Food Production Policies in Wartime

Peri-urban agriculture is defined as agriculture that has been undertaken on the periphery or fringes of urban areas. Agriculture in the peri-urban region is under tremendous pressure due to rapid urban developmental activities. The aim of the study is to analyze the role of peri-urban agriculture in the food supply. The present study has been constructed on secondary data of Delhi and its periphery. The food supply analysis depicts that high calories food is being produced in Delhi and the districts of CNCR due to the subsistence nature of farming in the area. On the contrary, due to high population pressure, acquisition of land, cultivation of remunerative crops, and availability of less net sown area in the area makes them food deficient in kilocalories. The pattern of food and non-food supply in monetary value depicts that very few districts of Delhi-Central NCR have deficit food and non-food supply in terms of money due to two reasons, first, farmers are quitting farming as a profession, and second, farming at subsistence level. Their agricultural produce gives them enough money so that they can buy food or other articles from the market.

The topic of food supply includes subjects such as the world food situation, food crises, food security and global diversion of production. The topic gives rise to many questions. An important question is whether access to food will be a limiting factor for the world's development and population growth. At the global level, to date, food production has been able to keep pace with population growth. The improved food situation in recent decades has largely been achieved by increasing productivity. As a result, the level of food security—calculated as the prevalence of malnourishment in the world—has improved. Food crises have played a major role in food supply and in the global security of supply, and it seems likely that food crises will occur more frequently in the future.

The aim of the article is to analyse the supplies for the population of Lithuania and aspects of everyday life in the years of the Nazi occupation. The objective is to discuss: 1) the characteristics of supplies for the population during the war years; 2) the system of supplies for the population; 3) the pricing policy applied by the Nazi occupation authorities; 4) operation of the black market during occupation years and measures by the occupation authorities against it; 5) social conditions of the urban population (manual and non-manual workers and craftsmen); and 6) the establishment of the garden allotment colonies by the urban population. Descriptive and comparative methods, analysis of sources and literature, and statistical data analysis are applied. The archival material and the press in the Nazi occupation period serve as the basis of the study. The article also draws on the available research material and other sources. The following are the conclusions of the study: 1. Poor supply of food to the population of Lithuania during the Nazi occupation period was determined by the attempts of the German occupation authorities to supply food to the troops first and only then supply it to the civilian population. Equally, prioritisation of the needs of the army and the lack of materials determined poor supply of industrial products to local residents.2. The German occupation authorities organised supply of food and other products through its central system specifically designed for the war period.3. Specific characteristics of supplies for the population during the war: regular shortages of the staple food and other products, problems with transportation of products, and very small food rations issued to the population.4. The pricing policy of the occupation authorities caused destruction of the Lithuanian economy: the prices were favourable only to German officials, soldiers, etc. who had Reichsmarks, but not to the local residents. Such pricing policy was also beneficial to Germany: the population of Germany could be provided with cheap raw materials and food products at the expense of the Lithuanian population.5. The strict rationing system for food and other products by the German occupation authorities, unrealistic prices and wages determined the emergence and success of the black market. Subsequently, the black market prevented efforts of occupying forces to curb inflation and deprived the market from many food and industrial products. The occupation authorities undertook strict measures against those who participated in the black market – from penalties to the death sentences.6. The social conditions of the Lithuanian urban population (manual and non-manual workers and craftsmen) in the years of the Nazi occupation were poor. Manual workers were in a particularly difficult situation: wages could not guarantee them even subsistence minimum. The situation of non-manual workers in industry was better. The situation of craftsmen during the years of the Nazi occupation was aggravated by high taxes, shortage of auxiliary workers, and shortage of the means and raw materials for production.7. Seeking to ensure peace, the occupation authorities were looking for ways to partly improve the supply of the local population with food. One of these measures was establishment of garden allotment colonies in towns. This campaign was quite successful among the poorly supplied Lithuanian population.

