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Together with climate change, both the geopolitical events in Ukraine and social disruptions in supply chains from the COVID-19 pandemic could produce global food shortages or even mass starvation events. Promising new interventions include vaccines to prevent infectious causes of malnutrition or infections disproportionately causing death among the malnourished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this forum I provide a response to the infant formula shortage crisis in the U.S. ongoing since May. I argue that government supported monopoly control of the infant formula market is a geopolitics that has nothing to do with infant feeding and everything to do with profit. I suggest that a diversity of strategies as well as a diversity of feeding options must be undertaken to avoid such human-caused crises in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All living organisms need food and nutrients for survival and health. The extensive growth in human population and industrial activities has led to significant food, environmental and economic challenges, encompassing the shortage of food, depletion of energy and water reservoirs, elevated carbon emissions, and increased economic cost. Addressing these issues demands innovative solutions including consideration of blue food. Among the blue foods, Spirulina is a nutrient-rich microalgae with rapid growth, adaptability and safety with vast applications in functional foods, and therapeutics. Spirulina 's dual nature as a cost-effective and eco-friendly solution for carbon neutrality and bioproduct generation makes it a valuable contributor to sustainability in the food and health industries. This review investigates Spirulina 's nutritional, and therapeutical potentials, accompanying related challenges and opportunities, signifying its ability to improve nutritional and therapeutic aspects. Among the blue foods, humans have practiced Spirulina , as a food and medicine. It has a high concentration of vitamins, minerals, phenolics, vital fatty acids, amino acids, and colors, making it a valuable supplement to human diet, functional foods, aquaculture, and livestock feed. The high nutritious and curative effects make it a versatile element in the human diet, ranging from beverages to confectionery. Ongoing exploration is uncovering further therapeutic potential, fostering its integration into dietary strategies for disease prevention and vitality promotion with a hope to replace synthetic or plant derived counterparts and contribute to health and food sustainability. Multi-omics approaches are recommended for comprehensive understanding of Spirulina 's therapeutic and nutritional potential. • Comprehensive review of Spirulina's nutritional composition & bioactive components. • Exploration of the therapeutic potential of Spirulina for health improvement. • Challenges and opportunities associated with Spirulina's production, and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide demand for the seafood is increasing due to ongoing population increase. Meeting of that demand with environmentally sustainable and good quality seafood is suffering and the reliance on traditional aquaculture and fishing methods is insufficient to supply demand. Therefore, it is crucial to use modern technology, like cell-based cultured seafood, to produce seafood. In addition to addressing the food shortage, seafood produced through these advanced technologies plays an important role in addressing various environmental, health, welfare, and ethical concerns associated with traditional aquaculture. This includes combating issues such as pollution, severe illnesses like cancer and cardiovascular diseases, zoonotic diseases, and the problem of overfishing. Although the trend of cell-based seafood has been established for several years, it has not grown as much as meat manufacturing and is not widely discussed. Consequently, to improve the production of substitute seafood, it is necessary to understand and overcome the associated limitations and challenges of these technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Geographic information system has been used to Prepare a groundwater vulnerability map of the study area using DRASTIC Model. • The impact of pipeline interdiction to the underlying aquifers of the study area has been highlighted. • The ROC/AUC curves and PAHs has been used to validate DRASTIC Model. Extensive environmental pollution has affected the water resource, agricultural lands, economy and health of the inhabitants of Ahoada communities of the Niger Delta region, Nigeria. The main sources of pollution are oil spills emanating from pipeline interdiction and production-related spillages. Oil spills in the Niger Delta adversely affects the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil, which subsequently results in food shortages due to the reduction of nutrient contents of soils. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the patterns and the types of contaminants for appropriate remediation of the polluted areas. This study applied a novel DRASTIC model approach, incorporating a data-driven method Weight of Evidence (WoE) to examine subsurface aquifer vulnerability to oil spills contamination and present same as in the maps. Geographic Information System (GIS) in combination with DRASTIC and a modified DRASTIC model called DRAPSTIC were used in assessing the extent and vulnerability of the aquifers of the area to contamination. The maps of the DRAPSTIC show similarity in terms of the distribution and classification of the vulnerability index. Very high and high vulnerability classes covered larger areas in Ahoada east under DRAPSTIC compared to DRASTIC. However, under the same DRAPSTIC, larger areas were covered by low vulnerability class in Ahoada West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of population expansion, resource scarcity, and environmental crises, people are increasingly recognizing the importance of the nutritional value and sustainability of dietary choices. This growing awareness has led the food industry to seek alternative protein sources, offering the potential to partially replace traditional animal-based proteins like meat and dairy. This helps meet the rising global demand for food while reducing our excessive reliance on finite resources and lessening the burden on the environment. Blue (aquatic) foods, a category of food with a long history of consumption and excellent nutritional value, not only provide ample protein and nutrients to 3.2 billion people worldwide but also come with a range of benefits, including a smaller environmental footprint, making them particularly intriguing. This review covers the latest developments and innovative technologies related to alternative proteins from aquatic sources. We focus on methods for extracting and processing algal proteins and explore how cell-cultured techniques are applied in seafood production. Blue food-based alternative proteins offer a potential solution to address food shortages and promote sustainability. The extraction of algal proteins and the use of cell-cultured seafood production can overcome regional limitations and provide essential amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin B12, and minerals in a safer and more environmentally friendly manner. Lab-grown meat and seafood shows promise as a developing technology, but it is still in its early stages and faces significant technical challenges. These emerging technologies are poised to further advance the development of alternative proteins from aquatic sources, opening up more possibilities for sustainable food production and healthier dietary choices. • Blue foods provide a sustainable solution to addressing global food shortages. • Algal proteins and cultured seafood present environmentally friendly alternatives. • Large-scale production remains a technical challenge in alternative proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ending global hunger is one of the greatest challenges humanity faces. The second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 2), Zero Hunger, seeks to simultaneously address global environmental sustainability and food security challenges. However, ending hunger and food shortage would lead to the increase of agricultural activities and crop yields, which in turn might rise crop residue biomass burning, leading to adverse environmental and health consequences. This study estimated the health risk using modeled airborne benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a common indicator of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) released from crop residue biomass burning, and demonstrated the dependence of incremental lifetime lung cancer risk (ILCR) on the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU). Results showed that 10.4% of the global population are exposed to BaP concentration levels exceeding the EU target value (1 ng/m3) due to crop residue burning. The dependence of ILCR on PoU was attributed to increasing post-harvest crop residue biomass burning consequent to growing crop yield motivated by food shortage. Although global mean ILCR from crop residue burning BaP emission was positively correlated with the mean PoU at a correlation coefficient of r = 0.87 (p < 0.0001), positive and negative associations between PoU and ILCR were found among different less-developed countries. Eighty-nine less-developed countries were clustered into five groups, and the response of each group's ILCR to their respective PoU was assessed, which was interpreted by a human development index (HDI) that measured key dimensions of human development. Results also revealed that sustainable agriculture and implementation of air emission control measures play key roles in the association between hunger and ILCR. [Display omitted] • Global BaP air concentrations and cancer risk were estimated. • Food shortage and health risk from agricultural BaP emissions in 87 developing countries were linked. • Growing crop products as a response to food shortage might cause human health risks to BaP. • Impact of food shortage on BaP human exposure was associated with sustainable and economic development. • Results could help to reduce health risks to PAH and improve sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distance is a key constraint