Search Results (5,981)

In the event of a nuclear or volcanic winter, up to two-thirds of sunlight could be blocked (abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios, ASRS), leading to a worldwide crop failure. There are some similarities between such effects and the short northern summer. This suggests the possibility of transferring successful agricultural practices validated in high latitudes to tropical regions, especially low-tech solutions, which can be more easily implemented in the case of a global catastrophe. We show that equatorial regions’ temperatures under a 150 Tg (millions of tonnes of soot to the stratosphere) scenario of nuclear winter (around 15 °C average) are similar to summer temperatures in northern European regions of the former Soviet Union, which had functional agriculture. We identified the following main agricultural technologies which can be adapted: (a) cold-tolerant crops, first of all potatoes, but also rutabaga and fodder beet; (b) frost-protection technologies (night-covering, watering, bottles with water); (c) silage production in pits for animal feeding; (d) and low-labor-demanding crops. One meta lesson is making several bets on different food-producing technologies in the situation of risky agricultural practices. These findings contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) and highlight how historically validated, low-input agricultural knowledge can underpin sustainable food system resilience under extreme climate disruption. Full article

Climate change poses escalating risks to small-scale farmers’ food security across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), yet evidence on how adaptation strategies transform into food security outcomes remains fragmented and unevenly distributed. This study systematically reviewed 66 peer-reviewed studies retrieved from various databases including Sabinet African Journals, Web of Science and PubAg. The peer-reviewed studies were obtained through following PRISMA guidelines which involve searching criteria (using key words) and screening criteria (applying filters). The aim of this study was to synthesise climate-related challenges, adaptation strategies and policy gaps affecting small-scale farming systems in SSA. Empirical findings indicate that prolonged droughts, rainfall variability and temperature stress dominate climate-related challenges. Small-scale farmers’ adaptation responses cluster around technological and on-farm practices, integrated climate-smart agriculture, livelihood diversification, crop- and livestock-based strategies and knowledge-based interventions. As a result most strategies positively influence the availability, stability and access pillars of food security. However, adaptation effectiveness is strongly constrained by systemic policy gaps, notably weak extension and institutional support, limited access to finance and inputs, affordability and scalability barriers to CSA technologies. These constraints disproportionately affect resource-poor farmers, reinforcing inequalities and limiting the scalability of successful local adaptation. Therefore, strengthening institutional capacity, aligning policies with farmer realities, integrating local knowledge and gender considerations and expanding financial access emerge as central priorities for transforming adaptation efforts into sustained and equitable food security outcomes across SSA. Full article

Agriculture plays a key role in global food production, whereas organic waste management remains an important environmental challenge. Organic residue-derived compost represents a sustainable strategy for nutrient recycling, soil fertility improvement, and reduced reliance on synthetic fertilizers in horticultural systems. This study systematically reviewed the scientific literature on the application of compost in cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) cultivation to evaluate its effects on agronomic performance and production systems. A database search from 2004 to July 2025 identified 86 studies that met the predefined eligibility criteria. The analysis showed an increasing trend in research over the last two decades, with publications peaking in 2021. Most studies were conducted in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil, highlighting the relevance of the cherry tomato crop. The application of compost was associated with improved plant growth, nutrient availability, and crop productivity. The production cycles ranged from 37 to 220 days, with shorter cycles commonly observed in tropical environments. Rice husk compost is among the most frequently used organic amendments. Overall, compost represents an effective strategy to enhance agronomic performance and promote sustainable cherry tomato production worldwide. Full article

Oyster aquaculture plays a critical role in coastal social-ecological systems by providing ecosystem services such as economic benefits, food security, and environmental regulation; however, multiple biophysical and socio-economic stressors threaten its long-term sustainability. This study operationalizes the seven established resilience principles to identify strategies that enhance the resilience of oyster aquaculture globally. A scoping review following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines was conducted across Scopus, Web of Science, and JSTOR, yielding 345 peer-reviewed publications (2000–2026) from which 13 stressor categories and 15 mitigation strategy categories were identified. Diseases and pathogens constituted the most documented stressor (24.3%), followed by climate change and ocean acidification (9.9%). Among strategies, the governance, policy, and stakeholder engagement strategy was the most frequently used (12.8%). Classification by resilience principles revealed that managing slow variables and feedback (P3, 30.1%) and maintaining diversity and redundancy (P1, 22.6%) dominated the literature, while broadening participation (P6, 11.0%) and promoting polycentric governance (P7, 4.6%) were least represented, revealing a significant gap in the scientific literature between biophysical and socio-institutional research attention. Context-specific indicators were developed for each principle, providing a replicable framework linking stressors, strategies, and resilience principles applicable to diverse mariculture systems. Full article

