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In recent years, the global food crisis and resulting food insecurity have made sustainable food supply a challenge for many countries, sparking global geopolitical competition. In regard to the geopolitization of food, this study proposes strategies to enhance food security. The model has been developed using grounded theory and data have been collected through interviews with 17 experts and review of 43 official reports and papers. Research findings reveal that food access has declined due to food shortages and unfair distribution in recent decades; as a result, food has become a source of competition and power struggles among countries. Therefore, food has been raised as a geopolitical issue. Changes such as the scarcity of water and soil resources, climate change, environmental degradation, insufficient investment in agriculture, and consumerism in societies have all contributed to the geopolitical importance of food worldwide. A number of strategies have been developed by countries in response to the geopolitization of food to improve their citizens' food security, including sustainable agriculture development, overseas cultivation, importing virtual water, reducing food waste, and diet modification. The success of these strategies, on the one hand, is influenced by the natural, human, technological, economic, political and military potentials of countries, and on the other hand, the conditions of the global environment. The most important achievements of the principled management of geopoliticization of food include enhancing food security, community health, reducing socio-cultural problems, improving political stability, reducing dependence on foreign countries, and preventing the destruction of natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the Second World War on food insecurity in Africa have gained scholarly attention over the past few years; however, there have been no comprehensive attempts to provide historical evidence and analyze the experience of food insecurity in the colonial territories that later transformed into Southern Nigeria. This article fills this gap in research and argues that the demands of the British colonial government for food supplies, along with other policies geared toward agricultural regulation such as the Pullen Scheme, led to such inflation of food prices in urban centers that rural producers could not meet the demand for foodstuffs. The resulting food shortage triggered reactions from indigenous peoples, particularly market women in the southern and eastern provinces of colonial Nigeria. The article supports its arguments using a combination of sources from the Nigerian National Archives, newspaper reports, and peer-reviewed journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers are beginning to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on island populations, but little is known about the experiences of the residents of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard in the Northeast region of the United States. In this study, islanders (N=41) provide insight into how spending time in nature influenced their well-being, especially their mental well-being, during this unprecedented time. For the majority of participants, the influence of nature on their well-being increased during the pandemic. Additionally, participants shared benefits of island living such as isolation from the mainland, as well as challenges such as food and supply shortages. Results from this study indicate that further research is needed around the importance of nature on well-being, especially mental health, for island residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to identify the problems of ensuring the food security of Ukraine and the countries of the European Union in the conditions of modern challenges and dangers in the context of substantiating the peculiarities of their legal regulation. The problems of ensuring food security in Ukraine and in the countries of the European Union became acute during the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly intensified under the influence of a full-scale war of russia against Ukraine in 2022 and threatened with the spread of global hunger. It has been established that the essence of food security lies in the creation by the state of favourable opportunities capable of ensuring proper conditions for the production of food products, the opportunity for the population to get food products, and their constant availability and stable supply. The main problems of ensuring food security in Ukraine and the European Union’s countries are outlined, in particular: (1) russia's war against Ukraine; (2) conducting active hostilities in agricultural territories; (3) blockade by the aggressor country of seaports and annexation of significant Ukrainian territories; (4) violation of established food trade mechanisms; (5) unbalancing food products supply chains; (6) growing shortage of food products and their prices on the European and international food market; (7) dependence of the countries of the European Union on the export of products from Ukraine and russia. The main measures to increase the level of food security are proposed, the most important of which are ending the war in Ukraine; consolidating the international community's efforts to unblock seaports in the Black Sea and ensuring the uninterrupted supply of food to the countries of the European Union; balancing European and international food markets and reducing the rate of spread of hunger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Emperor Julian departed from Antioch in early 363 after eight months in the city, he left behind a biting satire that he had posted in its