The US food supply is dominated by highly-processed packaged food and beverage products that are high in energy, saturated fat, sugar, and salt. We report results of a cross-sectional assessment of the 2018 US packaged food and beverage supply by nutritional composition and indicators of healthfulness and level of processing. Data were obtained through Label Insight’s Open Data database, which represents >80% of all food and beverage products sold in the US over the past three years. Healthfulness and the level of processing, measured by the Health Star Rating (HSR) system and the NOVA classification framework, respectively, were compared across product categories and leading manufacturers. Among 230,156 food and beverage products, the mean HSR was 2.7 (standard deviation (SD) 1.4) from a possible maximum rating of 5.0, and 71% of products were classified as ultra-processed. Healthfulness and level of processing varied substantially by category (range: HSR 1.1–3.9; 0–100% ultra-processed) and manufacturer (range: HSR 0.9–4.6; 26–100% ultra-processed). The US packaged food and beverage supply is large, heterogeneous, highly processed, and generally unhealthy. The wide variability in healthfulness and level of processing demonstrates that opportunities exist, through reformulation or replacement, for large-scale improvements to the healthfulness of the US packaged food and beverage supply.

Ensuring Safe Food for Infants: The Importance of an Integrated Approach to Monitor and Reduce the Risks of Biological, Chemical, and Physical Hazards

An accurate assessment of food security and its challenges is essential for formulating effective measures and promoting sustainable socioeconomic development. This study develops an evaluation system for China's food security, focusing on four dimensions: food supply, food access, food production stability, and food continuity. The entropy weight extended matter element model is used for quantitative processing, which ensures that the integrity of the information can be guaranteed to a greater extent while reducing the influence of subjective factors, and then, the study evaluates the food security of different functional areas in China, and finally, it diagnoses the main obstacles to food security by using the obstacle degree model. (1) From 2000 to 2020, China's food security level fluctuated, initially declining, and then increasing. The food security level in major production and marketing areas is generally higher, while the primary marketing areas exhibit the lowest security levels. (2) The level of grain yields and the total power of machinery per unit area are the key factors affecting food security; the impact of inputs of agricultural materials (fertilizers and pesticides) on food security has decreased and is constantly stabilizing. In the main marketing area, the per capita food share is significantly lower than in the other functional areas, which has the greatest impact on food security. (3) Analysis of the obstacle factors reveals that the food supply and access security subsystems are crucial for ensuring national, production, and marketing security. From 2000 to 2020, the average obstacle degrees of food supply and food access security at the national level were 46.56% and 21.17%, respectively; for the production and marketing areas, they were 58.47% and 21.45%; and for primary marketing areas, they were 37.69% and 26.59%. In major grain-producing areas, the main obstacles lay within the food supply security and food production stability subsystems, with average obstacle degrees of 53.77% and 15.67%, respectively, from 2000 to 2020. The above results provide a scientific basis for comprehensively improving the level of food security in China, optimizing the structure of food production in each functional area, and formulating regionalized policies for stabilizing and maintaining food production and supply.

Food security is the foundation of sustainable human development, and the balance between food supply and demand in urban areas is highly important for promoting residents' health and the sustainable development of cities. This paper takes the Urumqi Metropolitan Area (UMA), a typical oasis urban area, as the study area and uses the food production-demand gap indicator to assess the balance of food production and consumption in the region from 2000 to 2020 and projects food demand in 2030-2060. The results show, first, that residents' food consumption is characterized by high carbohydrate, protein, and fat consumption, and that this put more pressure on food production. Second, different food consumption structures will have different impacts on food production, and the local food production capacity in UMA falls short of ensuring a balanced nutritional structure for residents. Third, food demand increases significantly in 2030-2060, and the pressure of population consumption structure on food production is much greater than that of population growth. Considering the environmental effects of food transportation and the loss of food nutrients, on the production side, the construction of the UMA should be accelerated by including Qitai County and Jimsar County in the UMA's planning scope, strengthening city-regional connections, and improving the local food production and supply capacity of surrounding areas. On the consumption side, regional dietary guidelines should be developed based on local dietary culture and agricultural production conditions to help guide residents to adjust their dietary structures, thereby alleviating pressure on local food demand. Such measures are crucial for ensuring sufficient food supply and promoting balanced nutrition among the population.

