Main description:

As the threats of food insecurity loom ever larger, the world faces the sad irony of food shortages in the global South alongside a purported 'obesity epidemic' in the global North. The twin issues of food production and food access are of particular concern in the context of climate change, 'peak oil', biofuels, and land grabs by wealthy nations. Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability offers critical insights by international scholars, with chapters on global food security, supermarket power, new technologies, and sustainability. The book also assesses the contributions of diet and nutrition research in building socially just and environmentally sustainable food systems and provides policy recommendations to improve the health and environmental status of contemporary agri-food systems. The book features contributions from a range of social science perspectives, including sociology, anthropology, public health and geography, with case study material drawn from throughout the world.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability in a Globalized World Part 1: Global Food Security 2. Breadbasket Contradictions: The Unstable Bounty of Industrial Agriculture in the United States and Canada 3. Security for Whom? Changing Discourses on Food in Europe in Times of a Global Food Crisis 4. The Re-emergence of National Food Security on the United Kingdom's Strategic Policy Agenda: Sustainability Challenges and the Politics of Food Supply 5. Neoliberalism and Food Vulnerability: The Stakes for the South 6. Energy Security, Agriculture and Food Part 2: Food Systems, Diet and Nutrition 7. Unequal Food Systems, Unhealthy Diets 8. Explaining Patterns of Convenience Food Consumption 9. Public Health and Moral Panic: Sociological Perspectives on the 'Epidemic of Obesity' 10. The Food Regulatory System - Is it Protecting Public Health and Safety? 11. The 'Wellness' Phenomenon: Implications for Global Agri-food Systems 12. Supermarkets, Food Systems and Public Health: Facing the Challenges Part 3: Towards a Sustainable Agri-food Future 13. Bodies, Bugs and Dirt: Sustainability Re-imagined in Community Gardens 14. Biofuels: Finding a Sustainable Balance for Food and Energy 15. Examining the Mythologies of Organics: Moving Beyond the Organic/Conventional Binary? 16. Nanotechnology and the Techno-corporate Agri-food Paradigm 17. Conclusion: Drawing Evidence from the Food System for Future Policy