Food Regime Research Articles

Resurgent diversity: upland agriculture, indigenous crops and foodways in Eastern Himalayas

ABSTRACT In this article, we are concerned with the cultivation of food crops – comparing trajectories of millets and buckwheat in Eastern Himalayas, and the circumstances under which farmers plant or forgo certain crops. Crop choices and how farmers cultivate their crops have far-reaching consequences for society, economy and the environment. With accelerating climate change, present global, corporate food regime based on a handful of genetically identical crops appears as a high-risk venture. For many Indigenous peoples alternatives to and negotiations with these regimes are commonly located in their traditions: the crops, foodways, and diversity-based agricultural systems of their ancestors even as a multitude of factors have conspired to their decline across the Eastern Himalayan Region. Yet, paradoxically, with climate change these crops, agriculture and knowledge systems seem to hold the future, especially for smallholder farmers.

Hunger in global war economies: understanding the decline and return of famines.

The resurgence of famines is a topic of concern. This paper explains the recent trajectory using the framework of contending 'global war economies'. It characterises the unipolar neoliberal world order era (1986-2015) as the 'Pax Americana' war economy, focusing on the United States dollar's roles. These were the decades of the liberal imperium, the corporate food regime, and counterinsurgent coalitions, which generated structural vulnerability to food crises and reduced the actual incidence and lethality of famine. The paper characterises the subsequent period (2016 onwards) as the challenge of the BRICS club, focusing on its efforts to rewrite the global political economy's rules, proactively hedging among diversifying currency regimes. This entails a scramble to secure strategic commodities and infrastructure in subaltern countries, which is intensifying conflict and food insecurity, and revising international norms in favour of reasserting sovereign rights. The global political-economic contestation and, especially, the associated normative regression are permissive of political and military triggers of famine.

BEYOND THE ‘WILD SHEPHERD’: HOW GLOBAL CAPITALISM HAS RESHAPED PASTORALISM. SUGGESTIONS FROM A MEDITERRANEAN ISLAND

This article shows how, from the modern era up to the present day, Sardinian pastoralism has been increasingly incorporated into global capitalism, despite essentialising narratives about the primitiveness and backwardness of shepherds that have been propagated from the mid-eighteenth century to the present neoliberal phase. The case-study considered in this article illustrates how capitalism works as a ‘food regime’, producing the ‘conversion of agriculture and food to commodity-type relations, which, in addition to cheapening food, also incorporates agricultures and foods into investment strategies’ (McMichael 2013: 21). First, a reconstruction of the embedding of Sardinian pastoralism into the global capitalist chain from the modern age to the early twentieth century is presented. Then the changes in pastoralism from the post-World War II period to the 2000s and the neoliberal turn of the last twenty years are considered. The aim is to analyse how pastoralists coped with the uncertainties arising from being part of the global market, the volatility of milk prices and the resulting contradictions that have emerged. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ .

Individual performance niches and responses to winter temperature change in three estuarine fishes from eastern Australia

Climate change may impact individual organisms in different ways, a consideration often overshadowed by predominant focus on population effects in studies. We examined three estuarine fish species to determine if individual fish performance, persisted across winter water temperatures. Fish performance at 16 °C (current Sydney winter estuarine water temperature) and 20 °C (predicted under climate change) with low and high food regimes was assessed using key physiological (growth, aerobic scope, burst speed) and behavioural parameters (foraging activity, boldness, shelter usage, predator escape response). We expected a strong positive relationship between performance at 16 °C and 20 °C for each parameter, and interactions with food level, however in general this was not found for any species. Relative performance was only maintained across temperatures for a few parameters, such as bite rate, boldness, and shelter response in one species (trumpeter Pelates sexlineatus), with aerobic scope in silver biddy Gerres subfasciatus, and boldness in fortescue Centropogon australis. Our results suggest that individuals’ fitness (directly via changes in growth, indirectly via behaviours) might be impacted by climate warming due to differences in relative performance among juvenile individuals across water temperatures. Changes in relative performance among individuals may initially compensate for a population-level response, thereby buffering the effects of climate change.

