Climate change and hunger as the challenges in the global food system

In the last decades, there has been a growing tendency towards international trade and globalisation, particularly leading to a significant increase in flows of agricultural commodities worldwide. From a macroeconomic perspective, the commodity projections are more optimistic than the previous years and the long run tendency shows an increasing demand for feedstock. However, the strong shifts of shocks and fluctuations (in terms of prices and volumes) are a concern to global food security, with the number of hungry people rising to nearly one billion. Agriculture is a main user of natural resources, and it has a strong link with rural societies and the environment. Forecasted impacts from climate change, limited productive endorsements and emerging rivals on crop production, such bio-energy, aggravate the panorama on food scarcity. In this context, it is a great challenge on farming and food systems to reduce global hunger and produce in sustainable ways adequate supplies for food, feed, and non-food uses. The main objective of this work is to question the sustainability of food and agriculture systems. It is particularly interesting to know its role and if it will be able to respond to a growing population with increasing food demand in a world where pressure on land, water and other natural resources are already evident, and, moreover, climate change will also condition and impact the outcome. Furthermore, a deeper focus will be set on developing countries, which are expected to emerge and take a leading role in the international arena. This short paper is structured as follows: Section I, “Introduction”, describes the social situation regarding hunger, Section II, “Global Context”, attempts to summarise the current scenario in the international trading scheme and present the emerging rivals for primary resources, and in Section III, “Climate Change”, presents an overview of possible changes in the sector and future perspectives in the field. Finally, in Section IV, “Conclusion”, the main conclusions are presented.

Is Māori food sovereignty affected by adherence, or lack thereof, to Te Tiriti O Waitangi?

Māori food sovereignty was and continues to be severely affected by British colonisation and influence. This situation and its causes, both past and present, will be examined in the context of Māori culture, especially Te Tiriti, a founding document of New Zealand. The general concept of food sovereignty is introduced, and its key principle: having power over one's own food system. A brief history of Māori food systems is necessary as context–their adaptation from Polynesia to New Zealand and later, to European settlement. Te Tiriti and the Treaty of Waitangi are explained: how they were created and why Te Tiriti is authoritative. Then, different aspects of Te Tiriti are linked to various parts of Māori food sovereignty and traditional Māori concepts. Through breaching tuku whenua in Te Tiriti, land issues have arisen: the methods used to confiscate Māori land and the effects this had on traditional food, health and urbanisation are discussed. Culture as taonga is examined: the ways in which losing a food system leads to losing traditions, and how this breaches Te Tiriti. Then the (mostly negative) effects of this shift in food systems on the environment is examined, and how this relates back to taonga as well as the traditional duty of kaitiakitanga and, again, the breaching of Te Tiriti. Lastly, the underlying issue of power is examined in relation to rangatiratanga and overall sovereignty–this is also linked to Te Tiriti.

Health Benefits of Organic Food: effects of the environment

Public concern over impacts of chemicals in plant and animal production on health and the environment has led to increased demand for organic produce, which is usually promoted and often perceived as containing fewer contaminants, more nutrients, and being positive for the environment. These benefits are difficult to quantify, and potential environmental impacts on such benefits have not been widely studied. This book addresses these key points, examining factors such as the role of certain nutrients in prevention and promotion of chronic disease, potential health benefits of bioactive compounds in plants, the prevalence of food-borne pesticides and pathogens and how both local and global environmental factors may affect any differences between organic and conventionally produced food. This book is an essential resource for researchers and students in human health and nutrition, environmental science, agriculture and organic farming. Main Contents 1. Organic farming and food systems: definitions and key characteristics. 2. The health benefits of n-3 fatty acids and their concentrations in organic and conventional animal-derived foods. 3. Environmental impacts on n-3 content of foods from ruminant animals. 4. Health benefits and selenium content of organic vs conventional foods. 5. Environmental impacts concerning the selenium content of foods. 6. Contaminants in organic and conventional food: the missing link between contaminant levels and health effects. 7. Mycotoxins in organic and conventional foods and effects of the environment. 8. Human pathogens in organic and conventional foods and effects of the environment. 9. What does consumer science tell us about organic foods? 10. The beneficial effects of dietary flavonoids: sources, bioavailability and biological functions. 11. Environmental regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis. 12. Nitrates in the human diet. 13. Impacts of environment and management on nitrate in vegetables and water. 14. Effects of the environment on the nutritional quality and safety of organically produced foods: Round-up and summary.