for animals in moving between suitable habitats, but is this also the case in staging long-distance migrating shorebirds that habitually cover thousands of kilometers during migrations? We conducted multi-year field observations, benthic prey sampling and satellite tracking, to compare how endangered great knots Calidris tenuirostris respond to the food shortage at two similarly functioning staging sites (Gaizhou and Beijingzi) in the northern Yellow Sea, China. Food availability declined by >95 % at both sites across the study period, with the intake rates of great knots declining by 87 %. However, whereas the number of great knots declined by 91 % at Gaizhou, only a 29 % decrease was seen at Beiijngzi. Satellite tracking showed that during the time when food was poor in Gaizhou, tagged great knots crossed 20 km to suitable alternative high-quality sites where food was not scarce. From Beijingzi, tagged great knots flew at least 124 km to find a good alternative. We show that longer distances to alternative sites decreased the probability of a bird leaving. Thus, habitat degradation in staging sites induced great knots to move to alternative sites, but only if such alternatives were relatively close. As staging habitats become more isolated, the negative effects of habitat degradation will be more serious due to a distance constraint on exploratory movements. This emphasizes the importance of maintaining networks of nearby high-quality refueling sites for migratory birds to provide buffers in seasons when local food conditions are lean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food shortages represent a common challenge for most animal species. As a consequence, many have evolved metabolic strategies encompassing extreme starvation-resistance capabilities, going without food for months or even years. One such strategy is to store substantial levels of fat when food is available and release these energy-rich lipids during periods of dearth. In this review, we provide an overview of the strategies and pathways underlying the extreme capacity for animals to store and mobilize lipids during nutritionally stressful environmental conditions and highlight accompanying resilience phenotypes that allow these animals to develop and tolerate such profound metabolic phenotypes. Olsen et al. present a review on the strategies and pathways underlying the extreme capacity for animals to store and mobilize lipids during nutritionally stressful environmental conditions and highlight accompanying resilience phenotypes that allow these animals to develop and tolerate such profound metabolic phenotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutrient resource loss in human food due to an ecological shock in terms of the depletion of insect pollination services may become a global concern. Inspired by the international trade theory, we use a bioeconomic model to estimate the impact of crop price changes on nutrient consumption as crop supply and demand vary under different scenarios of pollinators decline. Our findings show that the average global crop price will increase by about 187% if pollinators go extinct at a global scale and worldwide nutrient consumption from crops may decrease in all scenarios studied, exacerbating food insecurity where food shortage already exists. We argue that the consequences of pollinators decline on human well-being is not only a matter of the crop production quantity in exporting countries but also the global demand of nutrients contained in pollinator-dependent crops as their supply decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of rickets in skeletal remains has traditionally focused on industrialisation's potential impact on human health, as reported in most of the studies from northern Europe. However, research on the medieval period is scarce, with rickets being considered a rare disease. Here we analyse rickets in a large non-adult sample (N = 355) recovered from Santa María Church (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain), dating from the 12th-18th centuries. Macroscopic features related to rickets have been found in 26 individuals (7.3%), with the highest prevalence corresponding to infants aged under 18 months. These results suggest that this is the most vulnerable stage in an infant's life, which may be related to weaning, a critical period of particular vulnerability to metabolic and/or nutritional-related conditions. Moreover, cases of rickets from Santa María Church have been analysed diachronically, considering the historical context of Vitoria-Gasteiz during the Middle and Modern Ages. These results suggest that rickets cannot be considered a rare disease during the medieval period among Vitoria-Gasteiz population, although its prevalence has been uneven (12th-13th centuries – 3.4%/14th-15th centuries – 9.6%) because of diverse adverse events that unfolded locally, probably involving crop failures and food shortages in the city. This study has revealed that the prevalence of rickets in Vitoria-Gasteiz during the Middle and Modern Ages can be broadly explained by the interaction of several cultural and socioeconomic factors, which probably limited sunlight exposure and the consumption of food with a high content of vitamin D, calcium and phosphorus. Given the above, Santa María could be considered a benchmark for the study of rickets in a non-industrialised urban environment in southern Europe between the 12th and 18th centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Challenges related to natural capital were the most commonly mentioned challenges. • Capital asset substitution using social and human capitals maintained asset base. • Substitution by economic and physical capitals tended to erode capital asset base. • Erosion of capital assets undermined resilience and food security. We investigated how smallholder farming households in southwestern Ethiopia coped with challenges related to lack in capital assets and food shortage. We focused on interactions between capital assets using, in particular, capital asset substitution as an analytical lens to classify and unpack the interactions. The most commonly mentioned challenges were related to natural and economic capitals, and these frequently caused seasonal food shortages. Households responded to the lack in capital assets or food through processes that drew on more readily available capital assets. Common ways in which households coped involved drawing on social and human capitals (i.e. increasing labor input) to address lack in other types of capital assets and lack in food. These types of asset substitution tended to facilitate the maintenance of a household's capital asset base. In contrast, some households liquidated physical and economic capital assets to cope, but these types of substitution tended to erode their capital asset base. In sum, our findings highlight the natural environment as well as social and human capitals as foundational to smallholder livelihoods and food security. In practical terms, the study provides information on coping strategies that should be avoided or modified to prevent capital asset erosion, and highlights those that should be supported and strengthened to enable the maintenance (and eventual growth) of households' capital assets. Conceptually, the study contributes to livelihoods research by highlighting the usefulness of capital asset substitution for investigating interactions between different capital assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Urospermum picroides, a wild edible Mediterranean plant, has a rich and diverse metabolome. • 77 phytoconstituents, including sesquiterpenes and polyphenols were identified. • 12 unique sesquiterpenes amino acid conjugates are reported for the first time. • U. picroides extract was non cytotoxic in non-malignant cell lines. • In vitro assays suggest its suitability as a functional food with anti-inflammatory properties. Wild edible plants (WEP) are part of the Mediterranean culinary culture and can be used as famine foods in times of severe food shortages. Urospermum picroides is a WEP that grows under harsh conditions and represents an opportunity to expand and diversify the global food supply. However, little is known about its chemical profile. In this study, liquid chromatography coupled to HRESIMS allowed the identification of 77 metabolites in U. picroides extract, among which 12 sesquiterpene-amino acid conjugates are reported here for the first time. Due to the novelty of these conjugates, GNPS molecular networking was used to provide information on their fragmentation pathway. Further, the sesquiterpene enriched U. picroides extract showed a moderate anti-inflammatory effect in LPS-stimulated THP1-macrophages by increasing IL-10 secretion while decreasing pro-inflammatory IL-6 secretion at 50 µg/mL. Our study provides evidence for the potential use of U. picroides as an anti-inflammatory functional food and nutraceutical agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starch and protein-derived films can be used as alternatives to plastics; however, the utilization of starch and proteins to this way might exacerbate the global food shortage. In this study, we used discarded acorns to prepare a glue- and heat-sealable packaging film. We evaluated the mechanical characteristics, thermal stability, transmittance, haze, and antibacterial properties of an acorn kernel meal/κ-carrageenan (AKM/κC) composite film. The results showed that the haze and transmittance decreased from 96.74% to 94.50% and from 3.50% to 2.25%, respectively, when glycerol increased from 30% to 50%. The AKM/κC film had excellent UV shielding properties (transmittance at 380–200 nm was 0). The 45 g-AKM/κC film had a maximum sealing strength of 5.09 ± 0.29 N/15 mm at 0.3 MPa for 1 s (115 °C). Beef tallow packaged in 45 g-AKM/κC exhibited an increased POV from 0.0187 to 0.0336 g/100 g after 75 days, which was lower than that in air (0.5209 g/100 g). Our developed film had high haze and UV shielding performance and can be used as a plastic packaging substitute for fat-rich foods. [Display omitted] • Acorn kernel meal/κ-carrageenan (AKM/κC) composite films were prepared. • The films exhibited glue and heat seal ability, UV shielding and high haze. • The 45 g-AKM/κC could effectively extend the shelf life to greasy foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scarcity