In this review, I synthesize recent evidence showing how climate acceleration, biosphere disruption, food and freshwater insecurity, pollution, disease, and inequality are increasingly converging into a single, interconnected sustainability challenge. I show that the Anthropocene crisis extends far beyond climate warming and its impacts alone: current national commitments remain consistent with warming of approximately 2.3–2.5 °C under full implementation, while current policies could produce up to 2.8 °C; however, the remaining carbon budget for a 50% chance of limiting warming to 1.5 °C may be exhausted within only a few years, and the oil and gas industry has committed to a 14% increase in upstream production over the period 2024–2030. At the same time, pollution remains responsible for approximately nine million deaths annually; agriculture accounts for roughly 70% of global freshwater withdrawals; and groundwater depletion, continental drying, marine heatwaves, weakening carbon sinks, and intensifying precipitation extremes are destabilizing the ecological and hydrological systems that sustain human health and food security. This review’s incremental contribution is the integration of these trends within a justice-centered sustainability framework that links Earth-system feedback, public health burdens, water insecurity, and institutional failure rather than treating them as separate environmental problems. I argue that because vulnerability is produced not by exposure alone but by unequal access to infrastructure, wealth, governance capacity, and political power, a viable response therefore requires more than decarbonization: it demands ecological restoration, food and water-centered governance, pollution and disease mitigation, and justice-based institutional reform capable of sustaining human dignity, equity, and resilience within planetary boundaries. I encourage resilience and sustainability programs around the world to fold in these additional challenges to their missions and goals. Full article

Behavioural nudges modify choice architecture to steer food choices without removing alternatives or substantially changing economic incentives. This critical narrative review synthesises 62 sources from behavioural public policy, public health nutrition, food ethics, and sustainable food-system governance. It distinguishes healthy food nudges, sustainable food nudges, green nudges, and responsible food-system interventions, and compares availability, placement, defaults, labels, digital architecture, and mixed policy packages. The evidence shows that nudges influence immediate food selection, but effects are heterogeneous and weaker for sustained environmental outcomes. Price instruments address affordability, nudges address attention and convenience, and boosts strengthen decision competence; none can substitute for the others. Ethical acceptability requires a transparent, calibrated opt-out process, equity monitoring, disclosure of commercial motives, democratic accountability, and integration with structural policy. Public institutions and profit-driven digital platforms therefore require different governance safeguards. Nudges are most defensible as components of coordinated food-system policy rather than stand-alone solutions. Full article

For decades, industrial trans fatty acids (iTFAs) have remained a critical focus of the scientific community, the food industry, and regulatory authorities because of their well-established role in the development of cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, and chronic systemic inflammation. Rather than providing a descriptive overview, this review critically synthesizes current evidence on the elimination of industrial TFAs by integrating health, technological, regulatory, and sustainability perspectives into a comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis. The review outlines the biochemical characteristics and dietary sources of trans fatty acid isomers, highlighting the continuing scientific debate regarding the differential health effects of industrially produced and naturally occurring ruminant-derived TFAs. It also examines the evolution of scientific evidence that led to major regulatory actions by international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Commission, resulting in legally binding restrictions that have substantially reduced industrial TFA intake and improved public health. Particular emphasis is placed on the critical assessment of current fat reformulation strategies, considering not only their technological functionality but also their nutritional quality, long-term metabolic implications, and contribution to sustainable food systems. Full hydrogenation, fractionation, chemical and enzymatic interesterification, and oleogelation are comparatively evaluated with respect to their advantages, limitations, and potential technological, nutritional, and environmental trade-offs. In addition, lipid microencapsulation is discussed as an emerging strategy for protecting oxidation-sensitive polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), thereby facilitating their incorporation into functional foods while maintaining nutritional quality. Unlike previous reviews that primarily focus on health outcomes or individual processing technologies, this review systematically integrates the sustainability dimensions of alternative fat modification approaches, including resource efficiency, energy consumption, clean label product development, and circular economy principles. Furthermore, it identifies current knowledge gaps related to the long-term metabolic safety, industrial scalability, and environmental performance of emerging lipid technologies. By combining these complementary perspectives, the review provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary synthesis that supports evidence-based fat reformulation and offers practical guidance for researchers, food manufacturers, and policy makers seeking to develop safer, nutritionally improved, technologically functional, and environmentally sustainable lipid systems. Full article

