The worldwide interest in sustainable development has not only prompted ecological developments in policy and research in key sectors such as industry or transportation, but also in the management and assessment of new lifestyles such as healthy food consumption and sustainable use of products. In this context, agriculture is an important example because of its dual nature as both a high-tech sector producing modern mass products and also a traditional sector producing environmentally-friendly goods. Illustrated by a range of case studies from across Europe, this volume examines the interface of agricultural - and sometimes rural - development and the social and economic feasibility of traditional modes of production and consumption. It provides an overview of the various strategies and policies concerning sustainable agriculture, presenting a critical review of the opportunities of traditional production modes, from local, regional, national and global perspectives.

This publication demonstrates the benefits of neglected and underutilized species, including amaranth, sorghum and cowpea, and their potential contribution to achieving Zero Hunger in South and Southeast Asia.

This book discusses the future and present regional challenges of southern Europe, adopting a multidisciplinary perspective concerning planning, regional development, the role of innovation and sustainability of cities. It offers as such an insight into the current status quo of regional development and territorial dynamics of a region of growing world-interest. Southern Europe has significantly changed over the last decades. At a regional level, key issues such as local and regional governance, sustainability, and preservation of heritage have presided as prime directives within the umbrella of the European Union. The recession had devastating consequences on the perception and the economies of southern Europe. However, the resilience and capacity of southern Europe to reinvent itself have been shown over the last decade. Southern Europe has since antiquity been a cradle of invention, innovation, and regional development, that under adequate and visionary governance may bring a growing engine towards sustainability.

The 2013 annual conference of the Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA) has been held in the attractive scenario of the city of Lecce under the organization of three different Universities of the Apulia Region (Università degli Studi di Bari, Università degli Studi di Foggia and Università del Salento). The scientific theme of the 50th SIDEA Conference has been “Sustainability of the agri-food system: Strategies and Performances” (Sostenibilità del Sistema Agroalimentare: strategie e performance). With such a topic, the SIDEA intended to cope with the challenges coming from a growing demand of food in a world where critical natural resources such as water, energy and land are becoming increasingly scarce and climate change is posing credible threats. The agri-food system and the broader bio-based economy are, in fact, human activities where the classic dimensions of sustainability (ecological, economic and social) are gaining a striking weight often showing evidence of frictions. Despite a significant growth in food production over the past century, today one of the most important challenges facing agro-food system is how to feed a growing population.

Contemporary agriculture is often criticized for its industrial scale, adverse effects on nutrition, rural employment and the environment, and its disconnectedness from nature and culture. Yet there are many examples of traditional smaller scale systems that have survived the test of time and provide more sustainable solutions while still maintaining food security in an era of climate change. This book provides a unique compilation of this forgotten agricultural heritage and is based on objective scientific evaluation and evidence of the value of these systems for present and future generations. The authors refer to many of these systems as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) and show how they are related to the concepts of heritage and the World Heritage Convention. They demonstrate how GIAHS based on family farms, traditional indigenous knowledge and agroecological principles can contribute to food and nutrition security and the maintenance of agro-biodiversity and environmental resilience, as well as sustain local cultures, economies and societies. Two substantial chapters are devoted to descriptions and assessments of some 50 examples of designated and potential GIAHS from around the world, including rice-fish culture in China, mountain terrace systems in Asia, coffee agroforestry in Latin America, irrigation systems and land and water management in Iran and India, pastoralism in East Africa, and the dehesa agrosilvopastoral system of Spain and Portugal. The book concludes by providing policy and technical solutions for sustainable agriculture and rural development through the enhancement of these systems.

Rethinking Asian Tourism addresses some of the latest developments in on-going tourism research in Southeast Asia and the wider Asia region (encompassing, in geographical terms, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea). It examines many of the emerging, as well as established, themes and issues in Asian tourism and promotes the development of critical scholarship within Asia to overcome Anglo-Western ethnocentrism in tourism studies of the region. There is some attention to such familiar concepts as authenticity, commoditisation, culture, heritage, and hosts and guests, but more especially to the diversification of phenomena which traditionally would not have been included within the parameters of tourism studies: retirees and long-stays, gastronomy, family-based leisure, popular culture, and local branding. Above all, the book addresses and develops a conceptual understanding from a multidisciplinary perspective of the character, experiences, encounters, perceptions and motivations of local, national and intra-regional tourism rather than basing concepts, perspectives, emphases and analyses on Western-Asian interactions and on transformations in the West. In this respect it encourages a shift in emphasis towards ‘Asianising’ our understanding of Asian tourism. This is one of the first volumes on Asian tourism written primarily by Asians and, as such, provides them with the opportunity to express their concerns, interests and priorities, rather than depending on the analyses and interpretations of those from outside the region. It also enables a deconstruction of the field of tourism studies, acknowledging that it is an open-ended, shifting, fluid and complex category of encounters and events generated by the processes of physical mobility.