of water resources is a serious problem that concerns governments and international institutions. The importance of water resources and the expectations of billions of people with serious water shortages and subsequent food shortages have made European water policy makers focus all their attention on the sustainability of water as a resource. In this paper we propose a new Water Sustainability Indicator based on a Multi-Reference methodology (WSI-MR) which permits modeling compensation between the analyzed criteria and provides a participative approach. The WSI-MR provides results based on 19 variables grouped into 5 dimensions: availability, access, resilience, good governance and economic capacity. The indicator was applied to assess water sustainability in 27 European countries. The results showed that Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom obtained the best global results in terms of weak water (compensatory) sustainability. Using a non-compensatory approach, no country gained acceptable results in terms of strong sustainability. Some subdimensions related to climate change and the state of freshwater resources were detected as especially vulnerable in all the analyzed countries. Finally, the study identified some eastern European countries with low GDP and good performance of availability and cost of water, where bad results in terms of governance and water productivity could jeopardize water sustainability in the event of a potential economic development, if these limitations are not addressed. In a context of economic and political instability, due to the current armed conflict in nearby countries such as Ukraine, it is especially important to pay attention to these countries, whose good governance indicators could worsen even more. The proposed indicator is useful to identify warning signs and can contribute to the improvement in decision-making processes and to monitoring international water policies. • We propose a new participatory, flexible-compensatory and sequential index to assess water sustainability. • We assess water sustainability in 27 European countries since this new approach. • We find that no country gained acceptable results in terms of strong sustainability. • Climate change and the state of freshwater resources were especially vulnerable subdimensions in the analyzed countries. • We identify some vulnerable countries with good availability and cost of water, with bad governance and water productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IUCN Red List has downgraded several species from "endangered" to "vulnerable" that still have largely unknown extinction risks. We consider one of those downgraded species, the giant panda, a bamboo specialist. Massive bamboo flowering could be a natural disaster for giant pandas. Using scenario analysis, we explored possible impacts of the next bamboo flowering in the Qinling and Minshan Mountains that are home to most giant pandas. Our results showed that the Qinling Mountains could experience large-scale bamboo flowering leading to a high risk of widespread food shortages for the giant pandas by 2020. The Minshan Mountains could similarly experience a large-scale bamboo flowering with a high risk for giant pandas between 2020 and 2030 without suitable alternative habitat in the surrounding areas. These scenarios highlight thus-far unforeseen dangers of conserving giant pandas in a fragmented habitat. We recommend advance measures to protect giant panda from severe population crashes when flowering happens. This study also suggests the need to anticipate and manage long-term risks to other downgraded species. • Panda habitats in both mountains are at high risk of experiencing large-scale bamboo flowering in 2020. • Our scenarios highlight thus-far unforeseen dangers of conserving pandas in a fragmented habitat. • Our study suggests the need to anticipate and manage long-term risks to other species even after their downgrading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing costs of energy and water, fossil fuel depletion, and food shortages caused by climate change challenge long-term sustainability of food, energy, and water (FEW) systems. In working toward sustainable development, a fundamental question for deciding on whether and how to invest in FEW systems is “how sustainable FEW systems are?”. In order to measure sustainability across the FEW systems, an integrated sustainability index (SI) is developed. The SI is comprised of three components; food, energy, and water. These components each consist of different sub-components (e.g. transportation fuel for energy component) that make up integrated FEW systems. The sustainability of an FEW system can be calculated using the integrated FEW SI, but a more thought provoking question is to understand how each sub-component affects overall sustainability of the system. This cannot be achieved without formulating the interconnections associated with FEW components. This study formulates interconnections associated with FEW components. In an effort to increase the degree to which the results would generalize to FEW systems with different scales, the calculations of the study are performed for a sustainable FEW system that can consistently yield food for a family of four (two adults and two children) and supply its own water and energy needs from sustainable sources. Also, the sustainability is measured for two systems located in two different climates; one is relatively cloudy and humid and the other is sunny and arid. The results show that the highest sustainability improvement in both climates is associated with irrigation sub-component. Not only a sustainable water supply for irrigation sub-component improves the sustainability of water component, it also improves food sustainability and consequently energy sustainability. This finding can be explained by the fact that the irrigation sub-component is a resource supplier for grain sub-component, and that is a resource supplier for transportation fuel sub-component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • This study was the first to explore the relationship of BMI and depression as well as its potential mechanism among Chinese population. • There was a negative association between BMI and depressive symptoms for males, while the association for females was not significant (though negative). • Childhood food shortage experience was the main potential mechanism accounting for this association. Abstract The association between body size and mental health has been the focus of many studies. Results, however, varies between studies. This study aimed to investigate the association between BMI and depressive symptoms among Chinese adults. We also further explored childhood starvation as a potential mediator of this association. The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study data, a representative national survey of adults age 45 and older was used in this study. Results showed that the prevalence of overweight and obesity were 28.8% and 11.6%. There was a negative association between BMI and depressive symptoms for males. Obese male adults had the lowest CES-D scores, followed by overweight male adults, and underweight male adults had the highest CES-D scores. These associations also exist but are not significant for females. Furthermore, these associations were significant among males who had been exposed to food shortage during their childhood. Our results suggested a significant positive association between BMI and depression in middle aged and elderly males in China, while this association is weak in females. Childhood food shortage experience was a potential causative factor accounting for this association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilson's storm-petrels ( Oceanites oceanicus ) are the smallest marine birds breeding in Antarctica, where events like snowstorms often prevent parents from providing food daily for their offspring. To minimize energy expenses, Wilson's storm-petrel chicks can reduce their metabolism and body temperature by entering hypothermia. Hypothermia is reported to impact development, hence we hypothesized that hypothermia will be majorly used after long fasting periods. Chick development in a breeding colony of Wilson's storm-petrels on the South Shetland Islands was monitored daily during three consecutive summers by recording chicks' body mass and temperature, as well as environmental parameters. Provisioning, and body conditions were highest in 2017, and chicks became hypothermic most frequently in 2016. Body temperature was influenced by age, mass, body condition, and minimal nocturnal temperatures. While most chicks were able to maintain stable body temperatures when not fed for one day, some chicks' body temperatures decreased by up to 21 °C. Age did not differ between those two groups, but chicks maintaining their active body temperatures had higher body conditions. Snowstorms were typically followed by several days of unreliable food provisioning and continuous days of fasting. Most chicks were hypothermic during this time, and were hence able to survive periods of food shortages, reverse their low body temperatures after the next feeding event, and regain body mass. We conclude that hypothermia is a strong survival strategy to endure times of fasting, which might be necessary for Antarctic storm-petrel chicks to reach adulthood. However, in future scenarios, which may include more frequent snowstorms due to climate change, malnourishment could lead to more frequent use of hypothermia, which could affect chicks' development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution quantitative analysis of the benthonic foraminifera throughout the K–Pg boundary interval on four sections (Wadi Nukhul, Abu Qada, Thamad, and Sudr Al Hitan) in south Sinai, Egypt was conducted. Planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy indicates a complete K–Pg boundary interval in W. Nukhul section, while minor hiatuses characterized the other sections. Benthonic foraminifera reflect outer neritic-upper bathyal setting for the studied interval, while outer neritic setting marks the latest Maastrichtian. The upper Maastrichtian assemblage indicates mesotrophic to slightly eutrophic marine conditions. At the K–Pg boundary in W. Nukhul, benthonic foraminifera display a significant turnover. A major change in the