Farmers’ markets, veggie boxes, local foods, organic products and Fair Trade goods – how have these once novel, "alternative" foods, and the people and networks supporting them, become increasingly familiar features of everyday consumption? Are the visions of "alternative worlds" built on ethics of sustainability, social justice, animal welfare and the aesthetic values of local food cultures and traditional crafts still credible now that these foods crowd supermarket shelves and other "mainstream" shopping outlets? This timely book provides a critical review of the growth of alternative food networks and their struggle to defend their ethical and aesthetic values against the standardizing pressures of the corporate mainstream with its "placeless and nameless" global supply networks. It explores how these alternative movements are "making a difference" and their possible role as fears of global climate change and food insecurity intensify. It assesses the different experiences of these networks in three major arenas of food activism and politics: Britain and Western Europe, the United States, and the global Fair Trade economy. This comparative perspective runs throughout the book to fully explore the progressive erosion of the interface between alternative and mainstream food provisioning. As the era of "cheap food" draws to a close, analysis of the limitations of market-based social change and the future of alternative food economies and localist food politics place this book at the cutting-edge of the field. The book is thoroughly informed by contemporary social theory and interdisciplinary social scientific scholarship, formulates an integrative social practice framework to understand alternative food production-consumption, and offers a unique geographical reach in its case studies.
Due to such factors as poor economic conditions, climate change, and conflict, food security remains an issue around the world and especially in developing nations. Rapid changes in technology over the last decade has brought a renewed focus on how information and communication technologies (ICTs) and application systems are deployed to improve rural competitiveness. Unfortunately, agricultural stakeholders in developing countries, particularly in Africa, have not been able to reap comparable benefits from adopting agricultural information systems as compared to their counterparts in the developed economies. Understanding the challenges that hinder the effective adoption of agricultural information systems and identifying opportunities or innovations is imperative to improve the agricultural sectors and overcome the problems in these developing economies. Opportunities and Strategic Use of Agribusiness Information Systems is an essential reference book that examines the key challenges that hinder the effective adoption of agricultural information systems. Moreover, it identifies and evaluates opportunities for the strategic deployment of ICTs and information systems to drive agricultural development for the benefit of agricultural sector stakeholders in emerging countries. While highlighting such topics as agricultural entrepreneurship, food value chain, and innovation systems, it is intended to provide sound and relevant frameworks and tools that will aid agricultural industry practitioners, smallholder farmers, and managers of agricultural extension systems looking to make more effective and responsible decisions when selecting, planning, deploying, and managing agribusiness information systems. It is additionally targeted for agricultural funding organizations, government policymakers, academicians, researchers, and students concerned with exploiting the potential of a variety of ICTs and information systems in the quest to achieve food security and poverty reduction in emerging economies.
As people increasingly migrate to urban settings and more than half of the world's population now lives in cities, it is vital to plan and provide for sustainable and resilient food systems which reflect this challenge. This volume presents experience and evidence-based "state of the art" chapters on the key dimensions of urban food challenges and types of intra- and peri-urban agriculture. The book provides urban planners, local policy makers and urban development practitioners with an overview of crucial aspects of urban food systems based on an up to date review of research results and practical experiences in both developed and developing countries. By doing so, the international team of authors provides a balanced textbook for students of the growing number of courses on sustainable agriculture, food and urban studies, as well as a solid basis for well-informed policy making, planning and implementation regarding the development of sustainable, resilient and just urban food systems.
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal in Crop Production is a comprehensive guide to the use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in developing sustainable cropping systems. This unique book examines how AMF benefit crop plants in both greenhouse and field crop production. It's also a much-needed reference source on the management of the mycorrhizal symbiosis in non-English speaking countries where the development of AMF-based technologies is more advanced.
Worldwide energy and food crises are spotlighting the importance of bio-based products - an area many are calling on for solutions to these shortages. Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology encapsulates the cutting-edge advances in the field with contributions from more than 50 international experts comprising sectors of academia, industry, an
This volume presents a state-of-the-art overview of the rapidly evolving field of agribusiness, highlighting the most current issues, concepts, trends and themes in research, practice and policy. With a particular emphasis on technology, product and process innovation, the authors cover a wide array of topics relating to such issues as research and development, technology transfer and patents and licensing, with particular respect to the roles of academic institutions, private organizations and public agencies in generating and disseminating knowledge. Featuring case studies of innovative initiatives across the industry, this book will appeal to researchers, business leaders, university administrators and policymakers concerned with the multi-faceted implications of this dynamic and controversial sector.
This book deals with past legacies and emerging challenges associated with agriculture production, water and environmental management, and local and national development. It offers a critical interpretation of the tensions associated with the failures of mainstream regulatory regimes and the impacts of global agri-food chains. The various chapters include conceptual and empirical material from research carried out in Brazil, India and Europe. The assessment takes into account the dilemmas faced by farmers, companies, policy-makers and the international community related to growing food demand, water scarcity and environmental degradation. The book also questions most government reactions to those problems that tend to reproduce old, productivist approaches and are normally under the powerful influence of global corporations, mega-supermarkets and investment funds. Its overall message is that the trajectory of agriculture, rural development and environmental management are integral elements of the broader search for justice and novel socio-ecological thinking.
Today’s food and agribusiness managers operate in a rapidly changing, highly volatile, international, high technology, consumer-focused world. This new edition of Agribusiness Management was written to help prepare students and managers for a successful career in this new world of food and fiber production and marketing. Agribusiness Management uses four specific approaches to help readers develop and enhance their capabilities as agribusiness managers. First, this edition of the book offers a contemporary focus that reflects the issues that agribusiness managers face both today and are likely to face tomorrow. Specifically, food sector firms and larger agribusiness firms receive more attention in this edition, reflecting their increasing importance as employers of food and agribusiness program graduates. Second, the book presents conceptual material in a pragmatic way with illustrations and examples that will help the reader understand how a specific concept works in practice. Third, the book has a decision-making emphasis, providing contemporary tools that readers will find useful when making decisions in the contemporary business environment. Finally, Agribusiness Management offers a pertinent set of discussion questions and case studies that will allow the reader to apply the material covered in real-world situations. The bottom-line on this fourth edition of Agribusiness Management: this book is contemporary, solid on the fundamentals, practical and applicable. It provides students and adult learners with an essential understanding of what it takes to be a successful agribusiness manager in today’s rapidly evolving, highly unpredictable marketplace.
Environmental information systems (EIS) are concerned with the management of data about the soil, the water, the air, and the species in the world around us. This first textbook on the topic gives a conceptual framework for EIS by structuring the data flow into 4 phases: data capture, storage, analysis, and metadata management. This flow corresponds to a complex aggregation process gradually transforming the incoming raw data into concise documents suitable for high-level decision support. All relevant concepts are covered, including statistical classification, data fusion, uncertainty management, knowledge based systems, GIS, spatial databases, multidimensional access methods, object-oriented databases, simulation models, and Internet-based information management. Several case studies present EIS in practice.