Food (main)

Food

In its simplest form food could be defined as any substance with the capacity to be turned into energy by living things. In its most complex, food is attributed with the power to sustain the development of human civilizations. While in its most basic form food is common and essential to all species, humans have commodified food to the extent that billions of individuals, in both the poorest and wealthiest of nations suffer from hunger. Today food is at the center of debates about health, about family farms versus industrial farms, water and land use, economics and genetically modified organisms.

International Food Security Assessment: 2012-22 Food security is estimated to improve slightly in 2012 as the number of food-insecure people in the 76 countries covered in this report declines from 814 million in 2011... More »

Farmer-herder conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa The study of herder-farmer relationships can be traced back as far as 1600 AD when white warriors, herders from the northern Sahel, continuously raided the black agricultural... More »

Food Allergy Risk Increased Risk for Food Allergies: Children, Males and Blacks A new study estimates that 2.5 percent of the United States population, or about 7.6 million Americans, have food... More »

What is pollination Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create... More »

How Safe Is Our Food This commentary article written by J. Glenn Morris, Jr.*, appeared first in Emerging Infectious Diseases—a peer-reviewed, open access journal published by the U.S.... More »

Bisphenol A (Food) Bisphenol A (BPA) is used in the production of polycarbonate plastic products including baby bottles, plastic water bottles and the lining of food cans. Additionally BPA is... More »

Food Security / Insecurity: Call for Articles The intent of this core article is to encourage the generation of a set of associated articles focused on the challenges and opportunities facing humankind in addressing food... More »

Integrated Farm System Model The Integrated Farm System Model With tighter profit margins and increasing environmental constraints, strategic planning of farm production systems is becoming both more... More »

Can Livestock, Prairie Dogs, and Fire Coexist? Main Image: Steer fitted with a global positioning system (GPS) collar to examine cattle responses to prescribed burns at the Central Plains Experimental Range in... More »

Malaysia- FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture Malaysia is situated in southeast Asia. It consists of two regions: peninsular Malaysia in the west lying between Thailand and Singapore, and the states of Sabah and Sarawak located in the east on the island of Borneo. The two regions are separated by the South China Sea. The total land area of the country is 328550km². Malaysia is a federal country, divided into 13states plus the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan Island.. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information. In peninsular Malaysia, a mountainous spine known as Banjaran Titiwangsa sepa-rates the east of the... More »

What Is Aquaculture? The term aquaculture broadly refers to the cultivation of aquatic organisms in controlled aquatic environments for any commercial, recreational or public purpose. The breeding, rearing and harvesting of plants and animals takes place in all types of water environments including ponds, rivers, lakes, the ocean, and man-made “closed” systems on land. Aquaculture serves many purposes including: Food production for human consumption; Rebuilding of populations of threatened and endangered species; Habitat restoration; Wild stock enhancement; Production of baitfish; and Fish culture for zoos and aquariums. It is one of the fastest growing forms of food production in the world. Because harvest from many wild fisheries has peaked globally, aquaculture is widely recognized as an effective way to meet the seafood demands of a growing population. Using aquaculture... More »

Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture Agricultural lands occupy 37% of the Earth’s land surface. Agriculture accounts for 52% and 84% of global anthropogenic methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Agricultural soils may also act as a sink or source for carbon dioxide (CO2), but the net flux is small. Many agricultural practices can potentially mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the most prominent of which are improved cropland and grazing land management and restoration of degraded lands and cultivated organic soils. Lower, but still significant mitigation potential is provided by water and rice management, set-aside, land use change and agroforestry, livestock management and manure management. The global technical mitigation potential from agriculture (excluding fossil fuel offsets from biomass) by 2030, considering all gases, is estimated to be ~5500-6000 megatonnes (Mt) CO2-eq. yr-1, with economic... More »

Agriculture and Climate Change The agriculture sector is a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which many scientists agree are contributing to observed climate change. Agriculture is also a “sink” for sequestering carbon, which might offset GHG emissions by capturing and storing carbon in agricultural soils. The two key types of GHG emissions associated with agricultural activities are methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Agricultural sources of CH4 emissions mostly occur as part of the natural digestive process of animals and manure management at livestock operations; sources of N2O emissions are associated with soil management and fertilizer use on croplands. This article describes these emissions on a carbon-equivalent basis to illustrate agriculture’s contribution to total national GHG emissions and to contrast emissions against estimates of sequestered carbon. Emissions from... More »

Animal food (Food) The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) defines Animal Food as: Any article intended for use as food for dogs, cats, or other animals derived wholly, or in part, from the carcass or parts or products of the carcass of any livestock, except that the term animal food as used herein does not include: Processed dry animal food or Livestock or poultry feeds manufactured from processed livestock byproducts (such as meatmeal tankage, meat and bonemeal, bloodmeal, and feed grade animal fat). More »