forum. That satire, the Misopogon, is the emperor's response to the Antiochenes' criticisms, which they composed in verse and sang through the city streets. He claims that what aroused the Antiochenes' animosity most of all was his handling of the food shortage that afflicted the city during his stay. Julian details the measures he took to alleviate the shortage, yet despite generous measures he had undertaken, he claims Antiochenes were dissatisfied. He blames powerful citizens for undercutting the effect of his measures and exacerbating the shortage, and he belittles their distress by depicting it as the result of insatiable appetites rather than genuine deprivation. This article focuses neither on the nature nor cause of the shortage, nor on the accuracy of its depiction in the Misopogon. Instead, it draws upon the theory of crisis management that underpins Julian's defense against accusations that he responded poorly to the shortages. Although explicit references to the food shortage constitute a small fraction of the Misopogon, an examination of the Misopogon's conceptual dependence on Plato's De legibus reveals that the text in its entirety contributes to Julian's defense of his conduct. Julian's allusions throughout the Misopogon to Plato's De legibus works to absolve him of any responsibility for the distress caused by the food shortage. In brief, De legibus correlates virtue and vulnerability to crisis: the soul determines behavior, and the behavior of the political community determines its vulnerability to crisis. Virtue is the proper cognitive and emotional disposition of the soul. Besides making explicit the way virtue incites behavior that reduces risk and increases resiliency to crises, Plato's De legibus also details how an individual's lifestyle habits indicate their soul's disposition. In this way, the De legibus provided the framework for Julian's defense. [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]

Türkiye’s latest success, in bringing the warring sides of Ukraine and Russia to an agreement on the export of grain out of Ukraine’s ports, is due to Ankara’s long time rational strategy of having access to both capitals by keeping the dialog open even during times of conflict. At last, the newly signed grain deal is going to be effective in helping to avert the anticipated worldwide food shortages. This commentary aims to understand the details of this grain deal by focusing first on the Turkish diplomacy that has been on track before and during the Ukraine war, with the Russian and Ukrainian governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a quickly growing world, there is increasing demand for a secure food supply, a reduction in the intensive use of natural resources, and the enhancement of sustainability for future long-term maintenance. In this regard, plant health, including fruit and foliar diseases, which can cause a vast amount of crop loss, potentially has a huge effect on food security. The integration of new, innovative technological tools and data management techniques into the traditional agricultural practices is a promising approach to combat future food shortages. The use of the same principles of precision agriculture to "do the right thing, at the right time, in the right place" will allow for providing detailed, real-time information that will help farmers to protect their crops and choose healthier, as well as more productive, farming methods. The presented narrative review reports on several items of innovation, including monitoring and surveillance, diagnostic, and decision-making tools, with a specific focus devoted to digital solutions that can be applied in agriculture in order to improve the quality and the speed of the decision-making process and specifically, to set up a digital collaboration that can be crucial under certain circumstances to reach sustainability goals, particularly in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) Region, where an effective and rapid solution for phytosanitary control is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With large volume of product flows and complex supply chain processes, more data than ever before is being generated and collected in supply chains through various tracking and sensory technologies. The purpose of this study is to show a potential scenario of using a prototype tracking tool that facilitate the utilisation of sensor data, which is often unstructured and enormous in nature, to support supply chain decisions. The research investigates the potential benefits of the chilled food chain management innovation through sensor data driven pricing decisions. Data generated and recorded through the sensor network are used to predict the remaining shelf-life of perishable foods. Numerical analysis is conducted to examine the benefit of proposed approach under various operational situations and product features. The research findings demonstrate a way of modelling pricing and potential of performance improvement in chilled food chains to provide a vision of smooth transfer and implementation of the sensor data driven supply chain management. The research finding would encourage firms in the food industry to explore innovation opportunities from big data and develop proper data driven strategies to improve their competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to prior research, local food purchases at anchor institutions (AIs) support community development and food system resilience. AIs are placed-based organizations, such as schools, universities, and hospitals, that support their communities by virtue of their mission. The COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to examine how these institutions can support food system resilience during a