Sustainable food? Teikei, co-operatives and food citizenship in Japan and the UK

This paper explores in particular how Teikei groups, as forms of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), operate in Japan, focussing on one particular group. The paper links the Teikei approach to debates around social capital and consumer-citizenship, arguing that pre-existing consumer/citizen institutions may usefully be engaged in developing food citizenship and CSA operations. The discussion is linked to CSA and various other alternative food networks (AFNs) that have grown up in various forms in Japan, the US, the UK and elsewhere in Europe over the past thirty years or so. CSA in similar fashion to Teikei involves bringing producers and consumers closer together in terms of reconnecting the agricultural producer and consumer to aid food traceability and quality (including organic). CSA also exhibits elements of new assemblies of agricultural governance based on enhanced consumer-citizenship where consumers, to varying degrees, have a say in what and how produce is grown and how the land is managed.

Organic food: what we know (and do not know) about consumers

This paper reports on the latest contributions to over 20 years of research on organic food consumers. There is a general consensus in the literature on the reasons why people buy organic food. However, there is also a gap between consumers’ generally positive attitude toward organic food and their relatively low level of actual purchases. Product differentiation based on intangible features, such as credence attributes such as organic, in fast-moving consumer goods categories is enjoying rapid growth. However, there are many difficulties with research in this area, including the errors inherent in research that relies on consumer self-reporting methodologies. Further, in relation to organic food, there is a divergence between consumers’ perception of its superior health features and scientific evidence. Fresh fruits and vegetables are of vital importance to the organic sector as they are the entry point for many customers and account for one-third of sales. Further, although there is a small proportion of dedicated organic food buyers, most sales come from the majority of buyers who switch between conventional and organic food purchases. This paper identifies the practical implications for generic organic food marketing campaigns, as well as for increasing sales of specific products. It concludes with suggested priorities for further research.

Effect of food models and low-temperature storage on the adhesion of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG to Caco-2 cells

This study evaluated the effects of fat and sugar levels on the surface properties of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG during storage in food model systems, simulating yogurt and ice cream, and related them with the ability of the bacterial cells to adhere to Caco-2 cells. Freeze-dried L. rhamnosus GG cells were added to the model food systems and stored for 7 days. The bacterial cells were analyzed for cell viability, hydrophobicity, ζ potential, and their ability to adhere to Caco-2 cells. The results indicated that the food type and its composition affected the surface and adhesion properties of the bacterial cells during storage, with yogurt being a better delivery vehicle than ice cream in terms of bacterial adhesion to Caco-2 cells. The most important factor influencing bacterial adhesion was the storage time rather than the levels of fats and sugars, indicating that conformational changes were taking place on the surface of the bacterial cells during storage.

A vision for attaining food security

Food is fundamental to human wellbeing and development. Increased food production remains a cornerstone strategy in the effort to alleviate global food insecurity. But despite the fact that global food production over the past half century has kept ahead of demand, today around one billion people do not have enough to eat, and a further billion lack adequate nutrition. Food insecurity is facing mounting supply-side and demand-side pressures; key among these are climate change, urbanisation, globalisation, population increases, disease, as well as a number of other factors that are changing patterns of food consumption. Many of the challenges to equitable food access are concentrated in developing countries where environmental pressures including climate change, population growth and other socio-economic issues are concentrated. Together these factors impede people's access to sufficient, nutritious food; chiefly through affecting livelihoods, income and food prices. Food security and human development go hand in hand, and their outcomes are co-determined to a significant degree. The challenge of food security is multi-scalar and cross-sector in nature. Addressing it will require the work of diverse actors to bring sustained improvements inhuman development and to reduce pressure on the environment. Unless there is investment in future food systems that are similarly cross-level, cross-scale and cross-sector, sustained improvements in human wellbeing together with reduced environmental risks and scarcities will not be achieved. This paper reviews current thinking, and outlines these challenges. It suggests that essential elements in a successfully adaptive and proactive food system include: learning through connectivity between scales to local experience and technologies high levels of interaction between diverse actors and sectors ranging from primary producers to retailers and consumers, and use of frontier technologies.

