|
|
Books > Professional & Technical > Agriculture & farming > General
The second volume of Foods, nutrients and food ingredients with
authorised EU health claims continues from Volume 1, which provided
a comprehensive overview of many of the permitted health claims for
foods and nutrients approved under European Regulation EC
1924/2006. This new volume discusses more of the health claims
authorised to date for use in the EU. The chapters cover details of
various permitted claims, such as the approved wording, conditions
of use, the target group for the claims, the evidence for the
claimed health benefits, and where appropriate details of other
relevant legislation, consumer-related issues and future trends.
The book opens with an overview of regulatory developments relating
to health claims. Part One reviews authorised disease risk
reduction claims and proprietary claims. The second part
investigates ingredients with permitted 'general function' claims,
with chapters examining ingredients such as red yeast rice,
glucomannan and guar gum. The final section of the book explores
foods and nutrients with permitted health claims, including
chapters on authorised EU health claims for prunes, foods with low
or reduced sodium or saturated fatty acids, and claims for
essential and long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Selected paper presented at the 1st International Conference on
Urban Agriculture and City Sustainability are contained in this
book. The research reviews ways in which urban agriculture can
contribute to achieve sustainable cities and considers ways of
reducing the impact in terms of use of natural resources, waste
production and climate change. The increasing number of people in
cities requires new strategies to supply the necessary food with
limited provision of land and decreasing resources. This will
become more challenging unless innovative solutions for growing and
distributing food in urban environments are considered. The scale
of modern food production has created and exacerbated many
vulnerabilities and the feeding of cities is now infinitely more
complex. As such the food system cannot be considered secure,
ethical or sustainable. In the last few years there has been a
rapid expansion in initiatives and projects exploring innovative
methods and processes for sustainable food production. The majority
of these projects are focused on providing alternative models that
shift the power back from the global food system to communities and
farmers improving social cohesion, health and wellbeing. It is
therefore not surprising that more people are looking towards urban
farming initiatives as a potential solution. These initiatives have
demonstrated that urban agriculture has the potential to transform
our living environment towards ecologically sustainable and healthy
cities. Urban agriculture can also contribute to energy, natural
resources, land and water savings, ecological diversity and urban
management cost reductions. The impact urban agriculture can have
on the shape and form of our cities has never been fully addressed.
The studies included in this volume look at how cities embed these
new approaches and initiatives, as part of new urban developments
and show that a city regeneration strategy is critical.
Arsenic in Plants Comprehensive resource detailing the chemistry,
toxicity and impact of arsenic in plants, and solutions to the
problem Arsenic in Plants: Uptake, Consequences and Remediation
Techniques provides comprehensive coverage of the subject,
detailing arsenic in our environment, the usage of arsenicals in
crop fields, phytotoxicity of arsenic and arsenic's impact on the
morphology, anatomy and quantitative and qualitative traits of
different plant groups, including their physiology and
biochemistry. The work emphasizes the occurrence of arsenic, its
speciation and transportation in plants, and differences in
mechanisms of tolerance in hyper-accumulator and non-accumulator
plants. Throughout the text, the highly qualified authors delve
into every facet of the interaction of arsenic with plants,
including the ionomics, genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics in
relation to arsenic toxicity, impact of exogenous phytohormones and
growth-regulating substances, management of arsenic contamination
in the soil-plant continuum, phytoremediation of arsenic toxicity
and physical removal of arsenic from water. General discussion has
also been included on subjects such as the ways through which this
metalloid affects plant and human systems. Topics covered include:
Introduction and historical background of arsenic and the mechanism
of arsenic transport and metabolism in plants Arsenic-induced
responses in plants, including impact on biochemical processes and
different plant groups, from cyanobacteria to higher plants The
role of phytohormones, mineral nutrients, metabolites and signaling
molecules in regulating arsenic-induced toxicity in plants Genomic,
proteomic, metabolomic, ionomic and transcriptional regulation
during arsenic stress Strategies to reduce the arsenic
contamination in soil-plant systems and arsenic removal by
phytoremediation techniques Researchers, academics, and students of
plant physiology, biotechnology, and agriculture will find valuable
information in Arsenic in Plants to understand this pressing
subject in full, along with its implications and how we can adapt
our strategies and behaviors to promote reduced contamination
through practical applications.
Due to such factors as poor economic conditions, climate change,
and conflict, food security remains an issue around the world and
especially in developing nations. Rapid changes in technology over
the last decade has brought a renewed focus on how information and
communication technologies (ICTs) and application systems are
deployed to improve rural competitiveness. Unfortunately,
agricultural stakeholders in developing countries, particularly in
Africa, have not been able to reap comparable benefits from
adopting agricultural information systems as compared to their
counterparts in the developed economies. Understanding the
challenges that hinder the effective adoption of agricultural
information systems and identifying opportunities or innovations is
imperative to improve the agricultural sectors and overcome the
problems in these developing economies. Opportunities and Strategic
Use of Agribusiness Information Systems is an essential reference
book that examines the key challenges that hinder the effective
adoption of agricultural information systems. Moreover, it
identifies and evaluates opportunities for the strategic deployment
of ICTs and information systems to drive agricultural development
for the benefit of agricultural sector stakeholders in emerging
countries. While highlighting such topics as agricultural
entrepreneurship, food value chain, and innovation systems, it is
intended to provide sound and relevant frameworks and tools that
will aid agricultural industry practitioners, smallholder farmers,
and managers of agricultural extension systems looking to make more
effective and responsible decisions when selecting, planning,
deploying, and managing agribusiness information systems. It is
additionally targeted for agricultural funding organizations,
government policymakers, academicians, researchers, and students
concerned with exploiting the potential of a variety of ICTs and
information systems in the quest to achieve food security and
poverty reduction in emerging economies.
|
|