period of increasing food insecurity and supply chain disruptions. This study uses mixed methods, including interview and survey data, to investigate how foodservice operations at New England AIs adapted to COVID-19 and supported local food systems throughout the pandemic. The findings demonstrate that AIs experienced shortages of everyday food items among their broadline distributors--large, national distributors that carry a wide variety of food products. However, AIs adapted to these shortages and found alternate sources for these products thanks to mutually beneficial relationships with local producers. Having relationships with both local and national distributors was an important source of functional redundancy within institutional food supply chains, reducing institutions' reliance on a single supplier and enhancing their resilience. This finding suggests that local purchasing relationships help AIs adapt to systemic disruptions, further incentivizing farm-to-institution programs. This study also found that AIs engaged in a wide array of food access initiatives during the pandemic, including pop-up grocery stores and serving free or reduced-price meals. These initiatives supported staff members and communities through food shortages and increased food insecurity. We suggest that these diverse food access initiatives, some of which were created in response to COVID-19 and many of which were in place before the pandemic, are an accessible way for AIs to support food system resilience in capacities beyond procurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English Abstract: This article investigates how poorly monitored relocation programmes of a Chinese hydropower project in Laos have negatively influenced food experiences of resettled villagers as corporeal, social and communal beings. It extends the analysis of recent hydropower resettlement studies that have focused on how dam construction induces food insecurity but paid less attention to the villagers' strategies to tackle food shortages. The point of departure is an anthropological investigation of two prevailing eating phrases in the new settlement: 'eating together' (commensal encounters) and 'eating with the people' (a corruption metaphor in Laos). I argue that many indigent interlocutors have become more food insecure and poorer after their resettlement because their livelihood and food support are inadequately provided, and the 'big people' allegedly steal their financial compensation. This precarious situation has deepened as the new neighbourhood arrangement has halted some commensal or foodsharing practices. This ethnographic analysis of how hydropower-induced hunger is experienced, viewed and confronted from below contributes to ongoing discussions in hydropower resettlement research and food anthropology. French Abstract: Cet article étudie comment les programmes de réinstallation mal suivis d'un projet hydroélectrique chinois au Laos ont influencé négativement les expériences alimentaires des villageois réinstallés en tant qu'êtres corporels, sociaux et communautaires. Il approfondit l'analyse des études récentes sur la réinstallation des populations vivant de l'hydroélectricité, qui se sont concentrées sur la manière dont la construction des barrages induit l'insécurité alimentaire, mais qui ont accordé moins d'attention aux stratégies des villageois pour faire face aux pénuries alimentaires. Mon point de départ est une enquête anthropologique sur deux expressions alimentaires courantes dans la nouvelle colonie : « manger ensemble » (rencontres commensales) et « manger avec les gens » (métaphore de la corruption au Laos). Je soutiens que de nombreux interlocuteurs indigents sont devenus plus pauvres et ont été plongés en situation d'insécurité alimentaire après leur réinstallation parce que leurs moyens de subsistance et leur soutien alimentaire sont insuffisants et que les « grands » leur volent leurs compensations financières. Cette situation précaire s'est aggravée car le nouvel arrangement de voisinage a mis fin à certaines pratiques commensales ou de partage de la nourriture, de sorte que les villageois ont actuellement du mal à manger à leur faim. Cette étude ethnographique contribue aux discussions en cours dans la recherche sur la réinstallation de l'hydroélectricité et l'anthropologie alimentaire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a mathematical model, I show that the amount of food in the habitat determines which among alternative methods for search of prey, respectively, for pursuit‐and‐capture give the shortest daily foraging time. The higher the locomotor activity, the higher the rate of energy expenditure and the larger the habitat space a predator can search for prey per time unit. Therefore, I assume that the more efficient a foraging method is, the higher its rate of energy expenditure. Survival selection favors individuals that use foraging methods that cover their energy needs in the shortest possible time. Therefore, I take the optimization criterion to be minimization of the daily foraging time or, equivalently, maximization of the rate of net energy gain. When time is limiting and food is in short supply, as during food bottleneck periods, low‐efficiency, low‐cost foraging methods give shorter daily foraging times than high‐efficiency, energy‐expensive foraging methods. When time is limiting, food is abundant and energy needs are large, as during reproduction, high‐efficiency high‐cost foraging methods give shorter daily foraging times than low‐efficiency low‐cost foraging methods. When time is not limiting, food is abundant, and energy needs are small, the choice of foraging method is not critical. Small animals have lower rates of energy expenditure for locomotion than