Industrial Agricultural Systems Research Articles

The Dual Role of Culture in Evolutionary Play: Anthropogenic Expansion Vs Destruction of Biodiversity

A large number of Green discourse blames the human species for the current ecological crisis. However, this description of humanity as the ecocidal culprit serves to conceal the role of humans, in both past and contemporary pre-industrial societies, as custodians of biodiversity. Indigenous societies are known to have conserved their natural resource base for posterity, by instituting cultural norms and institutions against exhaustive resource use. In addition, pre-industrial societies also increased biodiversity on taxic and genetic levels, by domestication of many wild biota, and on the ecosystem level with agroforestry. While Darwin gave much importance to the process of domestication of plants and animals by means of artificial selection, modern science and agriculture curricula tend to neglect this aspect of the history of human civilization. The novel taxa, created in the process of domestication, are characterised by many morphological and behavioural traits never found in the wild progenitor species. Further selection of favourable traits of the new species created an abundance of distinctive crop landraces and animal breeds. The increment in diversity at the ecosystem, taxic and genetic levels, by the process of domestication and in ancient agroforestry systems, began to reverse with industrial development over the past two centuries. Indeed, industrial development has been the chief driver of the continuing process of biodiversity erosion and habitat loss worldwide. Industrial agricultural systems, signposted by the Green Revolution (GR), has severely truncated the on-farm crop species and genetic diversity, which characterised traditional multi-crop farming and agroforestry systems in native agrarian cultures. Over the past six decades, the continual replacement of hundreds of landraces with a handful of GR cultivars, combined with the institutional apathy toward in situ landrace conservation efforts, has led to the disappearance of the importance of genetic purity of landraces from breeding programs and heirloom crop conservation discourse. Most of the modern farmers, predominantly dependent on the industrial supply of crop seeds, have forgotten the methods of genetic purity maintenance, resulting in the rapid loss of the hundreds of crop landraces with distinctive properties, which were selected centuries ago for diverse agronomic, gustatory, and aesthetic qualities. A recognition of the value of the custodian role of ecosystem people in creating and conserving biodiversity, vis-a-vis the current industrial decimation of biodiversity on all levels, will likely promote biodiversity conservation ethos in modern societies, and the value of genetic purity of the extant crop landraces.

The Fragile State of Industrial Agriculture: Estimating Crop Yield Reductions in a Global Catastrophic Infrastructure Loss Scenario.

Modern civilization relies on a complex, globally interconnected industrial agriculture system to produce food. Its unprecedented yields hinge on external inputs like machinery, fertilizers, and pesticides, rendering it vulnerable to disruptions in production and international trade. Such a disruption could be caused by large-scale damage to the electrical grid. Solar storms, nuclear detonations in the upper atmosphere, pandemics, or cyber-attacks, could cause this severe damage to electrical infrastructure. To assess the impact of such a global catastrophic infrastructure loss on major food crops (corn, rice, soybean, wheat), we employ a generalized linear model. The predictions show a crop-specific yield reduction between 15% and 37% in phase 1, the year after the catastrophe, assuming rationed use of fertilizers, pesticides, and fuel stocks. In phase 2, when all stocks are depleted, yields decrease by 35%-48%. Soybean is less affected in phase 1, while all crops experience strong declines in phase 2. Europe, North and South America, and parts of India, China, and Indonesia face major yield reductions, potentially up to 75%, while most African countries are less affected. These findings underscore the necessity for preparation by highlighting the vulnerability of the food system.

Strategi Inggris Raya Terhadap Permasalahan Industri Agrikultur Pasca Brexit

Brexit has restricted the flow of migrant workers in the industrial sector and agricultural system in the United Kingdom. This research examines the dynamics of the agricultural industry issues in the United Kingdom, as well as the strategies implemented by the UK government to minimize the issues faced in the agricultural sector. The methodology employed is qualitative, utilizing theories of international migration and concepts of international immigration policy. The UK Government has implemented strategies to minimize the agricultural issues after Brexit. These strategies include implementing seasonal worker visas, adopting a points-based immigration system, formulating the agricultural act 2020, promoting local workers, and embracing automation. These strategies have successfully minimized the issues in the agricultural industry in the United Kingdom.

