food waste, providing guidance and reference for government departments to formulate policies and promote residents to implement food waste reduction behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this paper is to illustrate the importance of grain production in China's food security strategy based on the three Northeastern provinces (NEP) in the new period, which quantitative assessment of climate change under the background of the loss caused by meteorological disasters of regional food production is clarify. In this paper, using grain planting area, yield and agricultural disaster statistics from 1981 to 2020, comparison analysis grain production and disaster characteristics between NEP and the whole country respectively. The disaster-yield assessment model was used to estimate the disaster-yield loss and final yield of the NEP by inputting disaster data in recent 10 years, and the sensitivity and stability of the disaster-yield assessment model were re-tested. The results showed that :(1) from 1981 to 2020, the grain planting area and total output in NEP increased significantly, and the proportion of the total output of NEP increased steadily, and the proportion of the total output of the three northeast provinces reached 1/5 of the total output of the whole country by 2020. (2) The disaster situation in NEP showed a significant trend of first increasing and then decreasing. The incrasing of average grain yield during the past 40 years was 65.96kg⋅ha-1 and 252.5kg⋅ha-1 per year for NEP and the whole country, while the incrasing of average grain yield during the past 10 years was 52.6kg⋅ha-1 per year for NEP significantly. (3) From 2011 to 2020, the average affected area and affected area in China were 23704.5x10³ha and 11204.7x10³ha, respectively, and 3899.1x10³disasters of the whole country and the three northeastern provinces were significantly lower than those of the previous three years, making it the decade with the least severe disasters in 40 years. (4) The simulation accuracy of the disaster-yield assessment model was high. The linear regression coefficients (R²) of simulated grain yield and measured grain yield in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces were 0.98, 0.90 and 0.88, respectively. The slopes were 1.05, 1.02 and 0.98 (P < 0.01), respectively. The loss rate of grain yield due to agro-disaster was 10.4%, 17.9% and 18.0% respectively in the three province, while which was more than 8.0%, 17.0% and 16.0% for 20a.years. (5) The model slightly overestimated the grain yield of Jilin and Liaoning in recent 10 years due to the overall light disaster situation. Based on the data from 1981 to 2010, the regional grain disaster loss assessment model was proved to be able to evaluate the loss of grain yield caused by meteorological disasters well, and had the performance of predicting grain yield, and has the feasibility of operational application. The impact of meteorological disasters on the grain output in northeast China is higher than the average level of disasters in the whole country. Considering that the grain output in Northeast China accounts for a high proportion of the national grain output, preventing the risk of agro-meteorological disasters in Northeast China in the new period is of great importance to guarantee the national food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland plays a key role for the food security of China because of the large number of livestock raised in those areas. Thus, grassland degradation due to climate change and overgrazing is considered as one of the most severe environmental and economic threat for the future sustainable development of China. Photovoltaic water pumping systems for irrigation can play a fundamental role for the conservation of grassland areas. This paper investigates the geospatial distribution of the technically suitable grassland locations for the implementation of photovoltaic water pumping systems. The technically suitable grassland areas were taken as starting point to assess the optimal locations. The assessment of the optimal locations was conducted using a spatially explicit optimization model of renewable energy systems based on the cost minimization of the whole forage supply chain. The results indicate that the photovoltaic water pumping systems provide high potential for improving forage productivity, contributing to meet the local demand. The optimal areas are highly sensitive to several environmental and economic parameters such as increased forage potential yield, forage management costs, forage water requirements, ground water depth, forage price and CO 2 price. Most of the optimal areas are selected when the market forage price ranges from 300 to 500 $/tonne DM, indicating that the forage produced using PVWP technology for irrigation is already competitive compared to the imported forage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic climate change appears to be increasing the frequency, duration and intensity of extreme weather events. Such events have already had substantial impacts on socioeconomic development and population health. Climate change's most profound impacts are likely to be on food, health systems and water. This paper explores how climate change will affect food, human health and water in China. Projections indicate that the overall effects of climate change, land conversion and reduced water availability could reduce Chinese food production substantially -- although uncertainty is inevitable in such projections. Climate change will probably have substantial impacts on water resources -- e.g. changes in rainfall patterns and increases in the frequencies of droughts and floods in some areas of China. Such impacts would undoubtedly threaten population health and well-being in many communities. In the short-term, population health in China is likely to be adversely affected by increases in air temperatures and pollution. In the medium to long term, however, the indirect impacts of climate change -- e.g. changes in the availability of food, shelter and water, decreased mental health and well-being and changes in the distribution and seasonality of infectious diseases -- are likely to grow in importance. The potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change can only be avoided if all countries work together towards a substantial reduction in the emission of so-called greenhouse gases and a substantial increase in the global population's resilience to the risks of climate variability and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potentially devastating impacts of climate change on crop production and food security are now widely acknowledged. An important component of efforts to mitigate these impacts is the production of new varieties of crops which will be able to thrive in more extreme and