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to change health care, with some studies showing proof of concept of a provider-level performance in various medical specialties. However, there are many barriers to implementing AI, including patient acceptance and understanding of AI. Patients' attitudes toward AI are not well understood. We systematically reviewed the literature on patient and general public attitudes toward clinical AI (either hypothetical or realised), including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods original research articles. We searched biomedical and computational databases from Jan 1, 2000, to Sept 28, 2020, and screened 2590 articles, 23 of which met our inclusion criteria. Studies were heterogeneous regarding the study population, study design, and the field and type of AI under study. Six (26%) studies assessed currently available or soon-to-be available AI tools, whereas 17 (74%) assessed hypothetical or broadly defined AI. The quality of the methods of these studies was mixed, with a frequent issue of selection bias. Overall, patients and the general public conveyed positive attitudes toward AI but had many reservations and preferred human supervision. We summarise our findings in six themes: AI concept, AI acceptability, AI relationship with humans, AI development and implementation, AI strengths and benefits, and AI weaknesses and risks. We suggest guidance for future studies, with the goal of supporting the safe, equitable, and patient-centred implementation of clinical AI.

Introduction: There has been a tremendous growth in the nursing profession over the past 100 years and the attitude of the society towards it has transformed significantly. The general public attitude can be viewed as positive or negative. Though, in India, this field is not receiving its required respect, which can be determined by various factors like its low reputation in the society, no specific job description, no syllabus or subjects for different administrative fractions in nursing, no fruition of higher degrees for influential post, the governance of doctors, nor the sovereignty to the field, unattractive salary packages for nurses and so on. This study was aimed to assess the attitude of general public towards nursing profession. Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional survey on 391 samples collected all over India through snow ball sampling technique. The tool contains 10 demographic variables and the 5 point Likert scale to assess the attitude of general public. Likert scale contains 10 items with maximum score of 50. The internal consistency of the tool was 0.731 and acceptable range was 0.65 to 0.75. The data was collected by face to face contact and through mobile app (watts app and survey monkey app). The data was collected from Jan to Feb 2019. The recorded responses were coded in excel sheet and computed in SPSS-16. Result: It showed that the general public attitude was favorable towards nursing profession (Mean =38.5 ±4.844). Geographical area and member in the family is a nurse has significant association with level of attitude towards nursing profession. Conclusion: In spite of favorable attitude, still public have undesirable attitude in certain point towards this profession. People are still uncertain about gender orientation of nursing profession, duty schedule and marital life of nurses. People still believes that nursing is a female oriented profession and only female can practice nursing, and shift duty in nursing puts female nurses at risk, as well as doing nursing duty will affect marriage life. So general public need more awareness about nature, benefit, value and scope of nursing profession in order to have transparent, pure and coherent attitude towards nursing profession.

Le froid, élément de la sécurité alimentaire dans le monde

No discussion about food supply can be separated from its interaction with human populations. The earth’s population was slightly less than six billion in 1996 and is projected to double in less than 50 years, providing the annual increase of about 1.5% annually continues. Clearly, food production must increase accordingly, in order to accommodate such population growth.