benthonic foraminifera assemblage which is marked by a decrease in the infaunal taxa and buliminids indicates a shortage in the food supply to the sea floor at the K–Pg boundary. This pattern was associated with increased abundance of the epifaunal taxa indicating oligotrophic conditions that linked to the food web collapse due to extinction of the marine primary producers. A partial recovery of the benthonic foraminifera was observed in the early Danian (Pα and lower part of P1a zones). A comparison between the data of the present study and other K–Pg boundary sites in the Tethyan realm indicates a similar shortage in the food supply with no oxygen deficiency. Two third-order sequences were identified in the studied interval based on the biotic attributes of the fauna. The obtained sea level curve was compared to the global sea level curve. • Four stratigraphic sections encompass the K–Pg interval examined in detail. • Complete K–Pg boundary interval is well preserved in W. Nukhul section. • The benthonic foraminifera experienced a significant turnover at the K–Pg boundary. • Two third-order depositional sequences (SQ1-SQ2) were recognized. • The obtained sea-level curve is matched with Haq (2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigated agriculture is very important for securing food production for an increasing population over the next decades. Given scarcity of water resources, optimal irrigation management is needed to reduce water while realizing maximal crop productivity. The new method of integrating soil water content measurements and the Community Land Model (CLM) using sequential data assimilation (DA) is promising to improve the prediction of soil water status and efficiently design irrigation strategies. Soil water content measured by FDR (Frequency Domain Reflectometry) was assimilated into CLM by LETKF (Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter) to improve model predictions. Atmospheric input data from GFS (Global Forecast System) were used to force CLM in order to predict short-term soil water contents. The irrigation amount was then calculated on the basis of the difference between predicted and targeted soil water content over the root zone. During the real-time irrigation campaigns in Picassent (Spain) in 2015 and 2016, there were 6 fields irrigated according the data assimilation-optimization approach (CLM-DA), 2 further fields according the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) water balance method and also 2 fields traditionally according the farmers preference. The required amount of irrigation water for each citrus field was applied by SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition system). Compared with the traditionally irrigated fields by farmers, 24% less irrigation water was needed for the CLM-DA scheduled fields averaged over both years from July to September, while the FAO fields were irrigated with 22% less water. Stem water potential data and soil moisture recordings of the CLM-DA scheduled fields did not indicate significant water stress during the irrigation period. The CLM-DA scheduled fields received less irrigation water than traditionally irrigated fields, but the orange production was not significantly suppressed. Overall, our results show that the CLM-DA method is attractive given its water saving potential and automated approach, ease of incorporation of on-line measurements and ensemble based predictions of soil moisture evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human development and climate change are two stressors that threaten numerous wildlife populations, and their combined effects are likely to be most pronounced along the human development-wildland interface where changes in both natural and anthropogenic conditions interact to affect wildlife. To better understand the compounding influence of these stressors, we investigated the effects of a climate-induced natural food shortage on the dynamics of a black bear population in the vicinity of Durango, Colorado. We integrated 4 years of DNA-based capture-mark-recapture data with GPS-based telemetry data to evaluate the combined effects of human development and the food shortage on the abundance, population growth rate, and spatial distribution of female black bears. We documented a 57% decline in female bear abundance immediately following the natural food shortage coinciding with an increase in human-caused bear mortality (e.g., vehicle collisions, harvest and lethal removals) primarily in developed areas. We also detected a change in the spatial distribution of female bears with fewer bears occurring near human development in years immediately following the food shortage, likely as a consequence of high mortality near human infrastructure during the food shortage. Given expected future increases in human development and climate-induced food shortages, we expect that bear dynamics may be increasingly influenced by human-caused mortality, which will be difficult to detect with current management practices. To ensure long-term sustainability of bear populations, we recommend that wildlife agencies invest in monitoring programs that can accurately track bear populations, incorporate non-harvest human-caused mortality into management models, and work to reduce human-caused mortality, particularly in years with natural food shortages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Child and household dietary quality were followed for four years in rural Nepal. • There is age bias, but no sex bias, in the intrahousehold allocation of foods. • Older children have better, but more volatile diets compared with younger children. • Examining within-household allocations is necessary for development projects. • Older children should not be ignored when it comes to assessing dietary quality. Abstract Individual-level dietary data within households are rarely observed over extended periods of time, which limits our understanding of intrahousehold food allocation dynamics. This study explores whether and how dietary patterns of children within households changed over a four-year period in rural Nepal. Fixed-effects analysis of the panel data indicates that there were not disparities in dietary variability between girls and boys, but that there were disparities in dietary variability across age groups. Older children had slightly higher dietary diversity, and their diets were more likely to change as household diets changed, especially for animal sourced foods. For younger children, diets were less diverse but slightly more stable over time. This stability may protect younger children when household diets decline in quality, but younger children may be left out when household dietary quality improves. In contrast, older children reap more gains relative to younger children when household dietary quality improves, but would also bear the brunt of food shortages when they arise. These results emphasize the importance of examining differences in dietary quality within households across age groups, especially for children over five years of age who are less likely to be targeted by international nutrition interventions and programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Food security is both a complex and challenging issue to resolve as it cannot be characterized or limited by geography nor defined by a single grouping, i.e., demography, education, geographic location or income. Currently, approximately one billion people (16% of global population) suffer from chronic hunger in a time when there is more than enough food to feed everyone on the planet. Therein lies the Food security challenge to implement an ability to deal with increasing food shortages, caused by a combination of waste and an ever expanding world population. At current levels prediction state that we must increase global food production by 70% on already over exploited finite infrastructures before 2050. Scope and approach This review paper firstly introduces the concept of Food Security with an overview of its scale and depth in the context of the global food industry. It then highlights the main sources. The readership is then introduced to the key factors affecting food security and highlights the many national and international measures adopted to tackle the problem at both policy and technological level. Key findings and conclusions Food experts indicate that no one single solution will provide a sustainable food security solution into the future. Collective stakeholder engagement will prove essential in bringing about the policy changes and investment reforms required to achieve a solution. Achieving truly sustainable global food security will require a holistic systems-based approach, built on a combination of policy and technological reform, which will utilize existing systems combined with state-of-the-art technologies, techniques and best practices some of which are outlined herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2012, insurgent groups in northern Mali began a violent campaign against the central government. By March 2012, then-President Amadou Toumani Touré (ATT) was ousted in a successful coup. The ongoing unrest has drastically shifted the strategies foreign donors are using to allocate aid, particularly to northern Mali. While bilateral donors have drastically scaled back all programmatic aid, NGOs including Oxfam International and the Red Cross have stepped in to provide humanitarian aid. This shift from programmatic to humanitarian aid has left the agricultural sector particularly vulnerable. Since most of the food grown in Mali is grown in the northern region, such a drastic decrease in agricultural aid will have catastrophic effects in terms of projected food shortages. Furthermore, using evidence from new World Bank survey data gathered in northern Mali in 2015, we find that the agricultural aid being distributed by NGOs is not targeting those most in need. We find that French-speaking villages are more likely to be targeted for aid compared to non-French-speaking villages. We argue that in northern Mali, under the current sociopolitical conditions, speaking French makes these villages more attractive to aid organizations, regardless of their actual need for assistance. This appropriation principle means that aid is not going to the most vulnerable, but to the most politically or socially connected. We also find