ADOLESCENTS KNOWLEDGE ON THE USE OF COSMETIC AND DERMATOLOGICAL PREPARATIONS IN THE TREATMENT OF ACNE VULGARIS

Acne vulgaris is a common, chronic, inflammatory disorder of the pilosebaceous unit that affects most teenagers with inflammatory lesions on the face and trunk. They are mainly caused by increased sebum production, hyperkeratinization of the follicle, inflammation, hormonal changes, misuse of cosmetic and dermatological preparations. This condition is more common in adolescents, but it also occurs in patients in their twenties and thirties too. These changes in the skin affect emotional stress and quality of life. Dermocosmetics play a special role in the care and treatment of acne-prone skin. A series of complementary dermocosmetics are available, which include products with cleansing, active, soothing and moisturizing properties. Dermocosmetics formulated with active substances can be used in acne monotherapy based on the effectiveness of specific active ingredients in alleviating acne symptoms without any adverse effects reported so far. Effective skincare serves not only as a preventative measure by addressing the underlying causes of acne, but also helps mitigate the negative effects of pharmacological therapy and helps manage complications such as scarring and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. This study aims the evaluation of the awareness of adolescents in relation to the treatment of acne and their knowledge about the use of cosmetic and dermatological preparations. Based on our results 40% of teenagers didn’t consult a dermatologist but used preparations that they see on social media and that their effectiveness was lower than 30%. 38% of the teenagers have used the therapy and the food regime that the dermatologist recommended which lead to a 75% effectiveness on treatment, 12% have used lotions recommended by their pharmacists and didn’t follow the food regime from which they had an effectiveness of only 42%. We also noticed that the patients who followed the instructions of the dermatologist and the pharmacist had more efficiency, while the others had less efficiency. From this we can conclude that any change in the skin for better efficiency should be managed by a dermatologist.

Plant-Based Meat Analogues: Exploring Proteins, Fibers and Polyphenolic Compounds as Functional Ingredients for Future Food Solutions.

As the lack of resources required to meet the demands of a growing population is increasingly evident, plant-based diets can be seen as part of the solution, also addressing ethical, environmental, and health concerns. The rise of vegetarian and vegan food regimes is a powerful catalyzer of a transition from animal-based diets to plant-based diets, which foments the need for innovation within the food industry. Vegetables and fruits are a rich source of protein, and bioactive compounds such as dietary fibres and polyphenols and can be used as technological ingredients (e.g., thickening agents, emulsifiers, or colouring agents), while providing health benefits. This review provides insight on the potential of plant-based ingredients as a source of alternative proteins, dietary fibres and antioxidant compounds, and their use for the development of food- and alternative plant-based products. The application of these ingredients on meat analogues and their impact on health, the environment and consumers' acceptance are discussed. Given the current knowledge on meat analogue production, factors like cost, production and texturization techniques, upscaling conditions, sensory attributes and nutritional safety are factors that require further development to fully achieve the full potential of plant-based meat analogues.

Multi-generation effects of lead (Pb) on two Daphnia species.

Two monophyletic Daphnia species (Daphnia magna and D. similis) were exposed to a sub-lethal concentration of Pb (50 µg/L) for nine generations under two food regimes (usual and restricted) and analyzed for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, first reproduction delay, lifespan, and net reproductive rate (R0) at the subcellular, individual, and population levels, respectively. In the sixth generation, Pb-acclimated neonates were moved to clean media for three more generations to check for recovery. The net reproductive rate (R0) of D. magna was not affected by Pb. However, Pb stimulated reproduction, reduced lifespan, and decreased AChE activity. First reproduction delay and lifespan did not improve during the recovery process, suggesting a possible genetic adaptation. Food restriction reduced R0, lifespan, delayed hatching, and increased AChE activity; the opposite outcomes were observed for D. similis. The full recovery shown by R0 suggests the physiological acclimation of D. similis. Under food restriction, the animals exhibited a reduction of R0 and lifespan, delayed first reproduction, and increased AChE activity; however, there was no effect of Pb. The recovery process under food restriction showed that D. similis might not cope with Pb exposure, indicating a failed recovery. Such outcomes indicate that one model species' sensitivity may not represent another's sensitivity.