Unlocking Large-Scale Crop Field Delineation in Smallholder Farming Systems with Transfer Learning and Weak Supervision

Crop field boundaries aid in mapping crop types, predicting yields, and delivering field-scale analytics to farmers. Recent years have seen the successful application of deep learning to delineating field boundaries in industrial agricultural systems, but field boundary datasets remain missing in smallholder systems due to (1) small fields that require high resolution satellite imagery to delineate and (2) a lack of ground labels for model training and validation. In this work, we use newly-accessible high-resolution satellite imagery and combine transfer learning with weak supervision to address these challenges in India. Our best model uses 1.5 m resolution Airbus SPOT imagery as input, pre-trains a state-of-the-art neural network on France field boundaries, and fine-tunes on India labels to achieve a median Intersection over Union (mIoU) of 0.85 in India. When we decouple field delineation from cropland classification, a model trained in France and applied as-is to India Airbus SPOT imagery delineates fields with a mIoU of 0.74. If using 4.8 m resolution PlanetScope imagery instead, high average performance (mIoU > 0.8) is only achievable for fields larger than 1 hectare. Experiments also show that pre-training in France reduces the number of India field labels needed to achieve a given performance level by as much as 10× when datasets are small. These findings suggest our method is a scalable approach for delineating crop fields in regions of the world that currently lack field boundary datasets. We publicly release 10,000 Indian field boundary labels and our delineation model to facilitate the creation of field boundary maps and new methods by the community.

Mitigating soil greenhouse‐gas emissions from land‐use change in tropical peatlands

Conversion of tropical peat swamp forests to meet the demand for industrial plantations and agricultural production systems has triggered rapid and substantial carbon loss in the Asia‐Pacific region. Various management practices have been designed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from tropical peat soils after changes in land use. We conducted a meta‐analysis using 506 paired observations on greenhouse‐gas (GHG) emissions from peat soils under different land uses and the effects of management practices on emissions. As compared to peat swamp forest, other land uses had higher emissions of CO2 (heterotrophic respiration) and N2O from soils, whereas soil‐based CH4 emissions were also increased but not significantly so. Raising the water table decreased CO2 emissions but increased N2O emissions; reducing nitrogen fertilizer inputs led to decreased CO2 and N2O emissions in oil‐palm (Elaeis spp) plantations and cropping systems; and shading and growing cover crops decreased CO2 emissions. Practices such as these are needed for careful management of tropical peatlands, and additional measurements at appropriate spatial and temporal scales are required to guide future GHG mitigation strategies in tropical peatlands.

Multifunctional Territorialized Agri-Food Systems, Geographical Quality Marks and Agricultural Landscapes: The Case of Vineyards

In contrast to the industrial agricultural systems aimed at producing unlabeled origin foods without unique characteristics, Multifunctional and Territorialized Agri-food Systems (MTAS) claim their identity in productions whose singularity comes from specific environmental conditions and distinctive knowhow—factors often linked to tradition. Their systemic complexity goes beyond the agri-food production function (high quality, sustainable, and differentiated by origin) because the territories gain cohesion and viability from the positive effects resulting therefrom: environmental quality—in the context of sustainable agriculture based on practices that respect the environment and the local productive vocation of the territories—, landscape value, greater economic diversification by stimulating integrated production chains, tourism potential, etc. In this context, the MTAS finds in the geographical indication one of the most expressive quality reference formulas for the identification of agri-food products. This paper delves into the regulatory nature of the main territorial indications (PDO, PGI) and explores their configuration and regulatory evolution, particularly focusing on the wine geographical indications—the first and most common ones. The Spanish indications are taken as the object of analysis, whose operational maturity reveals their solidity, but also their inadequacies, with the demand for adjustments for greater flexibility in the regulatory framework that identifies them as collective marks. Along the same lines, emphasis is placed on the recent advance of individualistic PDO figures, which call into question the very collective basis of the territorial trademark. These conceptual adaptations of geographical indications provide future lines of research necessary to interpret the coherence of these figures with the sustainable development of the territories, whose name they adopt to gain distinction and market competition.

In situ conservation of traditional vegetable diversity in Wa homegardens in southwestern Yunnan, China

