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In the agricultural sector, climate change (CC) affects multiple weather variables at different stages of crop cycles. CC may influence the mean level or affect the distribution of events (e.g., rainfall, temperature). This work evaluates the economic impact of CC-related changes in multiple climatic components, and the resulting uncertainty. For this purpose, a three-stage discrete stochastic programming model is used to represents farm sector of an irrigated area of Italy and to examine the influence of CC on rainfall and on maximum temperature. These variables affect the availability of water for agriculture and the water requirements of irrigated crops. The states of nature, and their change, are defined more broadly than in previous analyses; this allows examining the changes of more climatic variables and crops cultivation. The effect of CC is obtained by comparing the results of scenarios that represent the climatic conditions in the current situation and in the future. The results show that the agricultural sector would seek to lower costs by modifying patterns of land use, farming practices and increasing the use groundwater. The overall economic impact of these changes is small and due primarily to the reduced availability of water in the future. The temperature increase is, in fact, largely offset by the effects of the increase in CO2 levels, which boosts the yield of main crops of the irrigated zone. Therefore, availability and water management becomes a crucial factor to offset the increase of evapotranspiration and of water stress resulting from the increase of temperature. However, the costs of CC are very high for some types of farming, which suffer a large reduction in income.

Understanding variation in the diet of widely distributed species can help us to predict how they respond to future environmental and anthropogenic changes. We studied the diet of the red fox Vulpes vulpes, one of the world’s most widely distributed carnivores. We compiled dietary data from 217 studies at 276 locations in five continents to assess how fox diet composition varied according to geographic location, climate, anthropogenic impact and sampling method. The diet of foxes showed substantial variation throughout the species’ range, but with a general trend for small mammals and invertebrates to be the most frequently occurring dietary items. The incidence of small and large mammals and birds in fox diets was greater away from the equator. The incidence of invertebrates and fruits increased with mean elevation, while the occurrence of medium-sized mammals and birds decreased. Fox diet differed according to climatic and anthropogenic variables. Diet richness decreased with increasing temperature and precipitation. The incidence of small and large mammals decreased with increasing temperature. The incidence of birds and invertebrates decreased with increasing mean annual precipitation. Higher Human Footprint Index was associated with lower incidence of large mammals and higher incidence of birds and fruit in fox diet. Sampling method influenced fox diet estimation: estimated percentage of small and medium-sized mammals and fruit was lower in studies based on stomach contents, while large mammals were more likely to be recorded in studies of stomach contents than in studies of scats. Our study confirms the flexible and opportunistic dietary behaviour of foxes at the global scale. This behavioural trait allows them to thrive in a range of climatic conditions, and in areas with different degrees of human-induced habitat change. This knowledge can help place the results of local-scale fox diet studies into a broader context and to predict how foxes will respond to future environmental changes. Castañeda et al. 2022 Mammal Review (Variation in red fox Vulpes vulpes diet in five continents)

The Brazilian project Carne Carbono Neutro (CCN) assumes that a more sustainable beef will increase its value for the consumers. The paper aims to verify this assumption and to suggest a communication strategy supporting the CCN valorization. An online survey involving 506 Brazilian consumers showed three different classes of consumers with significantly different attitudes towards environmental issues. Price and quality always strongly influence their demand for beef. A communication campaign should focus on the CCN lower beef environmental impact and beef price/quality issues. Social media on internet and education programs in schools and different institutions should be used. International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 11, No 4 (2020)

Within an overall project to assess the ability of the agricultural sector to contribute to bioenergy production, we set out here to examine the economic and technological viability of a bioenergy facility in an uncertain economic context, using the stochastic viability approach. We consider two viability constraints: the facility demand for lignocellulosic feedstock has to be satisfied each year and the associated supply cost has to be lower than de profitability threshold of the facility. We assess the viability probability of various supplying strategies consisting in contracting a given share of the feedstock demand with perennial dedicated crops at the initial time and then in making up each year with annual dedicated crops or wood. The demand constraints and agricultural prices scenarios over the time horizon are introduced in an agricultural and forest biomass supply model, which in turns determines the supply cost per MWh and computes the viability probabilities of the various contract strategies. A sensibility analysis to agricultural prices at initial time is performed. Results show that when they are around or under the median (of the 1993–2007 prices), the strategy consisting in contracting 100% of the feedstock supply with perennial dedicated crops is the best one.