The role of agronomic research in climate change and food security policy

Societal concern is growing about the consequences of climate change for food systems and, in a number of regions, for food security. There is also concern that meeting the rising demand for food is leading to environmental degradation thereby exacerbating factors in part responsible for climate change, and further undermining the food systems upon which food security is based. A major emphasis of climate change/food security research over recent years has addressed the agronomic aspects of climate change, and particularly crop yield. This has provided an excellent foundation for assessments of how climate change may affect crop productivity, but the connectivity between these results and the broader issues of food security at large are relatively poorly explored; too often discussions of food security policy appear to be based on a relatively narrow agronomic perspective. To overcome the limitation of current agronomic research outputs there are several scientific challenges where further agronomic effort is necessary, and where agronomic research results can effectively contribute to the broader issues underlying food security. First is the need to better understand how climate change will affect cropping systems including both direct effects on the crops themselves and indirect effects as a result of changed pest and weed dynamics and altered soil and water conditions. Second is the need to assess technical and policy options for either reducing the deleterious impacts or enhancing the benefits of climate change on cropping systems while minimising further environmental degradation. Third is the need to understand how best to address the information needs of policy makers and report and communicate agronomic research results in a manner that will assist the development of food systems adapted to climate change. There are, however, two important considerations regarding these agronomic research contributions to the food security/climate change debate. The first concerns scale. Agronomic research has traditionally been conducted at plot scale over a growing season or perhaps a few years, but many of the issues related to food security operate at larger spatial and temporal scales. Over the last decade, agronomists have begun to establish trials at landscape scale, but there are a number of methodological challenges to be overcome at such scales. The second concerns the position of crop production (which is a primary focus of agronomic research) in the broader context of food security. Production is clearly important, but food distribution and exchange also determine food availability while access to food and food utilisation are other important components of food security. Therefore, while agronomic research alone cannot address all food security/climate change issues (and hence the balance of investment in research and development for crop production vis à vis other aspects of food security needs to be assessed), it will nevertheless continue to have an important role to play: it both improves understanding of the impacts of climate change on crop production and helps to develop adaptation options; and also – and crucially – it improves understanding of the consequences of different adaptation options on further climate forcing. This role can further be strengthened if agronomists work alongside other scientists to develop adaptation options that are not only effective in terms of crop production, but are also environmentally and economically robust, at landscape and regional scales. Furthermore, such integrated approaches to adaptation research are much more likely to address the information need of policy makers. The potential for stronger linkages between the results of agronomic research in the context of climate change and the policy environment will thus be enhanced.

Climate change impacts on global food security

Climate change could potentially interrupt progress toward a world without hunger. A robust and coherent global pattern is discernible of the impacts of climate change on crop productivity that could have consequences for food availability. The stability of whole food systems may be at risk under climate change because of short-term variability in supply. However, the potential impact is less clear at regional scales, but it is likely that climate variability and change will exacerbate food insecurity in areas currently vulnerable to hunger and undernutrition. Likewise, it can be anticipated that food access and utilization will be affected indirectly via collateral effects on household and individual incomes, and food utilization could be impaired by loss of access to drinking water and damage to health. The evidence supports the need for considerable investment in adaptation and mitigation actions toward a “climate-smart food system” that is more resilient to climate change influences on food security.