large animals. At a given food density and with similar diet, small animals are therefore more likely than large ones to minimize foraging time by using high‐efficiency energy‐expansive foraging methods and to exploit patches and sites that require energy‐demanding locomotion modes. Survival selection takes place at food shortages, while low‐efficiency low‐cost foraging methods are used, whereas reproduction selection occurs when food is abundant and high‐efficiency energy‐expensive foraging methods do better. In seasonal environments, selection therefore acts on different foraging methods at different times. Morphological adaptation to one method may oppose adaptation to another. Such conflicts select against foraging and morphological specialization and tend to give species‐poor communities of year‐round resident generalists. But a stable year‐round food supply favors specialization, niche narrowing, and dense species packing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food is one of the most crucial basic requirements of human life. Food and Nutritional Security are very much important for a healthy and active life. Therefore, food security should assure both adequate food supply and the nutrition that can fulfill demand of the people. It is a major problem of the state like Assam, because of shortage of food grain production, poverty and lack of nutritional knowledge. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the status of food security among the OBC community of Lakhimpur district of Assam. For finding out the level of food security Per Capita per day Calorie Intake (PCCI) and Food Insecurity Gap (FIG) has been employed. For final assessment of the level of household food security, calculated calorie intake of sample households have been compared with the calorie requirements for household members on the basis of their age, sex and physical activity as recommendedby theIndian Council of Medical Research (ICMR, 2010). For obtaining final sample, multistage mix-sampling technique has been used. It has been found that out of 170 sample households only 51.76 percent household has been found as food secure and among the food insecure households 36.29 per cent households are far off from minimum level of calorie requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: War threatens the Middle East region's access to essential and highly needed resources. However, some countries are more vulnerable than others to food shortages and unrest. The present study investigates the impact of the Ukraine war and the bread crisis in the Middle East. Methods: Search engines including PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Google scholar were applied with keywords such as Ukraine, war, bread, crisis, Russia, and the Middle East to find related articles published up to 2022. Results: The war in Ukraine was a full-scale crisis since the two countries involved in the war supplied 30% of the world's grain production. About 75% of the world's sunflower oil is also produced in Russia and Ukraine, which has caused the risk of a food crisis in the world and can increase the level of hunger and malnutrition in the Middle East, Central Asia, and its surroundings. Conclusion: According to the mentioned cases, it can be said that there is not a very clear future for the Middle East countries in terms of food supply, which have been severely affected by the war in Ukraine in the current situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable improvement of food security in low- and middle-income countries over the last decades, food shortages remain persistent in sub-Saharan Africa. The driving forces are often related not only to climate change and other environmental hazards but also to socioeconomic and political factors. In Africa, food security has also assumed a strong urban dimension, raising new issues of physical and financial access to food. However, beyond the conjunctural rhetoric around unregulated food policies, social unrest, socio-economic difficulties, and environmental stresses, an emphasis should be put on socio-cultural aspects of food security. This would be possible through an analysis of "connectivities" between various stages and actors, i.e., food exchange practices between various socio-ecological spaces, and governance coordination in food security strategies. Based on a study on cassava shortage in Cote d'Ivoire in 2015-2016, this paper explores socio-cultural factors associated with food shortage in urban settings. Findings from a qualitative research approach comprising key-informant interviews and focus group discussion with various stakeholders in the cassava value chain revealed that food shortage cannot always be explained by supply/demand narratives. The study shows that cassava supply mechanisms in the Abidjan area are not sustainable as the main producers of cassava for sale are migrant workers employed in rubber plantations and whose stability in the region depends on prices of this cash crop on the international market. Regions at the vicinity of Abidjan are supplying the city with cassava but the offer does not meet the requirements of cassava-based food processors who need specific types of the product. Moreover, strategies from the municipal and government authorities to circumvent the shortage often face resistance of populations if local norms and values are not considered. In food strategies, sociocultural dynamics should be considered alongside the complex socioeconomic and environmental factors shaping the social geography of food supply in African cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use models operating at regional to global scales are almost exclusively based on the single paradigm of economic optimisation. Models