BackgroundHomegardens are in situ conservation sources of germplasm diversity for overcoming homogenous germplasm problems in industrial agricultural systems. The Wa people constitute a long-dwelling ethnic group mainly in southwestern Yunnan with a unique culture and rich knowledge of traditional vegetables. We hypothesized that traditional vegetable varieties are well conserved in Wa homegardens because Wa culture promotes the preservation of traditional vegetables. We surveyed vegetable varieties and the practices that are involved in the conservation of traditional vegetables in Wa homegardens, which could form the basis for in situ conservation.MethodsThe methods were used including questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Sixty homegardens were surveyed through purposive sampling in 6 Wa villages. We documented ethnobotanical information about vegetables in homegardens. Plant species were identified according to the Flora of China. And thematic analyses were conducted for in-depth interviews to identify the conservation factors for traditional vegetables.ResultsFifty-two vegetable species belonging to 16 families and 41 genera were recorded from 60 Wa homegardens. Fifty-five traditional vegetable varieties and thirty-six hybrids were recorded. Among all the villages, 23 ± 6 (average ± SD) traditional vegetable varieties per homegarden and 9 ± 3 (average ± SD) introduced varieties per homegarden were recorded. Local seeds were stored in 78% of households, with an additional 9% of households’ seed supplies coming from neighbors and relatives; the other 13% of households purchased local seeds from markets. In 83% of families, the female head was mainly responsible for the decision-making concerning traditional vegetables in homegardens; in 10% of families, the male head was responsible for decision-making, and a small percentage (2%) was determined by elderly people. Five percent of families made decisions jointly between male and female household heads.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that rich traditional germplasm diversity is harbored in Wa homegardens because of the unique culture and traditional knowledge of Wa communities, which are practiced daily with homegrown food plants. Local vegetable seed conservation and sharing systems help maintain germplasm diversity in the Wa community homegardens. Wa homegardens constitute a practical solution for protecting traditional germplasm diversity and maintaining traditional lifestyles.

"We feed the world": the political ecology of the Corn Belt's driving narrative

Industrial grain production occupies most of Iowa's farmland. Around the edges of corn and soybean monocultures, however, small-scale, diversified farmers establish alternative agricultural operations and sell to local markets. One narrative, "we feed the world", stretches across these two spheres; its roots lie in post-World War II geopolitics, and its contemporary iterations reflect the actions of private agricultural interest groups. As a rhetorical strategy, asserting "we feed the world" invokes neo-Malthusian fears to reposition differences in agricultural production systems within a moral framework where yield primarily determines agricultural legitimacy. This article ethnographically analyzes how this narrative intersects the lives and livelihoods of conventional and alternative farmers alike. Today, the narrative serves three functions: defending industrial agricultural systems against criticisms,justifying the pursuit of ever-higher yields on moral grounds, and gatekeeping agricultural legitimacy. Examining this discursive mechanism yields insight into the diversity of strategies through which actors within the industrial agricultural system reproduce particular land use practices in service of their own interests.

The future(s) of digital agriculture and sustainable food systems: An analysis of high-level policy documents

Ecosystem services delivery is influenced by food systems and vice versa. As the application of digital technologies in agriculture continues to expand, digital technologies might affect the delivery of ecosystem services in view of the sorts of food systems in which they are embedded. The direction food systems develop towards the future, and the role digital technologies play in this development, is influenced by imaginings, hopes and visions about what these technologies mean for future food systems. In this article, we investigate what roles are being imagined for these technologies by international actors with the ability to influence the future of food systems. We analyze outward-facing policy documents as well as conference proceedings on digital agriculture produced by the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Using qualitative textual analysis, we show that these organisations envision future food systems that prioritize maximizing food output through technology. We illustrate how this vision reflects a long-standing narrative about the role of technology in food systems innovation, which makes the controversial assumption that increases in food production lead to improvements in food security. Based on this finding, we suggest that evaluations of how digital agricultural technologies might affect the delivery of ecosystem services must begin by considering what visions of future food systems are take into account in science, technology development and policy making. Supporting similar research on high-level narratives surrounding agroecology and climate smart agriculture, we find that the dominant narrative in our dataset supports thestatus quoglobal, industrial agriculture and food system. This system continues to be criticized by many scholars for its environmental impacts. Based on our findings, we suggest that ecosystems service researchers could contribute substantially to the evaluation of environmental impacts of digital agriculture by analyzing the impact digital agriculture may have on the trade-offs between provisioning, regulatory, and cultural ecosystem services for several different food system futures. Such analyses can feed into processes of responsible innovation.