Food web collapse and regime shift following goldfish introduction in permanent ponds.

In a global context of invasive alien species (IAS), native predators are often eradicated by functionally different IAS, which may induce complex cascading consequences on ecosystem functioning because of the key role predators play in structuring communities and stabilizing food webs. In permanent ponds, the most abundant freshwater systems on Earth, global human-mediated introductions of alien omnivores such as the pet trade goldfish are driving broad-scale patterns of native predators' exclusion, but cascading consequences on food web structure and functioning are critically understudied. We compared food webs of naturally fishless ponds versus ponds where dominant native predators (newts) had been extirpated by invasive goldfish within the last decade. Integrating community-wide isotopic, taxonomic and functional traits approaches, our study reveals that pond food webs collapsed in both vertical and horizontal dimensions following goldfish introduction and the associated exclusion of native predators. Consumer taxonomic diversity was drastically reduced, essentially deprived of amphibians as well as predatory and mobile macroinvertebrates to the profit of burrowing, lower trophic level consumers (detritivores). Changes in community structure and function underlined a regime shift from a macrophyte-dominated system mainly characterized by benthic primary production (periphyton), to a macrophyte-depleted state of ponds hosting communities mainly associated with phytoplankton primary production and detritus accumulation, with higher tolerance to eutrophication and low dissolved oxygen concentration. Results underline major impacts of widely introduced omnivores such as the goldfish on the functioning of pond ecosystems with potentially dramatic consequences on the key ecosystem services they deliver, such as global biodiversity support or water quality improvement. They also shed light on the key role of submerged aquatic vegetation in supporting diverse communities and complex food webs in shallow lentic systems and call for urgent consideration of threats posed by IAS on ponds' ecosystems by managers and policymakers.

Values-based modes of production and consumption: analyzing how food alternatives transform the current food regime

The current food regime has experienced a multidimensional crisis, driving further unjust and unsustainable development. Various food alternatives address these challenges by promoting different modes of alternative production and consumption. However, they are not extensively theoretically addressed within the food regime literature. Thus, we suggest analyzing food regimes with further social science theories to explore food alternatives and their possible contributions to transforming the present food regime. Drawing on a combination of critical state theory, the social capital concept, and territorial approaches, we introduce an interdisciplinary conceptual framework called values-based modes of production and consumption. We assume that food alternatives are based on values other than economic ones, such as democracy, solidarity, or trust. The framework allows examining perspectives of transformation that focus on conflict or cooperation and how they can be interlinked. We aim to determine entry points for analyzing food alternatives within the current food regime because these enable an exchange between debates that are usually taking place alongside each other. By linking them, we aim to inspire further insightful interdisciplinary research.

Transforming the food environment: An assemblage-based research approach

Current food transition studies predominantly examine the role of food actors in challenging dominant food regimes. However, there is a notable gap in understanding changes within the spaces where individuals interact with the food system—the food environment. In this paper, we seek to support the development of a new research agenda that engages assemblage thinking with the practicalities of transformation processes. Based on a critical review of existing literature, our assemblage-based approach embraces the chaotic, non-linear nature of transitions, steering away from narrow, rigid theories of change. An emphasis on the under-utilised concept of "lines of flight" is particularly useful to unveil the diverse, relational and dynamic nature of food environments, identifying opportunities for challenging, reimagining and, ultimately, transforming them.

