Article
Thermodynamics
Felipe Verastegui, Alvaro Lorca, Daniel Olivares, Matias Negrete-Pincetic
Summary: Several countries are adopting plans to reduce contaminant emissions from the energy sector through renewable energy integration and restrictions on fossil fuel generation. This study develops a planning model that includes an effective representation of the system's operational aspects to understand the key role of flexible resources in highly renewable power systems undergoing strong decarbonization. The results show that highly renewable generation mixes are feasible with an effective balance of flexibility attributes like ramping, storage, and transmission capacities.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Christopher Malefors, Niina Sundin, Malou Tromp, Mattias Eriksson
Summary: This study tested four interventions (tasting spoons, awareness campaign, plate waste tracker and guest forecasting tool) designed to reduce food waste in Swedish school canteens. All interventions successfully reduced total food waste, with the awareness campaign reducing plate waste the most, and the forecasting and plate waste tracker interventions reducing serving waste the most.
RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING
(2022)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Hugo de Vries
Summary: Food science and technology plays a crucial role in achieving more sustainable outcomes in food systems, as it deals with all elements of complex systems and the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability. Its scientific and practical approaches enable it to provide ingredients for policy making and innovation.
TRENDS IN FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Development Studies
Christophe Bene
Summary: This paper explores the conditions and self-reinforcing dynamics that hinder the Great Transformation of food systems called for by international experts and development agencies. The concentration of economic and market power, along with other factors such as ideology and policy incoherence, prevent the alignment of the food systems towards sustainability. While innovation is often seen as a game-changer, the profit-driven nature of its evolutionary selection fails to steer the food systems towards sustainability. A normative and global approach, with an emphasis on governance transformation, is necessary to overcome the current barriers and achieve the long-awaited sustainable transformation.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Tong Zou, Ayotunde Dawodu, Eugenio Mangi, Ali Cheshmehzangi
Summary: The current global food system is facing significant threats due to various factors, and there is a lack of comprehensive tools for assessing urban food system sustainability. This study aims to investigate the impacts of food system studies on sustainable communities or cities and develop a framework for urban food systems.
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Kristiaan P. W. Kok, Laurens Klerkx
Summary: Mission-oriented agricultural innovation systems (MAIS) are becoming more prevalent in addressing the challenges of agri-food systems transformation. The politics of MAIS, including directionality, diversity, distribution and democracy, play a crucial role in shaping innovation and advancing system transformation. These 4D considerations have important implications for policies and research on MAIS and agri-food system transformation.
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Food Science & Technology
D. Knorr, M. A. Augustin
Summary: This review highlights the transitions needed from linear food chains to closed loop systems and wider food webs for more sustainable food systems, emphasizing the importance of considering the complexities in food value chains. To ensure the long-term sustainability of the planet, globally accepted definitions and indicators for sustainability need to be developed, and a systems-based approach is required for developing sustainable food systems.
TRENDS IN FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Hugo de Vries, Mechthild Donner, Monique Axelos
Summary: This study views food systems as open thermodynamic systems and argues that sustainable food systems are complex adaptive systems evolving in a melting zone between frozen states and chaos. Players and pieces are influenced by four fundamental forces in physics.
TRENDS IN FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Silja Zimmermann, Brian J. Dermody, Bert Theunissen, Martin J. Wassen, Lauren M. Divine, Veronica M. Padula, Henrik von Wehrden, Ine Dorresteijn
Summary: Arctic food systems are facing challenges like climate change, food security loss, and destabilization of Indigenous practices. Despite growing scientific knowledge, Indigenous communities still struggle with sustainability challenges. A systematic review of 526 articles was conducted to understand the existing knowledge on Arctic Indigenous food systems. The study identified gaps and proposed directions for future research to enable sustainability transformations.
SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Koen van der Gaast, Eveline van Leeuwen, Sigrid Wertheim-Heck
Summary: This paper introduces the sustainable food entrepreneurship framework, emphasizing that sustainable food entrepreneurship is a cyclical ongoing process of change that requires entrepreneurs to reflect on the past to imagine the future and align future outcomes with the socio-material context. The framework helps reevaluate terms like success and failure, and underscores the importance of intermediary actors in facilitating entrepreneurship.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Angela Carriedo Lutzenkirchen, Helen Walls, Kerry Ann Brown
Summary: This commentary reflects upon the study findings and emphasizes the importance of power dynamics in transforming food systems. The role of power dynamics in relationships between food system actors, socio-economic political context, and policy coherence are discussed. Neglecting power dynamics can hinder food system transformation, as illustrated by the example of the 2021 United Nations Food System Summit.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH POLICY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Review
Food Science & Technology
Qiumeng Zhong, Lan Wang, Shenghui Cui
Summary: The increase of urbanization is impacting the urban food system (UFS) in terms of production, processing, and consumption. Global research interest in UFS has significantly increased, focusing on areas such as food security, food consumption, and food waste. Future attention should be given to food sustainability and resilience, food innovation, and comparative studies between cities.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Yucheng Fang, Ershun Du, Haoyi Wang, Peng Wang, Yidan Chen, Ning Zhang
Summary: Variable renewable energy integration presents challenges to power system operation, particularly regarding frequency security. Finding a solution to provide satisfactory frequency response is still an open question. Concentrating solar power, combining renewable energy characteristics and synchronous units, offers a potential solution to the frequency response problem. This paper discusses the use of concentrating solar power plants to ensure frequency security and proposes a dynamic frequency control strategy. The proposed strategy is implemented within a novel unit commitment model that includes primary and secondary frequency responses for optimal energy reserve co-optimization. The validity of the unit commitment model and control strategy is confirmed through case studies on a modified 6-bus and RTS-79 system.
IET RENEWABLE POWER GENERATION
(2023)
Review
Nutrition & Dietetics
Gabrielle Rochefort, Annie Lapointe, Annie-Pier Mercier, Genevieve Parent, Veronique Provencher, Benoit Lamarche
Summary: Territorialized food systems may have positive effects on improving diet quality, providing agroecosystem services, and promoting food security, but the data are inconsistent, highlighting the need for more comprehensive and interdisciplinary research.
Review
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Nevin Cohen
Summary: This article reviews the efforts made by cities worldwide to reconfigure their food systems in order to improve public health, promote social justice, and enhance environmental resilience. Despite various policy initiatives, disparities in food insecurity and malnourishment persist. The article concludes by proposing several promising pathways for urban food policy.
ANNUAL REVIEW OF PUBLIC HEALTH
(2022)