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The concept of sustainable diets has received increasing attention as it is recognised that several global challenges, such as malnutrition and mitigating pressures on global land resources, might be tackled together through changes in diets. This thesis has used the UK as a case study to analyse the implications of achieving healthy and environmentally sustainable diets for future land use. This thesis shows the total agricultural footprint of UK's food supply has decreased slightly over the last decades due to a lower ruminant livestock product supply. However, the total cropland footprint and its associated greenhouse gas emissions have increased, and these impacts are increasingly displaced overseas. Land use efficiency of the food supply was evaluated by combining agricultural and nutritional data. While a focus on calories and protein reflects favourably on cereals and oil crops, assessing a wider range of nutrients shows that roots & tubers and vegetables are important to “feed the UK” efficiently. Reducing land use associated with UK's food supply is possible while still meeting dietary requirements and this generally also lowers greenhouse gas emissions. Discretionary foods, such as coffee, tea and wine, and animal products should be reduced for a lower impact, but trade-offs were also identified. Four insights relevant for the wider literature were identified: a) the complexity of international trade complicates the assessment of sustainability due to difficulties linking production and consumption, b) there are different types of agricultural land, each with their own opportunity costs, c) new metrics for agricultural yield are needed, moving from “tonnes per hectare” to “people fed per hectare”, and d) the trade-offs between different environmental indicators are important. With an uncertain policy environment and a lack of willing among the population to make significant changes in their diets, the future of UK land use and diets is unclear.

Thesis (D.Phil.)--University of Oxford, 2008. / Supervisor: Professor Diana Liverman. Bibliography: p. 320-332.

By 2050, it is estimated that food production will need to increase by 70 percent in developed countries and 100 percent in developing countries to meet the demands of future populations. In countries such as the United Kingdom - where the opportunities for increasing food production are limited due to the lack of available land - urban agriculture is seen as a possible solution to meeting increased food demand. However, many cities in the United Kingdom exhibit high building densities and the availability of space at ground level for agricultural activities is in short supply. As a result, the practice of urban agriculture in high-density cities is typically portrayed as a succession of purpose-built edifices that are filled with lettuces or livestock; illustrating a method of food production that is dependent on substantial investment and the demolition of existing buildings to succeed. Within this thesis, these large utopian agricultural skyscrapers are pushed to one side, and existing buildings become the focus of the research; so as to work with cities as they exist today rather than against them. The aim of this thesis is to determine the productivity of building integrated technical food systems and to understand the challenges that face their integration within existing buildings in the future, to calculate the cumulative impact of building integrated technical food systems on UK food security and to understand the potential benefits of building integrated technical food systems such as employment opportunities and the increase in green infrastructure. The delivery of this thesis is not dependent on a pre-existing hypothesis that building integrated technical food systems will drastically improve food security. Instead, this thesis relies on the design of real-world experiments, the development of simulated studies and the construction of logical arguments to quantify and qualify the potential impacts of building integrated technical food systems.

This dissertation traces the historical transformation of the Canada-UK commodity chain for wheat-bread as a lens on processes of local and global change in agrofood relations. During the 1990s, the Canadian Wheat Board (Canada’s monopoly wheat seller) and Warburtons, a British bakery, pioneered an innovative identity-preserved sourcing relationship that ties contracted prairie farmers to consumers of premium bread in the UK. Emblematic of the increasing importance of quality claims, traceability, and private standards in the reorganization of agrifood supply chains, I argue that the changes of the 1990s cannot be understood outside of historical legacies giving shape to unique institutions for regulating agrofood relations on the Canadian prairies and in the UK food sector. I trace the rise, fall, and re-invention of the Canada-UK commodity chain across successive food regimes, examining the changing significance of wheat- bread, inter-state relations between Canada, the UK, and the US, and public and private forms of agrofood regulation over time. In particular, I focus on the way in which changing food regime relations transformed the CWB, understood as the nexus of institutions tying prairie farmers into global circuits of accumulation. When in the 1990s, the CWB and Warburtons responded to structural crises in their respective industries by re-inventing the Canada-UK wheat trade, the result was significant organizational and industry change. On the prairies, the CWB has shown how – contrary to expectations -- centralized marketing and quality control may help prairie farmers adapt to the demands of end-users in the emerging ‘economy of qualities’. In the UK, Warburtons has led the ‘premiumisation’ of the bread sector, traditionally defined by consumer taste for cheap bread, over the last 15 years. The significance of the shift towards quality chains in the wheat-bread sector is analyzed in light of conflicts over the proposed introduction of genetically engineered (GE) wheat to the Canadian prairies.