proof of a second layer of aid misappropriation. While Sonrai and Tamasheq-speaking villages receive less agricultural aid than French-speaking villages, the aid they do receive goes to those households most vulnerable to exogenous shocks. However, in French-speaking villages, the most vulnerable households are not guaranteed to receive agricultural aid. If desperately needed agricultural aid continues to be misappropriated, it could lead countries like Mali to become even more unstable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Spanish Bearded Vulture ( Gypaetus barbatus ) population has suffered from negative trends in a number of reproductive parameters that could jeopardize its long-term viability. From 1989 to 2012, 27 entire eggs and 63 eggshell fragments were collected from nests after breeding failure and/or fledging. Longer-term changes in eggshell thickness were made by examining 69 eggs collected in Spain from 1858 to 1911, and now held in European museums. Low levels of contamination with organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls were found in whole eggs and in conjunction with the high fertility rates observed in the field (66.7%) do not indicate a population suffering from the effects of organochlorine contamination. However, a decrease in the Ratcliffe Index and eggshell thickness were observed in eggs collected since 2001, increasingly so in samples post-2004, indicating an abrupt loss of egg quality. We found no significant relationship between organochlorine residues and eggshell in any of the variables measured. In contrast, we found a positive relationship between food availability and the Ratcliffe Index, eggshell thickness and eggshell surface area. A density-dependent explanation of reduced egg quality could arise from ecological constraints as the decrease of food resources. The impact of sudden changes in food availability due to sanitary regulations between 2006 and 2011 could be related with the loss of Bearded Vulture egg quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the impact of natural disasters on the degree of agricultural protection using data from 76 countries thereby covering more than 70 of the most traded agricultural commodities. Theoretically, the direction of this effect is not a priori directly clear as it balances the trade-off between protecting the economic interests of the domestic agricultural sector on the one hand and ensuring food availability for the society at large on the other. Our most important findings suggest that natural disasters generally raise agricultural trade controls to favor domestic farmers. These barriers are mainly provided by limiting imports in the aftermath of a natural event. However, the protection pattern differs among countries. To be more specific, floods and storms increase agricultural protection in high-income countries, while trade barriers in many LDCs are reduced during periods of extreme drought in an attempt to diminish food scarcity. Finally, it turns out that a large part of the change in agricultural protection caused by a natural disaster is explained by a number of commodity specific particularities (i.e., food vs. cash crops). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some classical economists, most notably Malthus, predicted that scarcity would undermine long-term human well-being. John Stuart Mill, in contrast, predicted that the threat of scarcity creates incentives for innovation that help to avoid some of the worst outcomes. Popular claims of marine ecologists often apply the Malthusian narrative to supplies of seafood, yet global supplies have continued to grow. We examine the modern seafood industry and evaluate Mill’s claims about innovation. We argue that the mechanisms that Mill discusses–innovation in response to and in anticipation of scarcity–account for much of what we see. Scarcities induce technological, policy, and market innovations that enable seafood supplies to grow, and these innovations can build on each other. The challenge for policy makers is to avoid knee-jerk responses to Malthusian narratives and craft policy responses that encourage innovation while recognizing physical limits of ocean resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean acidification (OA) leads to significant changes in seawater carbon chemistry, broadly affects marine organisms, and considered as a global threat to the fitness of marine ecosystems. Due to the crucial role of copepods in marine food webs of transferring energy from primary producers to higher trophic levels, numerous studies have been conducted to examine the impacts of OA on biological traits of copepods such as growth and reproduction. Under OA stress, the copepods demonstrated species-specific and stage-dependent responses. Notably, different populations of the same copepod species demonstrated different sensitivities to the increased pCO 2 . In copepods, the deleterious effects of OA are also reinforced by other naturally occurring co-stressors (e.g., thermal stress, food deprivation, and metal pollution). Given that most OA stress studies have focused on the effects of short-term exposure (shorter than a single generation), experiments using adults might have underestimated the damaging effects of OA and the long-term multigenerational exposure to multiple stressors (e.g., increased pCO 2 and food shortage) will be required. Particularly, omics-based technologies (e.g., genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) will be helpful to better understand the underlying processes behind biological responses (e.g., survival, development, and offspring production) at the mechanistic level which will improve our predictions of the responses of copepods to climate change stressors including OA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orexin plays a key role in mediating stress-induced drug relapse. However, the role of different types of orexinergic receptors that modulate stress-induced drug seeking remains unknown. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) has an important role in the reward system and receives orexinergic projections of the lateral hypothalamus. In addition, orexin interacts with other receptors that are involved in drug reinstatement. Therefore, in the present study, the role of orexin receptors in the NAc in morphine priming- induced reinstatement and the effect of food deprivation (FD) on drug reinstatement were examined. The extinguished morphine preference rats were tested for reinstatement following the 24-h FD condition after conditioning was induced. In the other groups, the animals were given intra-accumbal administration of SB334867 (01, 1 and 10 nM/0.5 μl DMSO) as an orexin-1 receptor antagonist and TCSOX229 (1, 5 and 25 nM/0.5 μl DMSO), as an orexin-2 receptor antagonist. The results showed that the blockade of two types of orexin receptors in the NAc remarkably attenuated the effect of FD on the drug reinstatement; however, they were more effective in FD condition. These findings indicate that the NAc is a brain area within which orexin has a fundamental role in the effect of stress on morphine-induced reinstatement and the effect of food deprivation- on the reinstatement of morphine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent observation that torpor plays a key role in post-fire survival has been mainly attributed to the reduced food resources after fires. However, some of these adjustments can be facilitated or amplified by environmental changes associated with fires, such as the presence of a charcoal-ash substrate. In a previous experiment on a small terrestrial mammal the presence of charcoal and ash linked to food restriction intensified torpor use. However, whether fire cues also act as a trigger of torpor use when food is available and whether they affect other species including arboreal mammals remains elusive. To evaluate whether smoke, charcoal and ash can act as proximate triggers for an impending period of food shortage requiring torpor for mammals, we conducted an experiment on captive sugar gliders ( Petaurus breviceps ), a small, arboreal marsupial, housed in outside aviaries under different food regimes and natural ambient conditions. When food was available, fire simulation via exposure to smoke and charcoal-ash substrate caused a significant earlier start of activity and a significant decrease in resting body temperature. In contrast, only when food was withheld, did smoke and charcoal-ash exposure significantly enhance torpor depth and duration. Thus, our study not only provides evidence that fire simulation does affect arboreal and terrestrial species similarly, but also suggests that smoke and ash were presumably selected as cues for torpor induction because they indicate an impending lack of food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millennium Villages Project (MVP) was implemented in various villages across sub-Saharan African countries to catalyse the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and provide evidence of step-wise societal transformation by 2015. This paper critically analyses from an assemblage perspective the MVP's ‘quick win’ strategy to achieve the MDGs with a focus on the implementation of agricultural interventions and their impacts on the socio-technical fabric in Sauri Millennium Village (SMV) in western Kenya. Our anatomy of MVP highlights that MVP is a continuation of a decades-long of development approaches that sets out to fix development. Analysis of our qualitatively collected longitudinal data show that the SMV was blind to individual and collective forms of agency and heterogeneity among the social actors; hence grassroots corruption, elite capture of agricultural inputs, injury of social relations and exacerbation of the existing inequalities within the community. It spawned tensions and suspicions within the community. The farmers reworked the introduced ideas and technologies to fit to their needs and actively engaged with their own locally produced and exchanged resources. Typical for SMV was also an extremely questionable style of reporting that hid its achievements and failures from the general public. The “Big Promise” that MVP would deliver did not materialise; it simply failed to achieve its objectives and was unable to learn from previous interventionist strategies, it fractured communities and faded into