Home  About us  Contact
 

Food Studies (food + studies)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences40%

Selected Abstracts

Prediction of crop yield in Sweden based on mesoscale meteorological analysis

METEOROLOGICAL APPLICATIONS, Issue 4 2000
Valentin L Foltescu
This paper presents a prediction system for regional crop growth in Sweden, recently set up at SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute). The system includes a state-of-the-art crop growth model, WOFOST (WOrld FOod STudies) and inputs from meteorological mesoscale analysis. The simulated crops are spring barley, spring rape, oats and winter wheat, and the period of investigation is 1985,98. The simulated water-limited grain yield is used as a predictor in the yield prediction procedure. The technological time trend describing the yearly increase of the production level is accounted for as well. Yield prediction based on crop growth modelling is justified since the ability to forecast the yield is higher compared to that using the technological time trend alone. The prediction errors are of the order of 8 to 16%, with the lowest errors for winter wheat and spring barley. Copyright © 2000 Royal Meteorological Society [source]

Beyond the "Crisis" in African Food Studies

THE JOURNAL OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3-4 2003
Elias Mandala
[source]

Sowing the Seeds: Anthropological Contributions to Agrobiodiversity Studies

CULTURE, AGRICULTURE, FOOD & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 2 2009
James R. Veteto
Abstract Agrobiodiversity studies have been a longstanding and current research focus of anthropological inquiry. This article gives an overview of important ongoing anthropological topics of agrobiodiversity research including conservation, cultural memory, farmer decision making, and homegarden studies. It also points to future directions in agrobiodiversity research that have been understudied to date including agrobiodiversity and its relationship to climate change and migration, the potential marriage of agrobiodiversity and food studies, agrobiodiversity in the Global North, and the incorporation of agrobiodiversity into emergent sustainable/alternative agriculture systems. Agricultural anthropology is suggested as a potential holistic subdiscipline for incorporating anthropological studies of agrobiodiversity, which are currently not unified by any theoretical framework. [source]

Brominated flame retardants in US food

MOLECULAR NUTRITION & FOOD RESEARCH (FORMERLY NAHRUNG/FOOD), Issue 2 2008
Arnold Schecter
Abstract We and others recently began studying brominated flame retardant levels in various matrices in the US including human milk and other food. This paper reviews the food studies. In our studies, ten to thirteen polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners were measured, usually including BDE 209. All US women's milk samples were contaminated with PBDEs from 6 to 419 ng/g, lipid, orders of magnitude higher than levels reported in European studies, and are the highest reported worldwide. We compared our market basket studies of meat, fish and dairy products with other US food studies of meat and fish. US studies showed somewhat higher levels of PBDEs than reported elsewhere. Fish were most highly contaminated (median 616 pg/g), then meat (median190 pg/g) and dairy products (median 32.2 pg/g). However, unlike some European countries where fish predominates, dietary intake of PBDEs in the US is mostly from meat, then fish and then dairy products. Broiling can decrease the amount of PBDEs per serving. We also measured levels of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), another brominated flame retardant, in human milk. The levels are lower than PBDEs, 0.16,1.2 ng/g, similar to European levels, unlike PBDEs where US levels are much higher than European levels. [source]