This scoping review synthesizes 35 studies on sensor technologies and artificial intelligence for fruit detection, classification, and quality assessment, contrasting Latin American and international research traditions. The analysis suggests notable differences in technological approaches between the included Latin American and international studies: Latin American research tends to emphasize in developing accessible, practical solutions using classical computer vision and low-cost hardware, while international studies more frequently employ through deep learning architectures, multi-modal sensing, and complete robotic automation systems. Across the included studies, relatively limited attention was given to AI-assisted decision support for agricultural practitioners, insufficient consideration of inclusivity, and the scarce integration of environmental sustainability into intelligent sensing system design. The review identifies that only 8 of 35 studies originate from Latin America, suggesting an uneven geographical distribution of the available evidence. The included studies generally reported high accuracy values, yet these findings must be interpreted with caution given the reliance on curated datasets that may not represent real-world variability. The reviewed evidence suggests that future research may benefit not from one approach dominating the other, but from a thoughtful integration of complementary strategies, including knowledge transfer, edge computing democratization, and human-centered design. Overall, this review suggests that the ultimate goal extends beyond accuracy metrics to the transformation of agricultural practices that enhance food security, economic development, and environmental sustainability across the global agricultural landscape. It is important to note that this work does not propose or validate a new fruit detection algorithm but rather synthesizes and critically evaluates existing scientific evidence regarding sensor technologies and artificial intelligence applied to fruit detection and quality assessment. Full article

Global food systems must balance productivity with environmental sustainability amid climate change, geopolitical shocks, and unevenly distributed natural resources. This study introduces the Food Supply Sustainability Index (FSSI), a transparent, composite measure of the sustainability of a nation’s food production including international trade, and future climate-driven trade dynamics, with a distance-to-target method. Using FAO and IFPRI data, the FSSI categorises countries into five sustainability classes across three pillars: carbon footprint, soil degradation, and water stress. The results show high-income countries produce food less sustainably, while low-income countries do so more sustainably yet are more vulnerable to climate change and trade disruptions. The FSSI therefore recognises that trade redistributes rather than removes environmental risk, creating a more evenly distributed yet persistent global vulnerability to shocks. Under future climate scenarios, the index identifies that sustainability worsens in poorer regions, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, exposing countries to food insecurity. By combining multiple environmental dimensions into a single metric, the FSSI enables countries to benchmark sustainability performance and identify priority areas for intervention. The FSSI supports policies such as aligning imports with sustainability criteria, diversifying suppliers toward lower-impact origins, and supporting sustainable intensification in low-income settings. The FSSI provides a replicable, policy-relevant tool to assess, compare, and communicate global food system sustainability. Full article

Objective: To synthesise contemporary Australian evidence on how local governments act to support healthier, sustainable and equitable food environments, and to examine the governance arrangements, policy and planning levers, monitoring practices, and implementation conditions shaping local action. Methods: A rapid review of peer-reviewed and grey literature published between January 2015 and February 2026 was performed. Searches were conducted in Medline Complete, CINAHL Complete, Health Policy Reference Centre and Scopus, alongside structured grey literature searches. Included documents addressed Australian LG food environment roles, policies, planning, governance, or monitoring. Findings were narratively synthesised and mapped to national research priorities. Results: Thirty-eight documents were included (23 peer-reviewed studies and 15 grey literature reports). Evidence clustered most strongly around food systems and food security, governance and multisectoral partnerships, and food environment monitoring, particularly food access profiling, affordability monitoring and mapping activities. In contrast, the extent of coverage on statutory planning mechanisms, formal regulatory powers, and consumer behaviour outcomes was limited. Reports of evaluated interventions were concentrated in bounded organisational settings where councils held clearer jurisdiction, such as sport and recreation facilities. Across contexts, LGs were commonly positioned as convenors, brokers and enablers operating within constrained mandates and fragmented multi-level governance settings. Reported enablers included leadership, dedicated resourcing, partnerships and access to local data; common barriers included limited statutory authority, short-term funding and weak vertical policy integration. Conclusions: Australian local governments are active food system actors, but stronger statutory integration, clearer decision pathways, and more consistent monitoring and evaluation are needed to translate local activity into sustained improvements in healthy, sustainable and equitable food environments. Full article

