This chapter introduces food systems and organic farming, outlines the development of organic farming in Southern Africa, and grapples with the idea of sustainable development; drawing on earlier work of the author entitled Sustainable Development: Developing What to Sustain Whom? a conceptual...

The call to adopt a food systems approach has been made increasingly over the past two decades. A systems perspective contends that the only way to understand a problem fully is to understand the elements (parts) in relation to the system (whole). Systems science and research has been pursued in a...

Although still controversial, several reviews of research show that organic foods are more nutritious and contain fewer poisons than conventional foods. Poor food choices lead to low dietary diversity, and refined foods have many nutrients removed; low nutrient density and high sugars, salts and...

The theory of participatory action research recommends finding tools for community participation in analysis of the situation and development of community programmes. Two case studies, from KwaZulu-Natal and from Philippi near Cape Town, are examined. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques...

Rainwater harvesting, solar water heating and organic vegetable production were used to improve efficiency in a suburban home in George, in South Africa's Southern Cape. In a year, treated municipal water consumption decreased from 17 kL/month to 8 kL/month, and 60 kL of rainwater was used for...

This practitioner reflection reports on 30 years of training agroecological farmers in various African contexts. It argues that good theory should be drawn out of good practice, to help farmers to adapt to climate change while producing nourishing food sustainably. Currently, training is often...

Africa is urbanizing rapidly, and many unemployed or poor people are trying to produce food in urban and peri-urban areas. Many local authorities see this as high-risk food production, mainly because of the risk of use of contaminated water. However, with good planning, urban gardens can supply...

This volume brought together research on concepts and global perspectives on organic food systems, on methods of building capacity in times of climate change, on supporting organic farmers and on upscaling the organic sector in Africa. This chapter summarizes these findings and concludes that four...

This introductory chapter presents the history of apple cider production and industry in the USA. It also describes the classification of cider apple cultivars and the quantification of cider apple juice titratable acidity and tannin levels.

This book takes a transdisciplinary approach and considers multisectoral actions, integrating health, agriculture, environment, economy, and socio-cultural issues, to comprehensively explore the topic of sustainable diets. Consideration is given to the multi-dimensional nature of diets and food...