based on different paradigms are known to produce very different results, but these are not always equivalent or attributable to particular assumptions. In this study, we compare two pan-European integrated land use models that utilise the same climatic and socio-economic scenarios but which adopt fundamentally different modelling paradigms. One of these is a constrained optimising economic-equilibrium model, and the other is a stochastic agent-based model. We run both models for a range of scenario combinations and compare their projections of spatially aggregate and disaggregate land use changes and ecosystem service supply levels in food, forest and associated environmental systems. We find that the models produce very different results in some scenarios, with simulated food production varying by up to half of total demand and the extent of intensive agriculture varying by up to 25 % of the EU land area. The agent-based model projects more multifunctional and heterogeneous landscapes in most scenarios, providing a wider range of ecosystem services at landscape scales, as agents make individual, time-dependent decisions that reflect economic and non-economic motivations. This tendency also results in food shortages under certain scenario conditions. The optimisation model, in contrast, maintains food supply through intensification of agricultural production in the most profitable areas, sometimes at the expense of land abandonment in large parts of Europe. We relate the principal differences observed to underlying model assumptions and hypothesise that optimisation may be appropriate in scenarios that allow for coherent political and economic control of land systems, but not in scenarios in which economic and other scenario conditions prevent the changes in prices and responses required to approach economic equilibrium. In these circumstances, agent-based modelling allows explicit consideration of behavioural processes, but in doing so it provides a highly flexible account of land system development that is harder to link to underlying assumptions. We suggest that structured comparisons of parallel and transparent but paradigmatically distinct models are an important method for better understanding the potential scope and uncertainties of future land use change, particularly given the substantive differences that currently exist in the outcomes of such models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The purpose of the study is to study of the financial situation of Ukrainian workers during the Stalin communist assurance, to prove that as a result of the economic crisis, the product supply of workers on cards and in public cafes has deteriorated. In scientific research, the author relied on the basic principles of historical science - objectivity and historicism. The problem-chronological approach was used to determine the structure of the studio. Scientific novelty. The author proposes to consider the lack of food and hunger in the cities among the workers of UkrSSR in the first half of the 1930s because of the Communist Attack and the forcible seizure of bread by peasants. The bread confiscated from the peasants went abroad. The currency from the sale of grain was used to build of buildings of the first five-year. The state financed huge capital investments by issuing additional amounts of money not covered by commodities that caused inflation and, as a result, the economic crisis. Inflation has increased free market prices. In the context of forced harvests and the economic crisis, the state lacked bread for the normal supply of urban workers, so it introduced of the centralized distribution of products and then gradually withdrew a number of categories of workers from centralized supply. Author put into circulation the archival documents on the food supply policy of the townspeople (who were mostly workers) during the Communist Attack, indicating on the manifestations of starvation in the cities of the Ukrainian SSR. She calculated indicators of the real state of food supply for workers of industrial enterprises in Ukrainian cities, determined the state of catering, monitored the ability of workers and their dependents to survive during the forced industrialization, determined that the acute food crisis of the first half of the 1930s caused famine among urban workers of the UkrSSR. Conclusion. Based on the study of new archival documents and the analysis of statistics and memoirs, the author has shown that in the early 1930s, the government of a totalitarian Soviet state, due to the economic crisis, was unable to provide industrial workers and their dependents with food either at work or outside. In the face of acute food shortages in the cities of Soviet Ukraine, a large number of townspeople and peasants were starving, trying to escape the famine by overcoming the blockade and walking into the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the year 2050, it is expected that the global human population will outgrow the current food supply. It is a year of concern for those in the agricultural sciences, and many projects and initiatives are designed around solving this problem [1], [3], [5], [6]. From genetically modified foods, stronger antibiotics and fungicides, to upgraded crop models, everyone in this area is hard at work finding the best solution to the impeding food shortage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the Irish famine of 1879-81, which was the last main Irish famine. A combination of factors led to the crisis of 1879-81 having its greatest that saw the decline in the earnings seasonal migrant laborers. The major reason for the crisis was the failure of the potato crop, with the average yield for the potato in 1879 falling to only 1.4 tons.

