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Global Food Security (global + food_security)
Selected AbstractsThe Accelerating Biophysical Contradictions of Industrial Capitalist AgricultureJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 3 2010TONY WEIS The productivity of industrial capitalist agriculture is central to dominant development narratives. It is also highly unstable, with intractable biophysical problems created in the substitution of labour, skill and knowledge with technology, and overridden with unsustainable ,technological fixes' and masked by a host of externalized costs. Relatively cheap oil is central to this, effectively subsidizing the low-priced industrial grains and oilseeds on which global food security has come to hinge. However, the chronic biophysical contradictions of industrial capitalist agriculture are accelerating, at the same time as the surge in biofuels has augmented the still-rising demand of livestock feed to embolden industrial producers. A period of acute and ominously regressive food price volatility looms in the short term, with more ruinous outcomes ahead. But this might also widen openings for rebuilding biodiverse food systems and remaking and valorizing agricultural work, which will involve rethinking agriculture's place in conceptions of development and modernity. [source] Meeting the ecological challenges of agricultural change: editors' introductionJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2003S. J. Ormerod Summary 1The global need for agricultural production has never been greater. Nor has it ever been more complex due to the needs to balance global food security, optimum production, technological innovation, the preservation of environmental functions and the protection of biodiversity. The role of ecologists in finding this balance is pivotal. 2In support of this role, ecologists now have very substantial experience of agricultural systems. We can understand, recognize and sometimes predict, at least qualitatively, the effects of pesticide applications, fertilizer use, drainage, crop choices and habitat modifications on farmland organisms, agro-ecosystems or other ecosystems influenced by agricultural land. 3In instances of greater uncertainty, for example under changing climates, where environmental stresses on ecosystems are interactive, and where ecosystem management or restoration must adapt to new technologies, the investigative skills and experience of ecologists are even more crucial in problem solving. 4There are, nevertheless, contrasting examples of good and bad practice in knowledge-transfer between ecologists and the communities who need our knowledge. The UK farm-scale evaluations of genetically modified crops, for example, involved ecologists at all stages from design and data collection to advocating policy. By contrast, many European agri-environment projects appear to have been developed and evaluated with only modest ecological advice. We advocate fuller involvement of ecologists in the development and evaluation of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy. 5This special profile of seven agriculturally related papers illustrates effectively the array of approaches used by applied ecologists in addressing agricultural questions: modelling, meta-analysis, surveys, transect studies, classical experiments, seedbank assays and process studies based on modern ecological methods. With over 20% of recent papers in the Journal of Applied Ecology reflecting agricultural issues, agro-ecology continues to represent one of the pre-eminent areas of applied ecology that is unlikely to diminish in importance. [source] Control of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria of Xanthomonas spp. by the Essential Oil and Extracts of Metasequoia glyptostroboides Miki ex Hu In vitro and In vivoJOURNAL OF PHYTOPATHOLOGY, Issue 7-8 2010Vivek K. Bajpai Abstract Plant diseases constitute an emerging threat to global food security. Many of the currently available antimicrobial agents for agriculture are highly toxic and non-biodegradable and cause extended environmental pollution. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess the in vitro and in vivo antibacterial efficacy of the essential oil and organic extracts of Metasequoia glyptostroboides against plant pathogenic bacteria of Xanthomonas spp. The oil (1000 ,g/disc) and extracts (1500 ,g/disc) displayed potential antibacterial effect in vitro as a diameter of zones of inhibition against Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris KC94-17-XCC, X. campestris pv. vesicatoria YK93-4-XCV, X. oryzae pv. oryzae KX019-XCO and X. sp SK12, which were found in the range of 10,14 and 8,12 mm, respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values of oil and the extracts were ranged from 125,250 and 125 500 ,g/ml and 250,1000 and 250,2000 ,g/ml, respectively. Also the oil had strong detrimental effect on the viable count of the tested bacteria. Further, the oil displayed remarkable in vivo antibacterial effect up to 65 to 100% disease suppression efficacy against the tested strains of Xanthomonas spp. on greenhouse-grown oriental melon plants (Cucumis melo L. var. makuwa). These results suggest that the oil and extracts of M. glyptostroboides could be potential source of natural antibacterials for applying in food and agriculture industries to control plant bacterial diseases caused by Xanthomonas spp. [source] Bioengineering nitrogen acquisition in rice: can novel initiatives in rice genomics and physiology contribute to global food security?BIOESSAYS, Issue 6 2004Dev T. Britto Rice is the most important crop species on earth, providing staple food for 70% of the world's human population. Over the past four decades, successes in classical breeding, fertilization, pest control, irrigation and expansion of arable land have massively increased global rice production, enabling crop scientists and farmers to stave off anticipated famines. If current projections for human population growth are correct, however, present rice yields will be insufficient within a few years. Rice yields will have to increase by an estimated 60% in the next 30 years, or global food security will be in danger. The classical methods of previous green revolutions alone will probably not be able to meet this challenge, without being coupled to recombinant DNA technology. Here, we focus on the promise of these modern technologies in the area of nitrogen acquisition in rice, recognizing that nitrogen deficiency compromises the realization of rice yield potential in the field more than any other single factor. We summarize rice-specific advances in four key areas of research: (1) nitrogen fixation, (2) primary nitrogen acquisition, (3) manipulations of internal nitrogen metabolism, and (4) interactions between nitrogen and photosynthesis. We develop a model for future plant breeding possibilities, pointing out the importance of coming to terms with the complex interactions among the physiological components under manipulation, in the context of ensuring proper targeting of intellectual and financial resources in this crucial area of research. BioEssays 26:683,692, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||