Species-Specific Duplication Event Associated with Elevated Levels of Nonstructural Carbohydrates in Sorghum bicolor

Simple sugars are the essential foundation to plant life, and thus, their production, utilization, and storage are highly regulated processes with many complex genetic controls. Despite their importance, many of the genetic and biochemical mechanisms remain unknown or uncharacterized. Sorghum, a highly productive, diverse C4 grass important for both industrial and subsistence agricultural systems, has considerable phenotypic diversity in the accumulation of nonstructural sugars in the stem. We use this crop species to examine the genetic controls of high levels of sugar accumulation, identify genetic mechanisms for the accumulation of nonstructural sugars, and link carbon allocation with iron transport. We identify a species-specific tandem duplication event controlling sugar accumulation using genome-wide association analysis, characterize multiple allelic variants causing increased sugar content, and provide further evidence of a putative neofunctionalization event conferring adaptability in Sorghum bicolor. Comparative genomics indicate that this event is unique to sorghum which may further elucidate evolutionary mechanisms for adaptation and divergence within the Poaceae. Furthermore, the identification and characterization of this event was only possible with the continued advancement and improvement of the reference genome. The characterization of this region and the process in which it was discovered serve as a reminder that any reference genome is imperfect and is in need of continual improvement.

How farmers “repair” the industrial agricultural system

Scholars are increasingly calling for the environmental issues of the industrial agricultural system to be addressed via eventual agroecological system-level transformation. It is critical to identify the barriers to this transition. Drawing from Henke’s (Cultivating science, harvesting power: science and industrial agriculture in California, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008) theory of “repair,” we explore how farmers participate in the reproduction of the industrial system through “discursive repair,” or arguing for the continuation of the industrial agriculture system. Our empirical case relates to water pollution from nitrogen fertilizer and draws data from a sample of over 150 interviews with row-crop farmers in the midwestern United States. We find that farmers defend this system by denying agriculture’s causal role and proposing the potential for within-system solutions. They perform these defenses by drawing on ideological positions (agrarianism, market-fundamentalism and techno-optimism) and may be ultimately led to seek system maintenance because they are unable to envision an alternative to the industrial agriculture system.

Institutional Arrangement of Agriculture Development in Indonesia: Lesson Learn from Korea through 6th Order of Industrial Agriculture System

The development of economy in the recent years has successfully changed the Indonesian economy from agricultural economy to Industrial economy. However, when the sectoral output contribution decreases sharply, it does not mean that agriculture sector becomes unimportant factor in the Indonesian Economy. In recent years, the data shows that the agricultural sector still absorbs high employment compared to other sectors, which amounted to 30.9% of the total 121.7 million workforce. Increasing instability in the management of the agricultural industry and increasing population resulted in reduced regional vitality and community productivity. Therefore, through the policy concept of The Sixth Order Industry, it is important for the Indonesian government to build policy support and measures to promote the local economy in maintaining the welfare of the agricultural community. The purpose of this study is to determine the priority of policy objectives and support related to the 6th-order agricultural industrialization policy and identify the rules of agricultural institutions in Indonesia through the concept of the 6th-order agricultural industrialization policy. The method used study of literature and SWOT. Based on the results of the analysis, it can be seen that marketing and financial support are the most important means among several policy tools in achieving the goals of The Sixth Order Industry. Improving governance, agricultural management from upstream to downstream, and increasing cooperation between farmers, industry and banking are the keys to the success of agricultural development in Indonesia in order to achieve food sovereignty.

Lies and misdemeanours: Nauru, phosphate and global geopolitics

The remote, equatorial Pacific island of Nauru once possessed perhaps the world’s purest deposits of rock phosphate, the precursor of the agricultural fertiliser, superphosphate. Scheming for this resource by the big nations of the western Pacific has seen Nauru play a major role in a series of global geopolitical dramas during the course of the 20th century.In 1900, the economies of Australia and New Zealand were overwhelmingly agricultural. Yet both countries had begun to experience serious declines in agricultural productivity as the initial fertility of their soils was exhausted, and both possessed large tracts of marginal land unexploitable because of its low fertility. Access to phosphatic fertilisers was essential, not only to maintain and stimulate the agricultural sector, but to promote the development of the rest of the economy.The discovery in the early 20th century of vast reserves of high-quality, easily accessible phosphate on the islands of the equatorial Pacific promised to be the catalyst that both nations needed to transform their economies. The largest reserves were those discovered on Nauru, and Australia and New Zealand went to extraordinary lengths to safeguard access to the island’s resources. This began in 1914 when Australia seized the opportunity offered by the start of the First World War to invade the then-German protectorate, deport the German population and secure control of the island. With the end of the war, and at risk of losing the spoils of victory to the idealistic philosophies that gave rise to the League of Nations, the Australian Prime Minister threatened the USA, manipulated the Empire Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and even considered refusing to sign the Treaty of Versailles until Australia was guaranteed access to the island and its resources. A similar set of events played out at the end of the Second War. Captured and garrisoned by the Japanese, Nauru was by-passed and cut off by the Allied advance across the Pacific. The island was once again secured for Australian interests by Canberra’s prompt dispatch of HMAS Diamantina to accept the Japanese surrender.For most of the 20th century, the resources of Nauru were depleted to support the economic growth of Australia and New Zealand. Between 1922 and 1966, at least 83% of Nauru’s annual output ended up on the fields and paddocks of Australia and New Zealand; whilst, along with Banaba and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, Nauru supplied almost the whole of Australia’s superphosphate needs for much of the 20th century.Without access to phosphate, neither Australia nor New Zealand would have been able to establish the industrial agricultural systems that were fundamental to their demographic, economic and social expansion. Without superphosphates, agriculture in Australia and New Zealand may not have been viable, whilst in marginal areas cultivation may not have been possible at all. The histories of these nations would have followed unpredictably different paths, their development would have been impeded and it is possible that neither country would have achieved First World standing.