The goal of this paper is to assess the current trends in research on food waste management innovations in social sciences and mapping them. To achieve this, 107 articles were extracted from the Web of Science database with the keywords food waste and innovations/technologies. Then, we grouped them in accordance with part of supply chain they concern and type of innovation they propose. We identified that the majority of the innovations concern the final stages of the food supply chain. It makes them more suitable for developed countries, where the wastage is the greatest in this phase of production. It also indicates a research gap in waste-reduction technologies in the initial stages of the food supply chain. Improvements in this field may be particularly beneficial from the food security point of view, because countries suffering from food shortages waste most of their supplies in the early stages of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ekonomika APK is the property of Economy of Argo-Industrial Complex and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article provides quantitative assessments of the great famines that occurred in Vietnam and Java in 1944–1945, which together claimed the lives of some 3.4 million people. It shows that in both Vietnam and Java, harvest shortfalls, in which weather figured prominently, were so large that insufficient food was available to feed everyone. Nevertheless, in both instances, even with the pressures of war and weather, governments could have acted differently and largely, perhaps even wholly, prevented famine. Although Java's famine had few political repercussions, Vietnam's was instrumental in the August 1945 Viet Minh and communist revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crops are the major source of food supply and raw materials for the processing industry. A balance between crop production and food consumption is continually threatened by plant diseases and adverse environmental conditions. This leads to serious losses every year and results in food shortages, particularly in developing countries. Presently, cutting-edge technologies for genome sequencing and phenotyping of crops combined with progress in computational sciences are leading a revolution in plant breeding, boosting the identification of the genetic basis of traits at a precision never reached before. In this frame, machine learning (ML) plays a pivotal role in data-mining and analysis, providing relevant information for decision-making towards achieving breeding targets. To this end, we summarize the recent progress in next-generation sequencing and the role of phenotyping technologies in genomics-assisted breeding toward the exploitation of the natural variation and the identification of target genes. We also explore the application of ML in managing big data and predictive models, reporting a case study using microRNAs (miRNAs) to identify genes related to stress conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Turismo & Desenvolvimento (RT&D) / Journal of Tourism & Development is the property of Associacao de Gestao e Planeamento em Turismo da Universidade de Aveiro (AGPTUA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Severe weather events pose significant risks to food supply chains that are reliant upon critical infrastructures such as road and rail. Can local food procurement arrangements, and contingency plans based on those arrangements, help to ameliorate food shortage in times of crisis? This article explores how governments can empower communities to this end. A broader research project provides the basis of insights and recommendations to aid policy practitioners who seek to develop food-related disaster resilience at the community level. The findings call for the following: the adoption of policies that facilitate the procurement of local food; informing council planning; facilitating shared control with those who want these changes to occur; removing the barriers to change; and utilising a suite of consultation and engagement policies to these ends. It is argued that the Australian regional context of South-East Queensland, with its inherent issues of rapid population growth, has immediate relevance to international contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The civilian food shortages and accompanying malnutrition that characterised the latter stages of the First World War were instrumental in fundamentally changing the course of European history. In Russia, food shortages were a key underlying factor in precipitating the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, while in Germany, food shortages led to the so-called 'turnip winter' of 1917, which effectively helped to undermine commitment to the war effort and contribute to the country's defeat. In spite of Britain's precarious dependence on imported food, and the shipping losses inflicted by German U-boats, the population was less badly affected. This achievement has been attributed to the work undertaken by Lord Rhondda, the second food controller, whose actions were characterised as the 'heroic age of food