Participatory scenarios as a tool to link science and policy on food security under climate change in East Africa

How effective are multi-stakeholder scenarios building processes to bring diverse actors together and create a policy-making tool to support sustainable development and promote food security in the developing world under climate change? The effectiveness of a participatory scenario development process highlights the importance of ‘boundary work’ that links actors and organizations involved in generating knowledge on the one hand, and practitioners and policymakers who take actions based on that knowledge on the other. This study reports on the application of criteria for effective boundary work to a multi-stakeholder scenarios process in East Africa that brought together a range of regional agriculture and food systems actors. This analysis has enabled us to evaluate the extent to which these scenarios were seen by the different actors as credible, legitimate and salient, and thus more likely to be useful. The analysis has shown gaps and opportunities for improvement on these criteria, such as the quantification of scenarios, attention to translating and communicating the results through various channels and new approaches to enable a more inclusive and diverse group of participants. We conclude that applying boundary work criteria to multi-stakeholder scenarios processes can do much to increase the likelihood of developing sustainable development and food security policies that are more appropriate.

Options for support to agriculture and food security under climate change

Agriculture and food security are key sectors for intervention under climate change. Agricultural production is highly vulnerable even to 2C (low-end) predictions for global mean temperatures in 2100, with major implications for rural poverty and for both rural and urban food security. Agriculture also presents untapped opportunities for mitigation, given the large land area under crops and rangeland, and the additional mitigation potential of aquaculture. This paper presents a summary of current knowledge on options to support farmers, particularly smallholder farmers, in achieving food security through agriculture under climate change. Actions towards adaptation fall into two broad overlapping areas: (1) accelerated adaptation to progressive climate change over decadal time scales, for example integrated packages of technology, agronomy and policy options for farmers and food systems, and (2) better management of agricultural risks associated with increasing climate variability and extreme events, for example improved climate information services and safety nets. Maximization of agriculture’s mitigation potential will require investments in technological innovation and agricultural intensification linked to increased efficiency of inputs, and creation of incentives and monitoring systems that are inclusive of smallholder farmers. Food systems faced with climate change need urgent, broad-based action in spite of uncertainties.

Social innovation in local food in Japan: Choku-bai-jo markets and Teikei cooperative practices

The working paper depicts two innovative examples from Japan of the direct supply of food, which involves the development of closer producer-consumer relations, as well as closer producer-producer networks. Choku-bai-jo and Teikei networks are considered as examples of practices implicated in alternative food networks (AFNs). One example has become a quasi-public endeavour and is seen by the Japanese state as a legitimate part of rural development and is promoted in support of small producers. The other is borne from consumer concern over food quality and, despite its long-lived status, this arrangement remains marginal and with little institutional or governmental support. A model which blends the organization and aims of both examples holds potential for a more sustainable eco-economic future.

The use of spray drying technology to reduce bitter taste of casein hydrolysate

The utilization of protein hydrolysates in food systems is frequently hindered due to their bitterness and hygroscopicity. Spray drying technology could be an alternative for reducing these problems. The aim of this work was to reduce or to mask the casein hydrolysate bitter taste using spray drying and mixtures of gelatin and soy protein isolate (SPI) as carriers. Six formulations were studied: three with 20% of hydrolysate and 80% of mixture (gelatine/SPI at proportions of 50/50, 40/60 and 60/40%) and three with 30% of hydrolysate and 70% of mixture (gelatine/SPI at proportions of 50/50, 40/60 and 60/40%). The spray-dried formulations were evaluated by SEM, hygroscopicity, thermal behavior (DSC), dissolution, and bitter taste, by a trained sensory panel using a paired-comparison test (free samples vs. spray-dried samples); all samples were presented in powder form. SEM analysis showed mostly spherically shaped particles, with many concavities and some particles with pores. All formulations were oil and water compatible and showed lower hygroscopicity values than free casein hydrolysate. At Aw 0.83, the free hydrolysate showed Tg about 25 degrees C lower than the formulations, indicating that the formulations may be more stable at Aw >= 0.65 since the glass transition should be prevented. The sensory panel found the formulations, tasted in the powder form, to be less bitter (P < 0.05) than the free casein hydrolysate. These results indicated that spray drying of casein hydrolysate with mixtures of gelatin and SPI was successful to attenuate the bitterness of casein hydrolysate. Thus, spray drying widens the possibilities of application of casein hydrolysates. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.