oblivion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantitative investigation of the ecological changes of shallow-marine benthos was undertaken at the Permian–Triassic boundary section at Zhongzhai, South China. The studied fossil material primarily included brachiopods and bivalves owing to their abundance throughout the section, but other subordinate taxonomic groups including ostracods and microgastropods were also integrated for discussion. Overall, a succession of three benthonic paleocommunities was recognized representing three connected ecological evolutionary stages across the Permian–Triassic transition. Both Stage 1 and Stage 2 paleocommunities predated the end-Permian boundary mass extinction, and were characterized by relatively high diversity of brachiopods and bivalves, with no or very rare other taxa. Approaching the end-Permian mass extinction and the PTB itself, the paleocommunity abruptly changed and was replaced by the Stage 2 paleocommunity that was characterized by a relatively low Shannon's diversity (H) coupled with a high Simpson's dominance index (D) and, most notably, a changeover from Neochonetes to Tethyochonetes (both are brachiopod genera) as the most significant ecological dominants. This Simpson's dominance index (D) shift correlates well with food shortage (i.e. much reduced terrestrial influx and acritarch abundance), and is therefore interpreted to signify, possibly, intensified interspecific competitions with Tethyochonetes seemingly outcompeting Neochonetes presumably due to its preadapted smaller body size. The post-extinction (Stage 3) paleocommunity is distinguished by a highly characteristic low-diversity and high-abundance fauna comprised mainly of lingulid brachiopods, Claraia bivalves, microgastropods and ostracods, suggesting a unique and highly stressful ecological regime. In this paleocommunity, Claraia might have acted like a “disaster taxon” and, as such, its ecological functional role in the paleocommunity was activated and elevated because of exceptional ecological conditions (e.g., anoxia, hyperthermal and/or severe food shortage). From the studied section, a number of ecological traits including species abundance distribution, Shannon's diversity (H), community dominance and body-size structure were identified as demonstrating significant changes accompanying community replacement prior to the end-Permian mass extinction. The fact that these changes preceded the mass extinction may suggest that these traits could represent some early warning signals for an impending ecological regime shift. This extended interpretation clearly has significant implications for modern ecological studies to predict future impending ecological regime shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) in Malawi was introduced in the 2005/2006 season against a background of bad weather affecting production and prolonged food shortages. Vouchers are distributed empowering eligible farmers to exchange them for fixed quantities of inputs at subsidized prices. Since its inception, there has been a debate at national level about whether the FISP’s potential has been fully exploited, with policy makers exploring options to improve the programme. Proposals include targeting efficient and productive farmers to maximize returns. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of these proposed changes to the existing FISP design by utilizing two waves of the LSMS-ISA survey merged with climatic data. We estimate how the national demand for agricultural inputs varies according to a variation in the targeting criteria by means of a two-stage demand system. Then, we identify more efficient farmers by means of a stochastic frontier approach. We observe a mismatch between voucher recipients and efficiency, with approximately 60% of vouchers being allocated to the three bottom quintiles of efficiency. This mismatch is observed also at the spatial level with more vouchers going to districts characterized by less efficient production. While concerns on the distributional impacts of the new criteria are discussed together with some suggestions for spatially diversifying the structuring of the policy and incentivizing crop diversification, our results highlight a high substitutability of commercial with subsidized inputs by new eligible farmers. Consequently, simulating the targeting policy variation we obtain an outcome that would lead only to a limited increases in predicted food expenditure ranging from 0.27% to 0.8% and maize production from 0.2% to 1.3. Scope for analysing different adjustments in the functioning of FISP are, thus, proposed to policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Migration in Tajikistan is associated with greater food security. • Migration is also associated with greater demands on female time and labor. • Gender-sensitive agricultural training must consider these changes from migration. • Tajikistan relies on irrigation, which in the past has been managed mostly by men. • These relationships largely hold across different production systems in Tajikistan. In recent decades millions living in low-income countries like Tajikistan have migrated to support their livelihoods. This massive, predominantly male, out-migration has transformed the agricultural sector. On the one hand, household members with migrants who stay behind, usually female and children, might replace migrant member's previous tasks, leading to the feminization of agriculture. On the other hand, remittances can increase migrant households' income leading to a reduction in their work and increase in their food security as their purchasing power strengthens. We study the relationship between migration, food insecurity and gender labor division for two production systems in Tajikistan. Using propensity score matching with village fixed effects, we find non-migrant households are associated with having more months of food shortages and spending more days without eating food. In terms of the division of labor, women in migrant households were associated with being more involved in labor-intensive activities. Our results provide evidence that while migration is correlated with greater food security, the demand on women's time and labour increases. This has important implications for designing gender-inclusive agricultural and irrigation training and extension programs, which are usually targeted at males. Gender-sensitive design will be vital for improving countries like Tajikistan's food security, malnutrition, and water resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2008, amidst fears of vulnerabilities related to climate change, price volatility and global food shortages, an increasingly conflicted policy field has emerged in the global south. Competing policy narratives provide for rival policy orientations with respect to food policy, land rights, the environment and justice. This paper considers the implications of different choices associated with these rival concepts in one case – that of Indonesian Kalimantan. The paper shows how predominant framings of ‘food sovereignty’, ‘food self-sufficiency’ and ‘food security’ support scalar strategies that empower particular actors and agendas. While narratives focused on national food sovereignty support large-scale food estates in ways that fit a particular politics of food, they overlook the specific livelihood challenges facing rural populations and the problems of food poverty in marginal landscapes. Localist narratives of ‘food sovereignty’ focus on enhancing smallholder access and control over productive resources and diversification in ways that are better suited to the geography of production, but they are yet to address the political anxieties presented by food questions at the national level. If policy choices are to deal with the underlying issues, then the alternative values, guiding assumptions and scalar strategies encompassed by rival narratives need to be appraised and reconciled with the specific livelihood challenges of rural people and the need to secure an inclusive and equitable society in a changing global environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years, edible insect species have been heralded as an environmentally sustainable solution to current and future food crises. However, the few existing studies that aim to evaluate the environmental performance of insect farming systems are extremely limited in scope. This paper presents the first case of a life cycle assessment (LCA) performed on an existing production system of Gryllus bimaculatus De Geer (field cricket) and Acheta domesticus (house cricket) production in north-eastern Thailand and compares it with broiler production in the same region. The system boundaries of the production system considered the entire production cycle of edible crickets as well as processing. The study included two functional units (1 kg of edible mass and 1 kg of protein in edible mass). Irrespective of the functional unit, larger impacts were associated with broiler production. Major hotspots for cricket and broiler production were related to the production soybean meal and maize grain for feed. A scaled-up cricket farming system which was considered as a possible 'future' scenario demonstrated a reduction in overall environmental impacts when compared to current cricket production and industrial broiler production. While scaled-up cricket farming showed fewer overall environmental impacts, intensified systems could potentially have reduced socioeconomic impacts on rural areas in Thailand. Improvement options could be adopted by undertaking further research into the formulation of local feeds and acquiring improved knowledge about cricket nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why should a parcel of agricultural land be abandoned when there is a scarcity of food? In this paper, we address this question in relation to the hills of Nepal, where agricultural land is being abandoned at an unprecedented rate, despite looming food scarcity. Responding to studies that have highlighted land abandonment trends, we conducted in-depth case studies in two of Nepal's hill districts to understand how land abandonment is taking place, and under what circumstances. Using an interdisciplinary lens and transcending linear models of agrarian change which attribute land abandonment to one or more prominent factors, our study