control'. This article uses evidence from official government reports, newspapers and diaries, memoirs and biographies to challenge the prevailing historiography about the success of food control measures in Britain during the First World War. It shows that the Ministry of Food under Lord Rhondda's period of tenureship was not only indecisive, but that efforts to save the nation from malnutrition, if not actual starvation, were in large part the result of initiatives implemented at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because migration is highly time‐constrained and migration timing varies among individuals, the responses of migrants to food shortage at a refuelling site could differ between individuals that arrive early and late at the site. To test this hypothesis, we compared the stopover decision, in terms of occurrence and length of stay (LOS), of radiotagged Great Knots Calidris tenuirostris before (2012) and after (2015) a dramatic decline in food supply at a critical spring final pre‐breeding refuelling site in the northern Yellow Sea. The probability of occurrence at the refuelling site was consistent between the two years, whereas the average LOS significantly shortened in the year of food shortage in late‐arriving individuals. This suggests migration timing intensifies the influence of food shortage in late‐arriving individuals, which might be more sensitive and vulnerable to food shortage at refuelling sites compared with early‐arriving individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper approaches the subject of food supply in late Roman warfare from the perspective of military mutiny, with a view to highlighting the political importance of effective logistics for maintenance of troop loyalty and discipline. It begins by contextualizing the subject against earlier periods of Roman history, especially the Republic, when food shortage was an important contributory factor in a number of high-profile cases of military mutiny. Mutiny appears to have been less common during the Principate and the Late Empire, at least until the sixth and early seventh centuries, and when mutiny did occur, food shortage was rarely a factor. While this might seem an anti-climactic conclusion, the paper contends that it provides corroboration of the effectiveness and flexibility of army supply arrangements in the Late Empire. It discusses late Roman evidence for awareness of the dangers of food shortages for soldiers' allegiances and emphasizes how the important role of mobile field armies in the Late Empire placed particular pressures on arrangements for military food supply. The apparent lack of military mutinies arising from food shortages during the Late Empire therefore assumes greater significance than might at first seem to be the case. [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]

Animals that spend more energy than they obtain risk entering allostatic overload, reducing survival and fitness. They are predicted to adjust their daily energy expenditure (DEE) during periods of food scarcity. Adjustments of DEE to changes in food availability have been well-studied in species in temperate zones during winter, but less so in species enduring seasonal droughts. Likely mechanisms regulating DEE involve adjustments of activity and maintenance metabolism. Species that experience seasonal droughts and changes in food availability, like the African striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio), are appropriate model organisms to study the regulation of seasonal changes of DEE. We quantified DEE using the ‘doubly labelled water’ method, measured resting metabolic rate (RMR), and concomitantly determined activity levels using all-day focal observations of 69 free-living striped mice in the cold moist season with high food availability and the hot dry season with low food availability. Striped mice decreased their DEE in the food scarce dry season using multiple mechanisms, especially reductions in RMR, and reduced overall physical activity. This was further facilitated passively by reduced thermoregulatory costs. Our study demonstrates that animals reduce DEE via active and passive mechanisms in food-restricted environments, and highlights that several environmental factors should be considered simultaneously when aiming to understand how animals cope with harsh environments. [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]