The present paper tries to address up to what extent corporate social responsibility (CSR) might advance socio-ecological sustainability of the products with a geographical indication (GI), mainly in developing countries. To this end it would be addressed how agricultural firms became financialized in recent decades. It would be then presented how CSR practices have recently emerged to address this issue and whether they have been successful or not. Finally, it would be highlighted the potential of GI certification practices as part of CSR practices that could potentially boost sustainability for agricultural firms in developing countries.

D'ici 2050, l'agriculture devra répondre à une augmentation de la demande alimentaire, due à une augmentation de la population qui devrait atteindre alors les 9 milliards. A l'échelle nationale, cela représente des enjeux de compétitivité et de croissance économique. Par ailleurs, afin d'assurer cette augmentation de la production, il y a deux solutions : augmenter la proportion des terres agricoles au détriment des écosystèmes naturels; et augmenter la productivité agricole. A travers une revue d'articles agronomiques et économiques, nous montrons l'importance de considérer la qualité du sol dans la productivité et la durabilité des exploitations agricoles. Cependant les pratiques agricoles préservant la qualité du sol ne sont pas largement adoptées, ce particulièrement en France. Une analyse économique de ces enjeux permet d'appréhender le processus de décision des agriculteurs, et de déterminer quelles sont les stratégies optimales permettant de répondre à ces enjeux. Nous proposons un modèle de contrôle optimal qui illustre les liens entre les pratiques agricoles et la qualité du sol, quand la qualité du sol est considérée comme un facteur de production endogène. L'intérêt et l'originalité de cet article est d'associer différentes disciplines pour étudier le rôle de la qualité du sol dans la durabilité et la rentabilité des exploitations. Agriculture is facing an expected increase in food production demand, caused by an increased global population of 9 billion people by the middle of this century. At national scale, competitiveness and economic growth issues are at stake. To insure this increase in production, there are two solutions: extend the proportion of agricultural lands at the expense of natural ecosystems; and increase agricultural productivity. Through a review of agronomic and economic articles, we show the importance of considering soil quality in the productivity and sustainability of farms. However, farming practices preserving soil quality are not widely adopted, particularly in France. An economic analysis of these issues provide an understanding of farmers' decision making process, and indicate what the optimal strategies can be to cope with these challenges. We propose an optimal control model that illustrates the links between farming practices and soil quality when soil quality is considered as an endogenous production factor. The interest and originality of this article is to associate different disciplines to investigate the role of soil quality in the sustainability and profitability of farms.

In the proposed paper, data and expertise were collected to provide information and arguments about several issues: about the main criteria of good bread in terms of environmental, nutritional, sensory and sanitary aspects; then, about ways to achieve them in the wheat-to-bread chain, while maintaining affordable prices. Computation for determining the best compromise between the various desired criteria is a challenge, since not all of them are compatible. Several scenarios are explored to highlight tensions between desired criteria, problem formulation and solution analysis such as best- and worst-case scenarios. Hence the approach demonstrates the interest of information systems and computational methods for decision support in agricultural and food policies.

Agroforestry systems (AFS) are complex to model mainly due to the high spatial variability induced by the shade trees. Recently, the microclimate and lighf heterogeneity issue in AFS has been addressed using the 30 ecophysiological process-based model MAESPA (Charbonnier et al., 2013; Vezy et al., 2018). MAESPA surpassed the classical sun/shade dichotomy in AFS (Charbonnier et al., 2014) and provided continuous maps of e.g. available light, light-use~ fficiency and canopy temperature within Coffea Agroforestry Systems (GAS). A step further was to design a crop model for Coffea grown under agroforestry that would benefit from this continuum to estimate ecosystem services on the long term and under climate change scenarios. We designed DynA_Cof, a new process-based growth and yield model to compute plot-scale net and gross primary productivity, carbon allocation, growth, yield, energy, and water balance of GAS according to shade tree species and management, while accounting for fine-scale spatial effects using MAESPA metamodels (Figure 1). DynA_Cof satisfactorily simulated the daily plot-scale gross primary productivity (RMSE= 1.69 gc m-2 d-1 on 1562 days) and the energy and water balances (RMSE: AET = 0.63 mm d-1 , H= 1.27 MJ m-2 d-1, Rn= 1.98 MJ m-2 d-1) compared to measurements from an eddy-flux tower in Aquiares (Costa Rica) and also the NPP for above and below-ground organs, coffee bean yield and shade tree wood production compared to a comprehensive database from this site.