Cutting edge technologies to end food waste

The agri-food sector has undergone both rapid public regulation and private standards setting in the past two decades engendering new forms of governance of food supply chains. Food safety has been at the forefront of these reforms, but increasingly food standards reflect a range of ethical concerns about food production and supply. The communication of standards with ethical implications to consumers relies upon labelling and marketing but is underpinned by schemes of certification and audit, which in turn entail effective systems of traceability of food products. Traceability reaches from food production and movement through the supply chain to the form of the food’s consumption. A feature of contemporary governing has been the development of the regulatory state, where the state seeks to widen and lengthen its governing reach through steering and utilising private forms of governance. The regulatory state directs the private sector to effectively self-regulate food supply chains within legally required standards; but this process of governance can be a contest of differing values. At the European level, the revision of European Union (EU) food law (EC 178/2002) has put traceability at the centre of its reform of the governance of supply chains. The promotion of ethical concerns around food standards has emerged from private governance sources – notably civil society based organisations who have sought to promote both particularistic and broader concerns around food production from animal welfare to fair trade. In the corporate sector both manufacturers and retailers, have taken up a wide range of standards and certification schemes which cover ethical as well as other concerns: from integrated farming processes to food assurance schemes to local food provenance schemes. The unfolding scope and nature of ethical concerns around food are explained below. The role of civil society organisations in promoting new standards for food incorporating ethical criteria points to the inter- relationships of the state (including the EU) with the corporate sector and civil society organisations in the unfolding regulation and governance of food supply chains. These regulatory and governance trajectories are examined in more detail to illustrate the different roles that food traceability is being asked to underpin. Amongst these roles, the EU’s sustainability goals for the agri-food sector inter-relate with ethically informed regulations. Yet such is the dynamic and unfolding nature of these trajectories that public regulation can lag behind the private governance initiatives. The different roles that traceability as a policy and governance instrument is being called upon to deliver are dynamic and unfolding. There is an increasing traceability burden and so challenges for both public regulators and private managers of food supply chains.

Food ingredient fraud and economically motivated adulteration are emerging risks, but a comprehensive compilation of information about known problematic ingredients and detection methods does not currently exist. The objectives of this research were to collect such information from publicly available articles in scholarly journals and general media, organize into a database, and review and analyze the data to identify trends. The results summarized are a database that will be published in the US Pharmacopeial Convention's Food Chemicals Codex, 8th edition, and includes 1305 records, including 1000 records with analytical methods collected from 677 references. Olive oil, milk, honey, and saffron were the most common targets for adulteration reported in scholarly journals, and potentially harmful issues identified include spices diluted with lead chromate and lead tetraoxide, substitution of Chinese star anise with toxic Japanese star anise, and melamine adulteration of high protein content foods. High-performance liquid chromatography and infrared spectroscopy were the most common analytical detection procedures, and chemometrics data analysis was used in a large number of reports. Future expansion of this database will include additional publically available articles published before 1980 and in other languages, as well as data outside the public domain. The authors recommend in-depth analyses of individual incidents. This report describes the development and application of a database of food ingredient fraud issues from publicly available references. The database provides baseline information and data useful to governments, agencies, and individual companies assessing the risks of specific products produced in specific regions as well as products distributed and sold in other regions. In addition, the report describes current analytical technologies for detecting food fraud and identifies trends and developments.

Ensuring food and nutrient supply is a crucial aspect of achieving food safety. With rapid population growth, urbanization, and social and economic development, the challenges related to China's food and nutrient production have become increasingly prominent. This paper analyzed the characteristics of the spatiotemporal pattern evolution of food and nutrient production in China from 1995 to 2020, utilizing the conversion of various food nutrients and the establishment of a gravity center model. The results showed that: (1) Food production exhibited increasing trends in China, six regions, and 90% of the provinces. Notably, the structure of food production underwent significant changes in China, East China, Central-South China, Southwest China, Northwest China, and 60% of the provinces. (2) The output of all categories of food nutrients demonstrated increasing trends in China, six regions, and most provinces. At three different geographical scales, the changes of six food nutrients production structure showed significant differences. (3) Natural, political, social, economic, and technological factors played pivotal roles in influencing the gravity centers of food and nutrient production in China. The gravity centers of cereal production shifted northeast, while those of root and tuber, oil crops, and stimulants production moved westward. Additionally, the gravity centers of sugar crop, pulse, vegetable, fruit, and aquatic product production moved southwest and those of livestock and poultry production shifted northward. (4) Affected by the food production, the gravity centers of food energy, food protein, and food carbohydrate production shifted northward, while those of food fat, food vitamins, and food minerals production shifted northwest, southwest, and westward, respectively. The results of this study are of great significance for policy adjustments pertaining to the distribution pattern of food production, food security stability, and sustainable development in China.