Interaction problems of drugs and food in older patients. Short Review

The interaction between drugs and food in the body of older patients is an important therapeutic problem. As a result of this interaction, both the assimilation of food by the patient's body and the effectiveness and safety of drug therapy can change. Older patients may develop several complications and adverse reactions that change the underlying disease course against the background of age-related metabolic and functional disorders that change both the drugs' pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and the metabolism of food substances. Considering the compatibility mechanisms of medicinal substances with certain food products, compliance with appropriate food regimes is a necessary condition for the effectiveness and drug therapy safety for older patients. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Keywords: older patients; drugs; food; therapeutic problem; pharmacokinetics; pharmacodynamics

Food environment within the context of the neoliberal food regime: a case study in Curitiba, Brazil

This paper uses the ecological research method to analyze the macroenvironment for food in the city of Curitiba through the lens of a neoliberal food regime in order to understand the organization of fruit and vegetable supply, factors related to social vulnerability, and the nutritional status of the population. We found that the most vulnerable areas of the city had a higher prevalence of overweight adults and little to no access to fruits or vegetables. In the private food macroenvironment, we did not detect any statistically significant correlation between density of establishments selling this produce, income, level of precariousness, or nutritional state. In the more settled regions, we observed denser retail networks as well as a negative correlation with nutritional status. The food supply policies in Curitiba were determined to be in line with the neoliberal food regime, in which areas with better living conditions are better served by public food supply policies.

A transdisciplinary approach to address the exclusion processes of the food regime for Mexico’s small-scale fishers and farmers

Mexico is one of the few countries that combine fishing and agricultural legacies. Despite the social importance and central role of food production, Mexican public policies have largely abandoned small-scale producers over the last four decades. Moreover, they have been relegated to the status of weakest link in the economic logic of the global food regime. Since Mexico signed the first North American Free Trade Agreement, small-scale fishers and farmers have faced five main problems: dismantling of means of production, erosion of organizational capabilities, disadvantageous commercial logic that limits access to favorable markets, westernization of diets, and frequent periods of food insecurity. This study addresses the following research question, how, in the face of the exclusion processes of the current food regime, the abandonment of public policies and erosion of most of the sectoral organizational capacities in Mexico, can small-scale fishers and farmers, as well as urban and rural consumers improve their productive, commercial and food problems within their living contexts? We introduced a novel transdisciplinary context-specific approach, based on our research experience in fishing and farming communities of the Yucatan Peninsula. Finally, we outline innovation niches that could lead to relocate regional food systems through complementarities between coastal and inland areas.

Urban food governance without local food: missing links between Czech post-socialist cities and urban food alternatives

AbstractFood is becoming an increasingly important issue in the urban context. Urban food policies are a new phenomenon in Czechia, where urban food alternatives to the current food regime are promoted by food movements or take the form of traditional self-provisioning. This paper examines how urban food governance in Prague and Brno is constituted based on the municipalities’ relations with actors engaged in urban food alternatives. We argue that prioritizing aspects of local food system transformation compliant with the status quo is non-systemic and implies a fragmentation of urban food alternatives based on different levels of social capital and radicality. We conceptualize urban food alternatives as values-based modes of production and consumption and focus on values that guide urban food governance in its participatory and territorial interplay with the actors of urban food alternatives. Our analysis reveals that the values underpinning the two cities’ progressive food policies do not match reality on the ground. We propose four types of relations between the two examined cities and aspects of the local food system transformation. Aspects compliant with the status quo, such as food waste reduction and community gardening are embraced, whereas those requiring more public intervention, such as public procurement, short supply chains, or the protection of cultivable land are disregarded, degraded, or, at most, subject to experimentation as part of biodiversity protection. Chances for a successful transformation of the local food system under such governance are low but can be increased by strengthening social capital and coalition work among urban food alternatives.

