This paper reviews the opportunities available for food businesses to encourage consumers to eat healthier and more nutritious diets, to invest in more sustainable manufacturing and distribution systems and to develop procurement systems based on more sustainable forms of agriculture. The important factors in developing more sustainable supply chains are identified as the type of supply chain i...

Recent changes in local food supply systems have attracted substantial research interest, but little consideration has been paid to exactly where they occur. This article combines data from three studies to compare local food system development in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland using a single index of food relocalisation, thereby exploring the usefulness of the Index across different soci...

OBJECTIVE To describe geographical differences and time trends in the supply of the most important food components of the traditional Mediterranean diet. DESIGN Food supply data collected from national food balance sheets for the period 1961-2001. SETTING Selected Mediterranean countries: Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey. RESULTS Differences of almost 30-...

The demand for locally produced food is increasing as global food supply system has considerably affected the confidence of consumers by increasing tonne-kilometres, food safety risk, environmental impact, and disconnecting local food producers and consumers. However, local food suppliers are not in the position to compete with large scale food supply systems due to high logistics costs. The ov...

The concept of ecological niche, considered by the food dimension point of view, was used to characterize a small farmers community from the south of Minas Gerais State (Brazil). Ten small farmer families and 76 different meals eaten by them were evaluated in this study, during three different periods: September 1995 (end of the dry season), December 1995 (rainy season) and April 1996 (end of t...

Conventional agriculture is the currently leading production method to grow crops in the western hemisphere. Long-term sustainability of the system and all the components is secondary to producing high yields each growing season, which leads to issues such as erosion and reduced soil quality. Other agricultural production methods such as permaculture aim to build soil and improve quality every ...