Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.global food system

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Estimating cropland requirements for global food system scenario modeling
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2022-12-16) Smith NW; Fletcher AJ; Millard P; Hill JP; McNabb WC; Ridoutt BG
    Introduction: The production of plant crops is foundational to the global food system. With the need for this system to become more sustainable while feeding an increasing global population, tools to investigate future food system scenarios can be useful to aid decision making, but are often limited to a calorie- or protein-centric view of human nutrition. Methods: Here, a mathematical model for forecasting the future cropland requirement to produce a given quantity of crop mass is presented in conjunction with the DELTA Model®: an existing food system scenario model calculating global availability of 29 nutrients against human requirements. The model uses national crop yield data to assign yield metrics for 137 crops. Results: The crops with the greatest variation between high and low yielding production were specific nuts, fruits, and vegetables of minor significance to global nutrient availability. The nut crop group showed the greatest overall yield variation between countries, and thus the greatest uncertainty when forecasting the cropland requirement for future increases in production. Sugar crops showed the least overall yield variation. The greatest potential for increasing global food production by improving poor yielding production was found for the most widely grown crops: maize, wheat, and rice, which were also demonstrated to be of high nutritional significance. Discussion: The combined cropland and nutrient availability model allowed the contribution of plant production to global nutrition to be quantified, and the cropland requirement of future food production scenarios to be estimated. The unified cropland estimation and nutrient availability model presented here is an intuitive and broadly applicable tool for use in global food system scenario modeling. It should benefit future research and policy making by demonstrating the implications for human nutrition of changes to crop production, and conversely the implications for cropland requirement of food production scenarios aimed at improving nutrition.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Finding value in an alternative caring food network : a study of how localised regenerative small-scale growers can build social value in our food system : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts - Human Geography, Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) McLeod, Heidi Anne
    Through its significant dairy farming sector, Taranaki epitomises modernised food production and distribution within a global food system. Alongside this, a burgeoning community of small-scale growers exist who do not aspire to large scales or optimised profitability. These growers support localised food production, diversity in distribution, regenerative practices, and caring social values. I argue they are fundamentally 'resocialising' food in a way that enhances social, cultural and economic values, and are creating wellbeing for local communities through an ethic of care. There is little literature regarding the social attributes of food grown by small-scale growers for local consumption. This thesis aims to contribute to that body of work by offering an ethnographic account of small-scale growers. I argue that these growers build and strengthen a sense of community thereby creating an interconnected web of organised care relationships that form a 'meshwork', connecting people to place within Taranaki. I will show that understanding the relationship between people and food procurement goes beyond a financial exchange, disentangling food from a global food system where it may be 'food from nowhere' to situating it in a localised setting where through processes of resocialisation, it becomes 'food from somewhere' (McMichael, 2016). However, despite creating positive social values, small-scale growers struggle to hold their space within the global food system because they are frequently deprioritised, undervalued, or unrecognised. This thesis concludes by showing Taranaki’s regenerative small-scale growers are able to create a meshwork of food production and distribution that resocialises food through values of care.