The objective of this study was to explore how low-income parents recall and describe childhood experiences with food insecurity. Little is known about how adults remember food insecurity experienced in childhood, yet there are potential implications for subsequent behavior including parents' willingness and ability to adopt recommended child feeding practices. To guide development of a measure of previous childhood food insecurity for research and screening purposes, we conducted interviews exploring parents' emic perspectives on these early life course experiences and reactions to potential survey items. A diverse group of 27 low-income mothers in New York State was interviewed in depth; data were coded and analyzed qualitatively for emergent themes. In recounting childhood memories, participants expressed strong emotions and strove to portray their parents positively, emphasizing that parents did their best to ensure that children "always had something to eat." Rather than dwell on food insecurity, participants preferred to share memories of family strategies to mitigate food shortages (e.g., asking relatives for money, "stretching" meals). Participants' memories of these strategies to increase food access and acceptability and adequacy of meals were summarized in a framework integrating key themes. The emotional salience of childhood food insecurity memories suggests that these experiences could have significant implications for parental adoption of child feeding recommendations and should be considered when designing nutrition interventions. Measurement challenges identified included adults' limited recall and awareness of food insecurity during childhood, stigma, and desire to portray parents positively. Qualitative analysis of rich, emic data on food insecurity experiences offered insights on the most relevant constructs to address in survey measures of this potential antecedent of current practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares dearth policies developing in three regions in northwes­tern Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: East Anglia, coastal Picar­dy and Upper Normandy, and Holland. Based on a survey of existing research, it examines the reactions of authorities to food crises and the factors shaping these reactions. Two elements of dearth policy are investigated: restrictions on the grain trade on the one hand, and public grain stocks on the other. The ar­ticle shows how social, political and economic characteristics of each region af­fected the way in which the authorities attempted to manage food crises, but also demonstrates that the exigencies of dearth were strong enough to partly overcome differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early-life food conditions can have profound impact on adult behavioural performance. In song birds, early-life food conditions affect adult physiology and cognitive performance such as song learning and spatial learning. However, effects on reproductive behaviour other than song, such as visual courtship display, pair formation, and egg laying, which are all important determinants of fitness, received hardly any attention. In this study, rock pigeons Columba livia were raised either in a food ad-libitum or at impoverished (quality) and restricted (quantity) food conditions, in which the latter was applied for either 26 or 8 d after hatching and in slightly different severity. Their growth and reproductive behaviour in adulthood was analysed under semi-natural conditions. Impoverished and restricted food (IRF) negatively affected adult body mass, pair-bonding behaviour, courtship (males) and being courted (females), and induced incomplete compensatory growth. Further analyses suggest that the effects of IRF on behaviour could result from the strong effects on body mass, and perhaps also from detrimental effects of compensatory growth. These results provide evidence that adverse early-life condition can negatively impact on reproductive success, as suggested by the significant effect on egg production, which will very likely lead to a lower life-time fitness. The detrimental effects on male courtship indicate that IRF can affect sexual displays via other pathways than by impaired cognition as has been suggested for bird song, since courtship in the pigeons is not learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two historiographic currents have debated whether early modern Portugal was cursed by an excessive dependence on agricultural imports due to being unable to feed its population. In this short paper, the first long-run systematic quantitative study of this question, we show that the former view is a myth and therefore could not be a curse. Throughout the entire period, a certain amount of grain was in fact imported but cereal purchases abroad never represented more than a diminutive percentage of total food consumption. More importantly, the country carried out a diversified trade in foodstuffs which was seldom seriously out of balance. Portuguese agriculture showed itself consistently capable of specializing in different foodstuffs for export. It was thus not hopelessly inefficient and succeeded reasonably well in meeting the basic nutritional needs of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s, historical documentarists Olle Häger and Hans Villius at the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation made both a documentary and a dramatic television production about the famine years of the 1860s. The productions indicate that a class perspective dominated popular culture at the time. Yet, not least the documentary ("Ett satans år," [One Year of Satan] 1977) is evidence of how media producers sought to communicate seriously about famine in the past, at the same time relating to contemporary issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]