Agriculture began in the eastern Mediterranean Levantine Corridor about 11 000 years ago toward the end of the Younger Dryas when aridity had diminished wild food resources. During the subsequent Climatic Optimum, agricultural villages spread rapidly but subsequent climatic changes on centennial to millennial scales resulted in striking 5 oscillations in settlement, especially in marginal areas...

Farming practices are known to exert strong control over the soils’ function to act as sources or sinks for greenhouse gases (GHG). A recent meta-analysis based on the evaluation of 74 published long-term system comparisons provides a comprehensive data base regarding soil organic matter development (SOM) and C sequestration potential of organic systems (Gattinger et al., 2012). Furthermore, th...

OBJECTIVE To put the debate on the Mediterranean diet in context by highlighting historical and prospective changes in the level and composition of food consumption in the world and key Mediterranean countries. DESIGN Data from FAO's food balance sheets are used to illustrate historical evolution. Projections to 2030 are presented from FAO's recent and ongoing work on exploring world food and...

Mediterranean-type ecosystems constitute one of the rarest terrestrial biomes and yet they are extraordinarily biodiverse. Home to over 250 million people, the five regions where these ecosystems are found have climate and coastal conditions that make them highly desirable human habitats. The current conservation landscape does not reflect the mediterranean biome's rarity and its importance for...

The olive is one of the most ancient cultivated fruit trees. Olive cultivation has a very long history which started from the Third Millennium BC (Loukas & Krimbas, 1983) in the Eastern region of the Mediterranean sea and spread later around the basin following land and maritime routes to Italy, Spain, North Africa and France. Nowadays there are about 805 million of olive trees, 98% of which ar...

Currently, agriculture uses about 70–80% of global water resources and, in the Mediterranean area, it accounts for high pressure freshwater demand. This study provides a useful framework meso-level assessment Water Footprint (WF) agriculture. Particularly, WF methodology is used to quantify consumption and pollution olives, grapes tomatoes, traditional crops widespread both Apulia region, South...

Climate change, water shortages and desertification threaten the economic environmental sustainability in Mediterranean. Limited rainfall higher temperatures put agricultural production, which relies on availability, jeopardy. Thereupon, Mediterranean countries pursue agri-food resilience preservation through efficient policies. Hence, water-deprived areas ought to import rather than produce wa...