Balancing food production, ecosystem service value, and agricultural irrigation water consumption is a major challenge for sustainable agricultural development in China. However, quantitative evidence at the national scale remains limited on whether crop planting structure optimization derived from models can effectively achieve coordination among these three objectives. Existing studies mainly focus on individual crops or localized regions and rarely integrate the spatiotemporal evolution, influencing factors, and multi-objective optimization of major staple crops within a unified framework. This study developed a progressive framework integrating spatiotemporal evolution analysis, influencing factor identification, and planting structure optimization for wheat, rice, and maize. Spatial autocorrelation analysis, center-of-gravity shift analysis, and pixel-based image differencing were applied to reveal crop evolution patterns across China from 2000 to 2025. A five-dimensional indicator system comprising 17 quantitative indicators was developed through multiple experiments using four large language models, and the Random Forest algorithm was employed to identify key influencing factors and their relative importance. Based on these factors, optimization constraints were constructed, and a multi-objective fuzzy linear programming model combined with the NSGA-II algorithm was used to determine optimal crop area allocation across 28 provincial-level regions. The three staple crops exhibited a significant pattern of northward shift, eastward expansion, and southern contraction. Precipitation and market accessibility were common core influencing factors, ranking among the top five factors in all nine Random Forest models. Crop-specific factors, including soil available phosphorus for rice, accumulated active temperature for wheat, and soil pH for maize, explained differences in spatial responses among crops and provided a scientific basis for optimization modeling and coordinated improvement of food production, ecosystem service value, and irrigation water consumption. The optimized scheme increased total grain output by 3.6%, improved ecosystem service value by 11.0%, and reduced irrigation water consumption by 45.7% compared with the actual planting structure, all 28 provinces achieved improvement or stability in the three indicators simultaneously. Based on optimized crop allocation patterns, national planting structures were summarized into regional models, including a rice–maize dual-core system in Northeast China, wheat–maize rotation in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, rice-dominated systems in the middle and lower Yangtze River Basin and South China, water-efficient dryland farming in Northwest China, and a diversified balanced system in Southwest China. These findings provide a quantitative reference for optimizing China’s staple crop planting structure. Full article

The sustainability of Coffea arabica L. production in Oaxaca, Mexico, is increasingly threatened by climate change, biodiversity loss, and pest pressure, along with other factors that undermine the responsiveness of small-scale producers in the state, such as trade restrictions and coffee-related regulatory frameworks. These challenges are particularly acute in mountainous regions like Oaxaca, where coffee cultivation plays a central role in rural livelihoods, cultural identity, and territorial development. Studies demonstrate that localized models are vital for rural improvement, reducing the carbon footprint, and maintaining economic viability. Despite extensive research on agronomic, environmental, and market factors, sustainability strategies for coffee production often remain fragmented and insufficiently integrated. This systematic review used the Scopus Review database, searching by title, abstract, and keywords such as “sustainable coffee production” from 2015 to 2026. A total of 1085 documents were retrieved and processed using VOSviewer software to generate a bibliographic map in which frequently used words are grouped by color to show their relationships. Using Oaxaca as a regional case study, the article synthesizes the key factors influencing coffee productivity and quality, examines the main socio-environmental challenges, and proposes a conceptual framework that integrates agroecosystem management with socioeconomic processes under external climate and market pressures. The proposed framework highlights the central role of agroforestry systems and ecosystem services in improving climate resilience, conserving biodiversity, and supporting quality-oriented value chains. These processes generate feedback loops that influence farmers’ livelihoods, food security, and territorial sustainability. While grounded in the context of Oaxaca, the socio-ecological review and conceptual framework presented here are applicable to other Arabica-producing regions facing similar challenges, providing a structured basis for future research, policy design, and integrated sustainability strategies. Full article