Industrial agriculture and agroecological transition systems: A comparative analysis of productivity results, organic matter and glyphosate in soil

The system of industrial agriculture (IA), often implemented on a large scale and with high dependence on the supplies use, is reducing the soil organic matter (SOM) and increasing the glyphosate presence in the environment. An alternative approach to IA is agroecologywhich takes greater advantage of natural processes and beneficial on-farm interactions in order to reduce off-farm input use and to improve the efficiency of farming systems. In this study, a transition agroecological system (AT) is the alternative of the IA. Our objectives were: (i) to compare the agronomic productivity between AT and IA systems, (ii) to determine the effect of management practices on soil quality indicators such as soil organic matter content (SOM), soil bulk density, change in the weighted mean diameter (CMWD) and glyphosate and aminomethyl phosphonic acid (AMPA) concentration and (iii) to compare the economic results through a multi-temporal economic analysis between AT and IA systems. The soil sampling was carried out per soil-specific zones, delimited from apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa) and elevation. Samples were taken at 0 to 2, 2 to 5, 5 to 10, 10 to 20, 20 to 30 and 30 to 40 cm of depth to determine the SOM content, the glyphosate concentration and main glyphosate metabolite, AMPA. Besides, the bulk density (δa) and CWMD were determined. The δa was lower in AT with respect to IA, both under no tillage (NT). No significant differences were found for CWMD between AT and IA systems, although a tendency to a lower value in AT system was observed. If we consider the percentage of organic matter as carbon matter per hectare, this means that in 6.5 years increase 540 kg ha−1 at 0 to 40 cm depth. The SOM content increased from 4,9 to 5,6% in AT with respect to IA. The content of glyphosate + AMPA at the first 40 cm was 0.06 kg ha−1 in the AT and 0.84 kg ha−1 in the IA system. In the AT system, the gross margin accumulated during 6.5 years, increased 244% with respect to IA. These results suggest that the AT system proposed could be applicable in extensive productions with temperate climates without interfering with the livelihood of the agricultural producers and it allows an improvement in soil conditions. It is important to carry out further studies in order to confirm the benefits of the AT system in other edaphic-climatic conditions, integrating productive, economic and environmental aspects.

What’s going on with land-use in Cuba?: Disparate data sets and the Cuban agricultural transition

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on agricultural land-use changes in Cuba following the fall of the Soviet Union. In response to the end of Soviet subsidies, which previously underwrote Cuba’s industrial agricultural system, the government rapidly transitioned from large, centralized agricultural operations to small-scale farming and cooperatives to address local food security. This paper uses a variety of empirical data sources, including remote sensing data available from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), to unpack some of the land-use implications of this radical agrarian transition. Combined, these data shed new light on the magnitude and nature of agrarian land-use changes that have occurred over the past several decades in Cuba. The paper concludes by placing these empirics in the context of shifting geopolitics and the increasing impacts of climate change, issues of great concern to Cuba and other island nations in the Caribbean.

Adapting to the Needs of New Farmers’ Generation: Theoretical Foundations for Rural Policy

This research highlights the need to develop a better understanding of farming business perspective in the context of servitization of the economy. The article analyses the factors influencing the potential of industrial agricultural system, which make farming risky and unattractive business, as well as the emerging new business vision of the post-industrial farmers’ generation. The aim of the article is to identify the key new theoretical foundations for post-industrial rural policy paradigm, which corresponds to the needs of new farmers’ generation. The theory of service-driven business model is proposed as an integrative basis for the development of post-industrial rural development policy theory. It is suggested that a paradigm shift should focus on implementation of collaboration strategy. The main task of post-industrial rural policy is to introduce innovative tools for coordination between actions of farmers and their customers by supporting the establishment and development of various two-sided networks and its platforms.