changeable environmental conditions. There is therefore an urgent need to find new sources of genetic diversity for crop improvement. Wild plant species closely related to crops (crop wild relatives) contain vital sources of such genes, yet these resources themselves are threatened by the effects of climate change, as well as by a range of other human-induced pressures and socio-economic changes. The flora of China comprises more than 20,000 native higher plant species, a proportion of which have known or potential value as gene donors for crop improvement. However, until now, the full range of these valuable crop wild relative species had not been identified. In this paper we present a methodology for creating a checklist of, and prioritizing China’s crop wild relatives, and reveal that 871 native species are related to crops that are of particularly high socio-economic importance in China—including rice, wheat, soybean, potato, sweet potato, millet and yam—crops which are also of notably high value for food and economic security in other parts of the world. Within this list we have identified species that are in particular need of conservation assessment based on their relative Red List status and potential for use in crop improvement programs. Endemic species that have particularly high economic value potential in China and that are under severe threat of genetic erosion and thus in need of urgent conservation action include wild relatives of tea ( Camellia fangchengensis S. Yun Liang et Y.C. Zhong and C. grandibracteata H.T. Chang et F.L. Yu), apple ( e.g ., Malus honanensis Rehder, M. ombrophila Hand.-Mazz. and M. toringoides (Rehder) Hughes), and pear ( Pyrus pseudopashia T.T. Yu). We provide recommendations for developing a systematic and comprehensive national CWR conservation strategy for China, highlighting the challenges and requirements of taking the strategy forward to the implementation phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impacts of climate change on agriculture are a major concern worldwide, but uncertainties of climate models and emission scenarios may hamper efforts to adapt to climate change. In this paper, a probabilistic approach is used to estimate the uncertainties and simulate impacts of global warming on wheat production and water use in the main wheat cultivation regions of China, with a global mean temperature (GMT) increase scale relative to 1961-90 values. From output of 20 climate scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Data Distribution Centre, median values of projected changes in monthly mean climate variables for representative stations are adapted. These are used to drive the Crop Environment Resource Synthesis (CERES)-Wheat model to simulate wheat production and water use under baseline and global warming scenarios, with and without consideration of carbon dioxide (CO2) fertilization effects. Results show that, because of temperature increase, projected wheat-growing periods for GMT changes of 1°, 2°, and 3°C would shorten, with averaged median values of 3.94%, 6.90%, and 9.67%, respectively. There is a high probability of decreasing (increasing) changes in yield and water-use efficiency under higher temperature scenarios without (with) consideration of CO2 fertilization effects. Elevated CO2 concentration generally compensates for the negative effects of warming temperatures on production. Moreover, positive effects of elevated CO2 concentration on grain yield increase with warming temperatures. The findings could be critical for climate-change-driven agricultural production that ensures global food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To learn the historical response of cropping system to climate change will benefit the strategy decision of future cropping adaptation. In this paper, we conducted an integrated analysis of the climate records of seventy-two meteorological stations and the records of crop yields over the period 1970–2009 in Northeast China. It was found that over these forty years, the daily mean, maximum and minimum temperatures during crop growing season increased on average by 0.34°C, 0.28°C, 0.43°C every ten years, respectively. No significant change in the precipitation was found, although the differences between years were large. After de-trending the agronomic technique contributions to the increments of crop yields, the historical warming had led to great annually increments of 16.6kgha−1, 15.5kgha−1 and 3.2kgha−1 in rice, corn and soybean yields, respectively. According to the historical warming level, present cropping boundaries can be theoretically extended northward about 80km with a prolonged growing period by 10 days compared to the 1970s. Actually, the growth durations of newly approved varieties of rice, corn and soybean have really prolonged by 14.0 days, 7.0 days and 2.7 days since the 1950s, respectively. The actual growing periods of rice and corn have also respectively prolonged by 6 days and 4 days due to the adjustment of sown and harvest dates by the farmer since 1990s. The existing rice cropping region has been extended northward 80km in the 2006 compared to the 1970. These actual responses were consistent with the theoretical calculation according to the historical warming trends. Our results demonstrate that cropping system owns the potential to progressively and actively adapt to the global warming for high yield through a comprehensive strategy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: China is one of the most important rice production countries in the world, and maintaining high rice productivity in China is very important for world food security. While previous studies showed that rice production in China has been and will be negatively impacted by global warming, the confounding effects of climatic change, variety improvement and agronomic managements have not been separately investigated. In this paper we combine an analysis of climate and rice growth data with crop modeling to investigate the impact of changes in climate, rice varieties, and agronomic management on rice productivity at four sites (Wuchang, Xinyang, Zhenjiang and Hanyuan) in China. The results showed a significant increase in minimum temperature during all rice growth stages at Wuchang and Zhenjiang, and from heading to maturity at Xinyang, but little change at Hanyuan. Global warming would have led to a reduction in the length of rice growing period and a reduction in grain yield at all study sites, if no varietal changes had occurred. However, the adoption of new rice varieties stabilized growing duration, increased harvest index and grain yield at three of the four sites. In the face of future warming, a planned breeding effort may be needed to offset the negative impact of future climate change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]