Search results for "food systems"
showing 10 items of 63 documents
Social Innovation for Sustainability and the Common Good in Ecosystems of the Fourth Sector: The Case of Distribution Through Alternative Food Networ…
2021
There is increasing attention regarding the contribution of alternative food networks (AFN) for creating more sustainable communities. AFN are initiatives, which try to relocalize and democratize food systems, promoting local and organic agriculture, and reducing the distance between producers and consumers. They take different forms from cooperatives and farmers’ markets to on-line platforms, veg boxes and social enterprises. They propose socially innovative schemes and models for food distribution, which combine an orientation towards public and common good with economic self-sufficiency. In this sense, these initiatives frequently take the form of fourth sector or hybrid organizations.
Reducing salt and fat while maintaining taste: An approach on a model food system
2013
Unbalanced diets with an excess consumption of fat, salt and low‐size sugars contribute to the development of pathologies such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. As a consequence, worldwide healthcare authorities advocate salt, fat and sugar reduction in food. However, the multifunctional roles of these ingredients in both food composition and perception prevent a simple reduction of their content. Several strategies are currently investigated to design healthier food while maintaining its taste and consumer acceptability. Among these strategies, the one relying on crossmodal sensory compensation is tested within the framework of the EU‐TeRiFiQ research project. The main obj…
Influence of Two Different Coating Application Methods on the Maintenance of the Nutritional Quality of Fresh-Cut Melon during Storage
2021
This study aimed at evaluating the effects of two coating application methods, spraying and dipping, on the quality of fresh-cut melons. An alginate-based coating containing both ascorbic and citric acid was applied at two concentrations (5% and 10%) with both methods on fresh-cut melon. The nutritional quality of the products was investigated during 11 days of storage at 10 °C. The suitability and adaptability of the applied coatings on the fruit were evaluated based on rheological and microstructural properties. Moisture, carotenoids, total polyphenols and ascorbic acid content were analyzed on melon samples during storage. Results showed that the coating solution applied by the dipping m…
22. Developing principles and criteria for just transition in food systems: a transdisciplinary endeavour
2021
Sustainable Food vs. Unsustainable Politics in the City of Palermo: The Case of an Organic Farmers' Market
2011
The island of Sicily, Italy, and its main city, Palermo, appear an ideal scenario for sustainable food provisioning: the former being the first region in Italy for organically cultivated land, the latter Italy's fifth largest city. This article explores ideals and practices of sustainable urban food systems through an example of environmental consumer activism in Palermo. It does this by narrating the story of an organic farmers' market created by citizens and producers. The article reflects critically on understandings of food-related ‘sustainability’ held by the actors involved, showing the difficulties of operationalizing the concept for qualitative, socio-cultural research. It also high…
Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Structure, Boundaries, and Dynamics
2019
Recognizing the broader dimensions of entrepreneurial and innovation activities, holistic and inclusive networked approaches pave the way to co-creation activities that are essential for achieving sustainability in food systems. Recent studies have started to deepen what are the critical enablers for creating thriving entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems. Networks that include firms, institutions, and several other relevant stakeholders in knowledge spillovers enable to produce more social and economic value through co-creation processes. However, due to the unique complexity within ecosystems, there is no standardized framework or strategy to develop entrepreneurial or innovation ecos…
Agroecology and Strategies for Climate Change
2012
; Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion.Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. Indeed, sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur fro…
Progress towards sustainable agriculture – Drivers of change
2021
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 calls for global action to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”. Meeting this challenge requires global partnerships to support more productive, nutritious and equitable food systems, while helping to conserve environmental resources and reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions responsible for global climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) offers a global vision for a more sustainable agriculture that encompasses economic, social and environmental dimensions of food and agriculture systems. This technical study examines the key factors driving changes in…
Sustainable agriculture: Recognizing the potential of conflict as a positive driver for transformative change
2020
International audience; Transformative changes in agriculture at multiple scales are needed to ensure sustainability, i.e. achieving food security while fostering social justice and environmental integrity. These transformations go beyond technological fixes and require fundamental changes in cognitive, relational, structural and functional aspects of agricultural systems. However, research on agricultural transformations fails to engage deeply with underlying social aspects such as differing perceptions of sustainability, uncertainties and ambiguities, politics of knowledge, power imbalances and deficits in democracy. In this paper, we suggest that conflict is one manifestation of such und…
Legumes in 21st century Europe: present and future importance in agri-food systems? New challenges for reseach.
2013
Intensification of agriculture since 1950 has globally led to the decline of grain legume crops, which currently represent less than 3 % of arable crops in France and Europe. Nevertheless, legumes have several major assets (i) as plant proteins for animal feed and human food and (ii) as plants fixing atmospheric N2 and thereby saving nitrogen inputs in cropping systems, and (iii) as diversification crops. The analysis of forage and grain legume producing systems in France showed that the dominant system results in a lock-in of the different factors limiting legume insertion into the current systems. But legumes could have a major role to play in the agroecological transition towards more su…