unravels complex, cross-scalar processes, involving the interaction among social forces and environmental factors which lead to land underutilisation. The paper shows that land underutilisation happens through what we term ‘socio-environmental pathways’, which operate across scales, yet are deeply rooted in local dynamics of agrarian change. These pathways are triggered by, and embroiled within, three wider socio-economic and political dynamics in contemporary Nepal, namely: socio-cultural changes that favour out-migration; evolving economic opportunities that make farming less profitable; and a policy context in which the gravity of the land abandonment challenge goes unrecognised. The framework of ‘socio-environmental pathways’ applied here also advances a theoretical lens to explain agrarian change in a way that integrates multiple scales and multiple sectors, emphasising a thoroughly empirical approach. Finally, we identify key policy implications of this research on livelihoods and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) suffered from severe food shortages and large-scale deforestation, which triggered a stage of rural conservation reform. Since 2004, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), North Korea’s Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection (MoLEP) has implemented a Sloping Land Management Program (SLMP). The SLMP established sloping land user groups and granted these groups the right to use marginal land for agroforestry development. This devolution of land rights from state control onto local groups is a landmark in North Korea, and this decentralization initiative has now expanded to over eight counties to involve thousands of households. It has also led to the launch of a National Agroforestry Policy and Strategy. Drawing from both qualitative and quantitative data collected from 2008 to 2014, this paper documents the process and effects of the SLMP. It argues that the decentralization reform in land management has contributed to not only food security with increased food crop diversity and productivity, but also notably forest recovery through an expansion of tree plantations and agroforestry practices on degraded sloping lands. However, an insufficient power transfer in the form of a lack of timber rights granted to the local user groups has hampered the effectiveness of the SLMP. There are also institutional and geopolitical challenges that are limiting further scaling-up of land-use decentralization across the country. The policy implication calls for more international investment as well as national land-use policy reforms in order to promote and facilitate further decentralization of sloping land management and to secure greater use rights for sloping land user groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating sustainability problems of the current agrifood regime call for a radical, systemic transformation. Such a transformation implies a move into a new stability domain, defined by a new set of systemic attractors. These transformations can be conceptualised as regime shifts. In this study, we explored the history of the Finnish agrifood system in order to learn from the past transformations of the system and to inform the current attempts to steer its development in a more sustainable direction. We conducted a qualitative analysis on literature discussing the history of the Finnish agrifood system by utilising the concept of the adaptive cycle, which captures the cyclicity of the evolution of social-ecological systems. We identified six regimes from the 14th century onwards: Expansion (1334–1721), Progressive (1722–1868), Cattle (1869–1918), Premodern (1919–1944), Modernisation (1945–1994) and Globalisation (1995–). During each regime, the evolution of the system organised around specific attractors which initially opened up new possibilities for the actors, but over time, the very same attractors became the main source of vulnerability in the system. Along with the system's maturation, path-dependency created rigidity, escalating sustainability problems and decreasing room for manoeuvre for the system's actors, concomitantly decreasing the system's resilience. When an external shock related to climatic conditions, economic turbulence or wars coincided with such a rigidity, the system collapsed, the consequences of which span from food shortages to large-scale, deadly famines. The collapse of the old regime opened up the window of opportunity for a regime shift. The most profound regime shifts were related to changes in the system's metabolism and trade orientation. While the conservation phase of the adaptive cycle increases systemic vulnerabilities, it also offers an opportunity for systemic transformation. Allowing the adaptive cycle to play out on smaller scales—such as at the level of farm systems—helps to avoid collapse on the scale of the whole food system. The current agrifood regime in Finland indicates strong path-dependency and rigidity, manifesting a conservation phase, to be followed by release and reorganisation. This observation calls, first, for considering the resilience of the current system to anticipate a crisis and, second, for outlining alternative visions for the sustainable future of the agrifood system. [Display omitted] • A qualitative analysis of 700 years of Finnish agrifood system's history was conducted. • Adaptive renewal cycles capture the regime shifts in the Finnish agrifood system. • The elements of growth have turned to seeds of destruction during each regime. • Regime shifts were driven by loss of resilience. • Metabolic changes induced the most far-reaching regime shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southern coast of Brazil has been settled in different episodes between ca. 7.5 and 0.5 ka before the present by hunter-fisher-gatherers, shell mound builders of the pre-colonial Sambaqui cultural tradition. The factors that influenced human migrations in these episodes are diverse. They include cultural changes due to the coming of other groups, chronic food shortages, sea level changes, and lagoon silting. This paper combines geological, geomorphological, meteorological, and archaeological data to show how interactions between environmental dynamics and human settlement played a central role in modeling coastal sedimentary and rocky landscapes on the southern coast of Brazil during the middle Pleistocene to late Holocene. On Costão do Ilhote, a north-south oriented granitic promontory in Laguna County, Santa Catarina State, erosional features such as facets, keels, grooves, flutes, pits, and polished surfaces that developed on granitic boulders and pavements were recognized as ventifacts. In the same context, hundreds of fixed sharpeners/polishers from the production of polished objects by the sambaqui culture have been found crosscutting the ventifacts. Based on crosscut relationships between pre-colonial aged fixed sharpeners/polishers and ventifacts, relative sea-level changes during the Holocene, the age of distinct generation of sand dunes, and the age of shellmounds (sambaquis), four potential intervals of ventifaction are proposed: last 650 ka, last 350 ka, between ca. 115 and 5 ka BP, and between ca. 2.0 and ∼0.5 ka BP, with separated estimated abrasion rates of approximately 3.5 × 10−5 mm/yr, 7.0 × 10−5 mm/yr, 1.7 × 10−4 mm/yr, and 1.3 × 10−2 mm/yr, respectively. The ca. ∼1.5 ka of the last ventifaction interval was synchronous with a period of sambaqui culture retreat in the southern coastal plain of Santa Catarina, and also coincided with a period of abundant sand availability. This period is characterized by a drastic decline in sambaquis construction along the sand barrier and paleolagoon and a migration towards lagoonal and coastal rocky promontories, including Costão do llhote. Based on these pieces of evidence, we propose to add new components to the close interactions between environmental evolution and prehistoric human occupation on the southern coast of Santa Catarina during the Holocene: the strong winds combined with sand availability. • Origin, evolution, and preservation of ventifacts on granitic rocky promontories of Brazil southern coast. • Directional data of ventifacts as Quaternary paleowind indicators. • Age relationships between ventifacts and archaeological sharpeners/polishers. • Interactions between environmental dynamics and human settlement in southern Brazil. • Integrated approach to assessing regional landscape evolution during the late Quaternary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural catastrophes include those of biological origin as the pandemic provoked by virus SARS CoV2, earthquakes, flooding and hurricanes among others, while provoked ones are mainly those related to wars and social movements. These situations may cause food shortage and challenge food safety and security systems. In this review, strategies to produce foods aimed to alleviate food needs before, during and after catastrophic conditions are described based on the supply of various processed, intermediate and low moisture foods and three categories of food supplies are depicted based on the nature of the adverse conditions, Also, relevant patents on on innovative food preparations and containers for disaster areas are discussed. Innovation to produce appropriate and nutritious foods for disaster zones may include food bags containing individual packages of high protein, high fiber/vitamins and carbohydrate/oils ingredients in dried/vitreous state. Additionally, the role of food structure on food preservation is mentioned in the context of ready to eat, nutritious and sensory acceptable food supplies during natural or provoked catastrophes is also reported. • Foods for populations under catastrophic conditions include intermediate and low moisture goods. • Relevant patents on food products for disaster areas are discussed. • Food safety aspects of microbial spoilage of food supplies for disastrous conditions are discussed. • Supplies for disaster zones include bags with packages of high protein, high fiber/vitamins, and carbohydrate/oils foods. • Food structure of foods for disaster zones is related to large monolayer and Tg values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many African countries, rural households typically sell their crops immediately after the harvest, and then face severe food shortages