Лизиметрическим исследованиям в Федеральном научном центре кормопроизводства и агроэкологии имени В.Р. Вильямса исполнилось 50 лет

The study of ecosystems, biological and ecological features of perennial grasses, soils, groundwater and monitoring of their dynamics are impossible without lysimetric studies. Lysimeters serve as a reliable means of studying and managing agroecosystems and the entire complex of plant development factors. At the All-Union Williams feed research Institute, lysimetric studies on the study, regulation and forecasting of water, food and thermal regimes of reclaimed natural forage lands in the agroecosystem "soil — plant — infiltration runoff" on irrigated pastures in the conditions of the Central District of the Non-Chernozem zone (Moscow region) were started at the Lysimetric Station built in 1972. The station includes a laboratory building, a tunnel room with a depth of about 3 m and a length of more than 40 m, a hardware room, lysimetric devices and installations of a special design. The lysimetric installation allows you to jointly study the water balance, the balance of chemicals and automate the observation processes. The developed design of the measuring equipment increased the accuracy of the experiment, and due to its small dimensions, it allowed experiments to significantly expand the range of studied groundwater depths (from 0.75 m to 2 m). Lysimeters of 2 types (for water balance and agrochemical studies) are designed for year-round observations. The results of lysimetric studies are extrapolated to areas with similar environmental conditions.

Characteristic Features of Dietary Patterns and Physical Activity among Medical Students

Introduction This paper deals with the investigation of controlled risk factors associated with body weight disorders of young people with overweight and obesity. Authors are convinced that the formation of a conscious attitude to health in youth and early diagnosis of any abnormalities through the dynamic monitoring of adolescents and young people with excess body weight could help in the solution to this problem. Methods Statistical and sociological methods were used during the investigation. 80 students from a medical university participated in this research. In the survey, Google Forms online application were used. The authors followed all the principles of bioethics and medical deontology in conformity with the requirements of the Helsinki Declaration. The questionnaire contained points about the diet, food habits and preferences, socio-economic status of the respondent’s family, the level of their physical activity, knowledge about a healthy lifestyle, and relationships in the group. Results The primary processing of the obtained data was carried out using the methods of descriptive and analytical statistics with the provision of results in the form of relative indicators (Р, %) with an error (m, p). The specificity of the eating behavior of youth was connected with the absence of a food regime, the multiplicity of meals, and the low level of eating culture (lack of a permanent place to eat or eating in front of a computer or TV). Moreover, such habits, like eating before going to bed, eating under stress, or frequently visiting fast food restaurants, were typical for this group of population. A large number of young people were found to be prone to use advertised products. Conclusion Young people’s awareness of healthy nutrition has been found to be insufficient, and the level of physical activity in the studied group as unsatisfactory. Significant features of physical activity associated with maladaptive eating behavior have been observed to be a lack of physical activity on weekdays, absence of morning gymnastics, failure to comply with the norms of rational nutrition in the family, or low level of information about healthy nutrition.

Heterogeneity and agency in the contemporary food regime in Switzerland: among the food from nowhere, somewhere, and here sub-regimes

AbstractThis study empirically illuminates the contemporary food regime in Switzerland to understand the organisation of food production, distribution, and consumption. From the perspective of food regime theory, it highlights in detail the (inter)relationships in the food regime between the food from nowhere, somewhere, and here sub-regimes using empirical means. Heterogeneous structures, processes, and relations that coexist within an umbrella food regime are examined. To address the criticisms of food regime theory ignoring social agency, this study further reveals collective agency and addresses the role of alternative food systems within the food regime in Switzerland. In-depth document analysis and subsequent qualitative data collection relying on expert interviews were performed. This study illustrates the collective agency shaping the contemporary food regime in Switzerland, encompassing private companies, relevant media, as well as associations and unions involved in farming, processing, and consumption. These influential entities and actor-networks advance different sub-regimes of food from nowhere, somewhere, and here that reflect the heterogeneity of the contemporary food regime in Switzerland. However, the data did not provide sufficient information to determine the collective agency of actors within the alternative food system. The dynamics of the food regime are shaped by contested social practices, which are influenced and interpreted through social agency. This results in an overlap of the sub-regimes that has led to strong counter-movements within the contemporary food regime in Switzerland.