Food and beverage contamination by microbial and chemical hazards during product processing and handling has significant risks to quality, public health, and regulatory compliance. Cleaning and sanitation practices are essential components of food safety management systems, with their effectiveness dependent on factors such as product characteristics, residue composition, surface properties, biofilm formation, and environmental conditions during production and processing. A comprehensive analysis of cleaning agents and sanitizers, including alkaline, acidic, enzymatic, surfactants, and oxidizing compounds, as well as emerging and sustainable approaches (e.g., organic acid-based formulations, bio-based surfactants, electrolyzed water, and ozone), and their roles during the processing and handling of products, is key to minimizing risks but also to creating resilience in the entire food chain. This review highlights the importance of understanding food-soil composition when selecting appropriate cleaning solutions and methods, particularly for removing carbohydrate-, protein-, fat-, and mineral-based residues, as well as biofilms from food-contact surfaces. Sector-specific challenges, such as biofilm persistence in seafood processing, fouling in dairy operations, moisture control in low-moisture food facilities, and microbial contamination in fresh produce, meat, poultry, cereal grain, and beverage processing, are also discussed. The overall goal is to support researchers, food industry professionals, and regulatory stakeholders in selecting and optimizing cleaning and sanitizing protocols that ensure food safety and regulatory compliance across diverse food industries. Full article

Aquaponics integrates fish culture with hydroponic plant production, enabling a sustainable approach to food production through nutrient recycling. This study evaluated the growth performance of three freshwater fish species—catfish (Silurus asotus; T₁), leather carp (Cyprinus carpio nudus; T₂), and goldfish (Carassius auratus; T₃)—reared in an indoor aquaponics system with three replications over 50 days and assessed their effects on water quality and apple mint (Mentha suaveolens) production. Water quality, fish, and plant growth parameters were monitored throughout the study. T₁ exhibited significantly greater fish and plant growth performance than T₂ and T₃ (p < 0.05), thereby increasing nutrient input into the culture water. In contrast, T₂ and T₃ exhibited lower fish growth but higher survival rates. Significant differences in fish proximate composition were observed among treatments (p < 0.05). T₃ exhibited higher moisture and crude lipid contents, whereas T₁ and T₂ showed higher crude protein contents. Water quality and mineral concentrations remained within acceptable aquaponic ranges. Species-specific differences influenced nutrient accumulation and system dynamics, demonstrating that fish species selection strongly influences both fish productivity and plant performance. The catfish–apple mint combination showed the highest potential for nutrient recycling and biomass production under controlled conditions, but long-term sustainability may depend on optimizing catfish management to mitigate mortality. Full article

The United Nations, in developing the Sustainable Development Goals, pays particular attention to cities, as they are crucial to achieving established benchmarks. Globally, many cities have high levels of food insecurity, and food access is a major component of the problem. Cities have increasingly complex and interdependent food environments. Yet, urban food systems are not well understood with respect to the impacts of redlining, residential segregation, and food store closures on food outlet distribution. Limited work is also being done on the relationship between urban sustainability efforts and food access. Here, we analyze 2229 open and closed food outlets in the Greater Grand Rapids area of southwest Michigan to examine their distribution and whether disparities are evident. We examined the impact of historic redlining on the distribution of food outlets. We also described sustainability efforts in the study area and the way county and city plans connect food access with sustainability. Roughly half of the food outlets are restaurants, 13.3% are small grocery and convenience stores, and 6.3% are pharmacies, dollar stores, and variety stores. Supermarkets and large grocery stores, which are the subject of most food access studies, account for 5% of food outlets. The most reliable predictors of food outlet distribution in the fully adjusted regression models are HOLC classification grade, median household income, educational attainment, and population density. The racial composition of the census tract was significant in only one model. The study leads us to urge more researchers to compare cities and adjacent municipalities, as income dynamics, neighborhood characteristics, population density, and educational attainment vary across urban, suburban, and rural areas. Full article