during the lean season. This paper explores whether alleviating both credit and storage constraints through an inventory credit (or warrantage) program is associated with improvements in household livelihood. We partnered with a rural bank and a nation-wide organization of farmers to evaluate a warrantage program in seventeen villages in Burkina Faso. In randomly chosen treatment villages, households were offered a loan in exchange for storing a portion of their harvest as a physical collateral in one of the newly-built warehouses of the program. We found that the program has, on average, increased cultivated area in treated villages (mainly cotton and maize), fertilizer use, cattle and grain stock at the end of lean season (millet). Although much less robust, the results of the estimations concerning the direct users of the system further suggest that warrantage may have extended the self-subsistence period of about two weeks and increased dietary diversity, with more fruit consumed weekly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans provide supplemental food to wildlife under many contexts, ranging from professional feeding areas for game species to backyard bird feeders. Such resources benefit wildlife by providing reliable resources during periods of food shortages, but may also alter the risk of pathogen transmission and development of disease. While several reviews have summarized the detrimental effects of supplemental food on infection risk, we conducted a comprehensive review to quantify support for mechanisms by which intentional wildlife feeding influences host condition (i.e. malnutrition and stress) and pathogen transmission on a global scale and provide a framework to mitigate these risks. We also examined whether the purpose of feeding, whether for game management, conservation, tourism, or in residential areas, influenced health outcomes. We found 115 studies that evaluated the health of wildlife with supplementary feeding, representing 68 species in 35 countries, although nearly half (46% of studies) were from North America. Supplemental feeding tended to increase the risk of pathogen transmission by increasing contact rates between hosts (95%) and promoting pathogen accumulation at feeders or the surrounding environment (77%). Provisioned food was also often a source of immunosuppressive contaminants (80%). Feeding associated with tourism frequently increased wildlife stress, rates of injury, pathogen prevalence, or malnutrition (85%), while feeding for conservation purposes had mostly positive effects on wildlife health (63%). We recommend adopting feeding practices that validate the nutritional appropriateness of wildlife feed for the target species, make food available at lower densities for short periods at unpredictable times and places to prevent aggregation, and avoid feeding during times of migration, pulses of new recruits, and epidemics. These strategies will help retain the recreational and management benefits of wildlife provisioning while mitigating negative effects for many species around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the World Food Program's experience using mobile cellular technology to monitor food insecurity in humanitarian settings. The paper illustrates how the Mobile Vulnerability Assessment and Monitoring program (mVAM) conducted applied research and learning experiments to improve the accuracy and utility of information collected to monitor the dynamics of food insecurity in humanitarian settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining adaptive control of behavior and physiology is the main strategy used by animals in responding to changes of food resources. To investigate the effects of random food deprivation (FD) and refeeding on energy metabolism and behavior in Apodemus chevrieri , we acclimated adult males to FD for 4 weeks, then refed them ad libitum for 4 weeks (FD-Re group). During the period of FD, animals were fed ad libitum for 4 randomly assigned days each week, and deprived of food the other 3 days. A control group was fed ad libitum for 8 weeks. At 4 and 8 weeks we measured body mass, thermogenesis, serum leptin levels, body composition, gastrointestinal tract morphology, behavior and hypothalamic neuropeptide expression. At 4 weeks, food intake, gastrointestinal mass, neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti-related protein (AgRP) mRNA expressions increased and thermogenesis, leptin levels, pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) and cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) expressions decreased in FD compared with controls. FD also showed more resting behavior and less activity than the controls on ad libitum day. There were no differences between FD-Re and controls at 8 weeks, indicating significant plasticity. These results suggested that animals can compensate for unpredictable reduction in food availability by increasing food intake and reducing energy expended through thermogenesis and activity. Leptin levels, NPY, AgRP, POMC, and CART mRNA levels may also regulate energy metabolism. Significant plasticity in energy metabolism and behavior was shown by A. chevrieri over a short timescale, allowing them to adapt to food shortages in nutritionally unpredictable environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Madagascar is among the countries with a very high level of poverty and food insecurity. This holds particularly true for the south-western (SW) region with its chronic food shortages. Information on crop production, food availability and coping strategies of smallholders to deal with food shortages are scarce but urgently needed to assess the local food security status for more effective land management planning and famine prevention. This study, therefore, investigated farmers' coping strategies and determined the food security index (FSI), the food self-sufficiency ratio (FSSR) and cassava self-sufficiency (CSS) at the household level in three typical villages of the Mahafaly region in SW Madagascar. To this end we used household consumption surveys, land use mapping, crop field measurements, allometric equations and canopy cover estimations from aerial photographs for cassava yield assessments. For the majority of sampled households the daily calorie intake was insufficient (FSI < 1) and the most frequent food insecurity coping strategies encountered were collection of wild food, off-farm activities and a reduction of meals. There was a high seasonal variation in food consumption, FSI and FSSR with different patterns on the plateau and in the coastal area. The main factors influencing FSSR were cassava yield, the livestock richness and landholding, whereas the number of off-farm activities determined FSI. Altogether, our results revealed that annual cultivated food crops provided up to 64% of people's diet. Cassava was the most important staple and played a key role for food self-sufficiency. However, cassava yields averaged only 0.69 t ha − 1 and CSS ranged between 39 and 54%. Although there exists a high climate-induced risk in crop production, there is still room for improvements of agricultural techniques to enhance food self-sufficiency. However, enhancing access to off-farm income opportunities is similarly important to sustain local livelihoods in the long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potential food shortages, human health challenges and environmental concerns, all thematically linked to growing and aging global populations, drive the search for alternative and sustainable food sources. Insects, which have been part of the human diet since antiquity though not currently widely consumed in Western societies, are rich in high quality proteins and nutrients and bioactives. Accordingly, insects could make a significant contribution to the global food supply chain in the future. This review explores the potential of entomophagy in an integrated global food network and focuses on practical approaches for transforming insect biomass into consumer food products. Carefully regulated breeding, rearing, harvesting and processing of insect bioresources are critical for realising the concept of “edible insects for human well-being”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Eight NHP genera have high filariae prevalence and intensity. • Filariae prevalence and intensity varied according to NHP genera. • Environmental variables influence the filariae intensity. • Filariae intensity related to food shortage and water level. Filarial nematode infections are common in primates, but have received little attention in the Neotropics. Epidemiological data on filarial infections in primates are still too sparse to fully understand the complex of this parasitism, especially because of the difficulty in studying the ecology and epidemiology of wild primates.. We describe natural infections by Dipetalonema parasitizing 211 primates belonging to eight free-living primate genera in Amazonia, and assess the relationships between parasitic indicators and climatic (rainfall and river level), ecological (fruiting periods of plants) and biological (sex, species' body mass, group size and density) factors. The overall prevalence was 64.4% (95% CI: 64.0 – 64.9); parasitic mean abundance (N filariae per individual) and parasitic mean intensity (N filariae per infected host) of infection were 11.9 (95% CI: 8.3 – 15.6) and 18.4 (95% CI: 13.4 – 23.4) filariae/individual, respectively. Although we observed differences in parasitic parameters among primate genera, there was no correlation between parasitic parameters with density, body mass or group size. Sapajus, Cebus and Lagothrix had the highest prevalence and parasitic mean intensity. Using Lagothrix lagotricha poeppigii , the most sampled species (n = 92), as a model, we found that the number of filariae per infected host was associated with fruit production in swamp forests during the dry season, the time of food scarcity. The long periods of food shortage may cause environmental stress on primates, impairing their immune defenses and leading to increased parasite load but not affecting infection prevalence. However, the lack of information on vector ecology, key to understand risk factors associated to infection rate, prevents confirming the existence of an infection pattern dependent on food availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]