Agent-based modelling; GIS; Structural Change; Multifunctional Agriculture; CAP-reform.

In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in local food systems-among policy makers, planners, and public health professionals, as well as environmentalists, community developers, academics, farmers, and ordinary citizens. While most local food systems share common characteristics, the chapters in this book explore the unique challenges and opportunities of local food systems located within mature and/or declining industrial regions. Local food systems have the potential to provide residents with a supply of safe and nutritious food; such systems also have the potential to create much-needed employment opportunities. However, challenges are numerous and include developing local markets of a sufficient scale, adequately matching supply and demand, and meeting the environmental challenges of finding safe growing locations. Interrogating the scale, scope, and economic context of local food systems in aging industrialized cities, this book provides a foundation for the development of new sub-fields in economic, urban, and agricultural geographies that focus on local food systems. The book represents a first attempt to provide a systematic picture of the opportunities and challenges facing the development of local food systems in old industrial regions.

The Second Edition of this book is completely revised and updated throughout providing an overview of current challenges faced within the area of Agri-food in relation to policymaking, ecological conservation and socio-environmental justice. Including a range of new chapters, the book explores some of the conceptual and analytical gaps that are presented by current approaches to this topic. The series of interconnected chapters offers a critical reinterpretation of the tensions associated with the failures of mainstream regulatory regimes, land and resource grabbing, and the impacts of global agri-food chains at local, regional and inter-sectoral scales. The book also examines past legacies and emerging challenges associated with agriculture modernisation, politico-spatial disputes, climate change, social movements, gender, ethnicity and education. It likewise addresses the transformative potential of different combinations of biophysical, socio-technical and socio-spatial practices of food sovereignty.

This book arises from a 2011 international conference entitled Climate Change, Agri-Food, Fisheries and Ecosystems: Reinventing Research, Innovation, and Policy Agendas for an Environmentally and Socially-Balanced Growth (ICCAFFE2011), organized by the North-South Center for Social Sciences (NRCS) in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Germany and the Institute for Research and Development (IRD), France. Coverage focuses on the agricultural sector and helps improve understanding of the relationships between agriculture and the environment and between human communities and nature, so as to sustainably manage agricultural development. The contributors analyze the interdependence between sustainable agricultural development and environmental, economic and social dynamics; assess the impacts of soil degradation on agricultural productivity; present ways to enhance livestock production and recommend mechanisms for managing links between agro-biodiversity, climate change and livelihoods. Part I examines sustainable agriculture development and environmental, economic and social dynamics, addressing topics such as global climate change, agriculture and challenges including socio-economic factors, adaptation, poverty reduction and water management. Part II covers the impacts of soil degradation on agricultural productivity and discusses the use of expert systems to assess and manage degraded lands, agricultural productivity, land suitability and rehabilitation. Part III focuses on livestock production enhancements, such as feed resources and supplemental feeds for animals and capacity building for women in dairy management. Part IV shares the outcomes of research in agro-biodiversity, climate change and livelihoods, addressing topics such as co-management of forests, carbon consumption models, biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration and scarce mangrove forests. Current environmental and agro-ecological research focuses on understanding the cause-consequence relationships between specific agricultural practices and land use and the responses at different levels of ecosystems. This book is intended to contribute to this discussion.