Precarious foodscapes: life, caring, digitization, and labor in the face of deepening food crises

ABSTRACT In the face of deepening environmental and economic crises, the concept of precarity helps to draw out the grave problems that permeate contemporary foodscapes. In this special issue introduction, we lay the conceptual groundwork for connecting the concept of precarity with contemporary foodscapes by identifying four key sources of precarity within precarious foodscapes: life, caring, digitization, and labor. Life becomes a source of shared precarity with human and non-human life in the face of a destabilizing climactic and health ecologies. Caring becomes a source of precarity as food becomes intertwined with gendered food work and emotional labor. Digital information technologies become a source of precarity as discourses and ideas of food become destabilized and recreated by digital platforms, algorithms, and technologies. Labor becomes a source of precarity as the corporate food regime deepens its exploitation of compensated human labor, unpaid human labor, and non-human labor. This discussion contextualizes the articles that follow and aims to open up and invite further research on precarious foodscapes going forward.

Some (relatively) new conceptual ‘frames’ supplementing the study of human capital in rural sociology

The article continues the authors’ thoughts about the necessary conceptual frameworks that would help rural sociology provide more reliable insights and data in the study of such a relatively new (in the conceptual-analytical perspective) social phenomenon as rural human capital. In the previous article, we presented a brief overview of such half-forgotten but still relevant theoretical foundations of rural sociology as agricultural economics, theories of peasant agrarianism, and theory of rural-urban continuum, which to a greater or lesser extent can be applied in the analysis of rural development and rural social and human capital. In this article, we provide a brief overview of some more recent agrarian ideas that seem to have sufficient but questionable heuristic potential for rural sociology. First, the idea and repeatedly tested projects of the Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, which implied technology transfer initiatives to greatly increase crop yields, opposed the concept of “Red Revolution” (comprehensive agrotechnological transformations instead of radical political ones), despite some skeptical assessments, in the last decades of the 20th century contributed to the reduction in global hunger, and, especially in its Soviet interpretations, seemed to be consonant with the more recent intellectual direction - development studies. Second, Peasant Studies defending the position that the very question about the need for a special theory of the peasantry and peasant societies is untenable, and presenting an attempt to develop a middlerange theory within historical sociology, which is based on the four most important characteristics of the peasantry in the past and present: family economy, work on land in interaction with nature, local culture of self-organization (rural community), and marginal role in relation to the state. Today’s disputes about the peasantry in the contemporary world are complemented by two macroconcepts - theory of international food regimes and theory of global rural development. Thus, we still miss unambiguous theoretical generalizations regarding rural development due to the extreme diversity of both rural areas (and their social/human capital) and interpretations/definitions of rural/agricultural development (for instance, deagrarianization and extractivism or rural-urban glocalization and optimistic “unorthodox” social-ecological model).

Climate diaspora and future food cultures in Snowpiercer (2013) and The Road (2009)

ABSTRACT This article takes as its starting point the realization that existing food regimes and the food systems that enable them are the main drivers of climate change. This, the article notes, is a systemic challenge, but also a profoundly cultural issue as the way that people eat is deeply connected to questions of identity and belonging. The article enters this field of inquiry by studying how the awareness that current food systems are unsustainable is being mediatized and narrated in popular fiction and film. This media often depicts humans in worlds where the current food system has collapsed, forcing also people in the Global North to move or otherwise adapt to a changing climate, and, in the process, to profoundly alter the way they eat. The article discusses two visual texts: Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer (2013), and John Hillcoat’s The Road (2009). The analysis of these texts shows that they employ food, eating and migration to make life in a future transformed by climate change comprehensible to the reader. The article also investigates how the fiction studied connects food and eating to the existing world-system and thus to the material history that is driving the climate crisis.