This dissertation traces the historical transformation of the Canada-UK commodity chain for wheat-bread as a lens on processes of local and global change in agrofood relations. During the 1990s, the Canadian Wheat Board (Canada’s monopoly wheat seller) and Warburtons, a British bakery, pioneered an innovative identity-preserved sourcing relationship that ties contracted prairie farmers to consumers of premium bread in the UK. Emblematic of the increasing importance of quality claims, traceability, and private standards in the reorganization of agrifood supply chains, I argue that the changes of the 1990s cannot be understood outside of historical legacies giving shape to unique institutions for regulating agrofood relations on the Canadian prairies and in the UK food sector. I trace the rise, fall, and re-invention of the Canada-UK commodity chain across successive food regimes, examining the changing significance of wheat- bread, inter-state relations between Canada, the UK, and the US, and public and private forms of agrofood regulation over time. In particular, I focus on the way in which changing food regime relations transformed the CWB, understood as the nexus of institutions tying prairie farmers into global circuits of accumulation. When in the 1990s, the CWB and Warburtons responded to structural crises in their respective industries by re-inventing the Canada-UK wheat trade, the result was significant organizational and industry change. On the prairies, the CWB has shown how – contrary to expectations -- centralized marketing and quality control may help prairie farmers adapt to the demands of end-users in the emerging ‘economy of qualities’. In the UK, Warburtons has led the ‘premiumisation’ of the bread sector, traditionally defined by consumer taste for cheap bread, over the last 15 years. The significance of the shift towards quality chains in the wheat-bread sector is analyzed in light of conflicts over the proposed introduction of genetically engineered (GE) wheat to the Canadian prairies.

Protection of the agriculture and food infrastructure, defined as "the physical production and distribution systems critical to supporting national security and economic well-being, including all activities essential to food, feed, and fiber production, including all techniques for raising and processing livestock," is the responsibility of all stakeholders in the food supply chain (Spellman, 2008, p.8). Though many stakeholders emerge in the chain, producers are the primary line of defense to a disease epidemic. Many factors influence livestock producers‘ protective action decision process in relation to biological hazards. By identifying these factors in a specific producer population, more effective preparedness programs and messages can be developed by risk communicators. The purpose and objectives of this study determined Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) members‘ perceptions of vulnerability to the Texas cattle industry, perceived emergency preparedness level, barriers to adoption of protective actions, and sources of animal health information. This study targeted 7,661 members of the TSCRA. An online survey questionnaire developed from previous research with similar populations allowed TSCRA members to respond to questions related to the objective of this study. A representative sample of TSCRA members from Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico responded to the survey. Recognizing susceptibility to biological hazards, TSCRA members identified high levels of perceived trust and reliability in local veterinarians as a source of information, consistent with previous studies. Although the majority of members reported they did not have a biosecurity plan implemented on their operations, they did recognize the necessity of preventative practices. TSCRA members were neutral on all barriers to adoption of protective actions; however, the barrier "lack of information" was rated higher by means as a barrier to adoption of protective actions. When investigating differences among noncommercial and commercial operations managed by TSCRA members, no statistical differences were identified in this study. However, when investigating differences among TSCRA members and number of cattle managed, a weak positive correlation was identified for perception of hazard by threat in relation to more animals managed. Findings of this study confirmed sources stating that the agriculture and food infrastructure is vulnerable to biological hazards as perceived by livestock owners (Motes, 2007; Spellman, 2008). Ashlock (2006) and Riley (2007) found similar perspectives of vulnerability among Oklahoma and Kansas producers further strengthening the need to protect the agriculture and food critical infrastructure as outlined by Homeland Security Presidential Directive – 9 (HSPD-9, 2004). Since it was determined that veterinarians are perceived to be the most reliable and trustworthy source of information by TSCRA members, local opinion leaders, such as veterinarians, should engage in train-the-trainer programs to ensure a consistent risk communication message is being disseminated.

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The goal of the Master's Thesis is to identify potential risks that consumers face at the wine market in the Czech Republic. Further, the Master's Thesis aim to find out what are the measures that protect a consumer and to suggest solutions to those areas where the protective measures do not work. The identification is carried out via the analysis of primary and secondary data. Primary data are surveyed by means of consumer research and interviews with experts. At the end of the Master's Thesis the results are summarized and the improving arrangements are put forward.

This study aims to evaluate conceptual considerations of the sociology of agriculture and food from inside and outside of the literature in relation to transnationalization and its claim on the emergence of a transnational state. Although the history of the literature can be traced back to mid-1970s, its development corresponds to 1990s which is also the period that witnessed the hegemony of the concept of globalization in social sciences. This study argues that the claim on transnationalization reflects the intimate relationship of sociology of agriculture and food with the globalist interpretation of the concept of globalization or globalization theory which suffers from methodological and theoretical problems mainly in relation to the analysis of immanent contradictions and distinctive features of capitalism. With the criticism of the concepts of globalization and transnationalization, this study aims to break the intimate relationship of the sociology of agriculture and food with the globalization theory and suggests that the concept of imperialism is a powerful analytical concept in comprehending the transformation of capitalist relations, particularly the agrifood relations since late 1970s. In other words, this study aims to reevaluate the concepts (agrifood system and food regime) and problematics formulated in the sociology of agriculture and food literature within the theoretical framework based on the concept of capitalist imperialism exemplified in the analysis of transformation of agrifood relations since 1980 in the case of Turkey.