Transiciones hacia una agricultura sostenible: el nicho de la apicultura orgánica en una cooperativa Argentina

Este artículo argumenta que es posible transformar los senderos de innovación en las industrias basadas en recursos naturales hacia modelos integralmente más sostenibles. En particular, se emplea el marco conceptual de transiciones de sistemas sociotécnicos para comprender los límites estructurales que el sistema de agricultura industrial le impone a COOPSOL, un proyecto cooperativo de apicultura orgánica en Argentina. Los datos son cualitativos y sistematizan, por un lado, las presiones para la continuidad y el cambio en el sistema de agricultura industrial. Por otro lado, revelan las principales percepciones de los actores de COOPSOL ante los límites estructurales existentes.

Homegardens and the future of food and nutrition security in southwest Uganda

Governments around the world seek to create programs that will support sustainable agriculture and achieve food security, yet they are faced with uncertainty, system complexity and data scarcity when making such choices. We propose decision modeling as an innovative approach to help meet these challenges and offer a case study to show the effectiveness of the tool. We use decision analysis tools to model the possible nutrition-related outcomes of the Ugandan government's long term agricultural development plan termed ‘Vision 2040’. The analysis indicates potential shifts in household nutritional contributions through the comparison of the current small-scale diverse systems and the envisioned industrial agricultural systems that may replace them. A Monte Carlo simulation revealed that Vision 2040 plans outperform homegardens in terms of energy and some macronutrients, yet homegardens are likely to be better at producing key vitamins and micronutrients, such as Vitamin A. Value of information calculations applied to Monte Carlo outputs further revealed that gathering more data on the annual yields and nutrient contents of staples, pulses, vegetables, and fruits could improve certainty about the nutrition contribution of both scenarios. We conclude that the development of Uganda's agricultural sector should consider the role that agrobiodiversity in the current small-scale agricultural systems plays in national food and nutrition security. Any changes according to Vision 2040 should also include farmers' voices and current crop management systems as guides for a sustainable food supply in the region. This modeling approach may be a tool for governments to consider agricultural policy implications, especially given the data scarcity and agricultural variability in regions such as East Africa.

Sustaining local food webs: insights from Kenya and the UK

This paper is a contribution to the contested discourse about how healthy food supplies can be secured for future generations. It argues that the small-scale food providers who currently supply the local food webs that nourish more than 70 per cent of the world’s population can provide for the growing urban and world population, building on their skills and knowledge. The food webs they serve are productive, resilient, and healthy, connecting food providers and consumers locally. Local food webs are a cornerstone for the model of food provision, in the framework of food sovereignty, that should be prioritized in order to secure our future food. The paper sets out to demonstrate the value and challenges of local, resilient, biodiverse, and productive food systems that would benefit from greater support and compliant policies. It uses examples from Kenya and the UK to demonstrate how productive local food systems can improve small-scale family farming and reduce hunger, in contrast to industrial agricultural systems. Consumer surveys and mapping local food webs demonstrate the value that consumers place in local food production and markets, both in Kenya and the UK. The article concludes with recommendations for how to support local food webs.

Annual Basis Carbon (ABC) Analysis of Biofuel Production at the Facility Level

Liquid biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are considered important renewable replacements for petroleum fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Biomass-based energy carriers are traditionally treated as inherently carbon neutral, so that only the fossil-based carbon dioxide (CO2) and other non-CO2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with their production are counted when assessing their global warming impact. This accounting convention is embedded by construction in lifecycle assessment (LCA) models, which on a direct basis (i.e., excluding economically induced effects) often find that biofuels from efficient industrial agricultural production systems reduce GHG emissions relative to their fossil fuel counterparts. LCA modeling can be subjected to an independent empirical test that bounds a biofuel's potential GHG reduction within the dynamics of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Such a test can be performed using annual basis carbon (ABC) accounting, which entails spatially and temporally explicit analysis of the direct GHG exchanges between the atmosphere and a physical vehicle-fuel system. An ABC case study of a corn ethanol biorefinery and the farmland that supplies it shows that using the ethanol it produced instead of gasoline provided no significant reduction in GHG emissions, in contrast to an LCA result that found a 40% GHG reduction for the same facility. ABC accounting reveals that the renewable ethanol so produced was not carbon neutral when substituting for gasoline, and sensitivity analysis indicates that its net GHG emissions impacts are likely to higher than those of petroleum gasoline in practice.