A comprehensive compilation of entries illuminates the key trends, activities, and themes in organic, sustainable, and local food, covering consumers, organizations, farming, policies, and much more. The Encyclopedia of Organic, Sustainable, and Local Food pulls together a fascinating array of diverse, interdisciplinary topics to provide a thorough overview of our current alternative food system. With increasing attention focused on organic and local food, many people are attracted to these sustainable food choices. Yet despite its popularity, there are misconceptions and a general lack of understanding about organic and local food. This encyclopedia illuminates social concerns, economic trends, policy influences, and ecological terms to provide a comprehensive overview. Contributions from expert authors from government agencies, research universities, and private organizations provide key information on each of these relevant topics. Eating is a basic human activity, yet many people do not know where their food comes from. This book helps readers fill the gap between the trendy and the factual.

Organic Food and Farming: A Reference Handbook is a valuable resource for students and general readers curious about the history, evolution, and growth of the organic food movement. Organic Food and Farming: A Reference Handbook begins with a deep dive into the origins of organic farming, offering a clear discussion of what constitutes organic production and how that has changed over time. Next, the volume provides a comprehensive overview of growth of organics as both an industry and a social movement and the inherent challenges that occur from trying to be both. The book additionally covers controversial issues and challenges, along with good news about what is working and what is possible. Included are essays by scholars, farmers, and experts working with NGOs as well as profiles of key people and organizations in the organic sector. Additional chapters include data and documents, a comprehensive resource list, and a detailed chronology of the key events in the history of the organic sector. Distinguishing it from others that laud or dismiss organic food and farming practices is this book's objective nature, which allows it to be used as a definitive resource on the topic.

The Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, Three Volume Set covers the hottest topics in the science of food sustainability, providing a synopsis of the path society is on to secure food for a growing population. It investigates the focal issue of sustainable food production in relation to the effects of global change on food resources, biodiversity and global food security. This collection of methodological approaches and knowledge derived from expert authors around the world offers the research community, food industry, scientists and students with the knowledge to relate to, and report on, the novel challenges of food production and sustainability. This comprehensive encyclopedia will act as a platform to show how an interdisciplinary approach and closer collaboration between the scientific and industrial communities is necessary to strengthen our existing capacity to generate and share research data. Offers readers a ‘one-stop’ resource on the topic of food security and sustainability Contains articles split into sections based on the various dimensions of Food Security and Food Sustainability Written by academics and practitioners from various fields and regions with a “farm to fork understanding Includes concise and accessible chapters, providing an authoritative introduction for non-specialists and readers from undergraduate level upwards, as well as up-to-date foundational content for those familiar with the field

Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems, Second Edition, Five Volume Set addresses important issues by examining topics of global agriculture and food systems that are key to understanding the challenges we face. Questions it addresses include: Will we be able to produce enough food to meet the increasing dietary needs and wants of the additional two billion people expected to inhabit our planet by 2050? Will we be able to meet the need for so much more food while simultaneously reducing adverse environmental effects of today’s agriculture practices? Will we be able to produce the additional food using less land and water than we use now? These are among the most important challenges that face our planet in the coming decades. The broad themes of food systems and people, agriculture and the environment, the science of agriculture, agricultural products, and agricultural production systems are covered in more than 200 separate chapters of this work. The book provides information that serves as the foundation for discussion of the food and environment challenges of the world. An international group of highly respected authors addresses these issues from a global perspective and provides the background, references, and linkages for further exploration of each of topics of this comprehensive work. Addresses important challenges of sustainability and efficiency from a global perspective. Takes a detailed look at the important issues affecting the agricultural and food industries today. Full colour throughout.

Compelling portraits of organic farmers bring to life facts and figures in an extensive overview of the phenomenal growth in recent years of organic production and consumption.

Sustainable Planet is a two-volume resource that provides comprehensive coverage on the world's most pressing environmental issues, their impact in countries around the world, and how—or if—they are being addressed. Sustainable Planet: Issues and Solutions for Our Environment's Future examines contemporary challenges to sustainability, including population, climate change, decreasing biodiversity, land degradation, and water quality. Each chapter analyzes one of these challenges by first providing an introduction to the topic as well as key concepts to provide readers with a basic understanding of the issue. Essays deepen comprehension by investigating different aspects of the challenge. Case studies written by experts in the field follow. Each case study considers how a specific country is affected by the particular issue as well as the measures the country is taking to find solutions that will provide for a more sustainable future. The final chapter of the book explores sustainability at a global level by examining, through annotated primary documents, a number of multinational initiatives and alliances intended to create a more sustainable planet.