Plants are recognized as natural sources of antioxidants (e.g., polyphenols, flavonoids, vitamins, and other active compounds) that can be extracted by green solvents like water, ethanol, or their binary mixtures. Plant extracts are becoming more used as food additives in various food systems due to their antioxidant abilities. Their application in food increases the shelf life of products by preventing undesirable changes in nutritional and sensory properties, such as the formation off-flavors in lipid-rich food. This review summarizes the most recent literature about water or ethanol-water plant extracts used as flavors, colorings, and preservatives to fortify food and beverages. This study is performed with particular attention to describing the benefits of plant extract-fortified products such as meat, vegetable oils, biscuits, pastries, some beverages, yogurt, cheese, and other dairy products. Antioxidant-rich plant extracts can positively affect food safety by partially or fully replacing synthetic antioxidants, which have lately been linked to safety and health issues such as toxicological and carcinogenic consequences. On the other hand, the limitations and challenges of using the extract in food should be considered, like stability, level of purity, compatibility with matrix, price, sensory aspects like distinct taste, and others. In the future, continuous development and a tendency to use these natural extracts as food ingredients are expected, as indicated by the number of published works in this area, particularly in the past decade.

Urban agriculture has the potential to contribute to urban sustainability through its interactions with food, water, and energy (FEW) resource flows, and thus needs to be evaluated and analyzed through an integrative rather than a siloed approach. This publication provides an overview of the concept of FEW nexuses in the urban context and describes the role of urban agriculture and its sustainability implications for FEW nexuses and resources. Specific local case studies provide examples. This publication provides a holistic, interdisciplinary lens to understand the crucial role and sustainability implications of urban agriculture, currently gaining momentum in the global research and policy agenda. The fact sheet should be useful to urban and regional planners and policy-makers engaged in the development of urban agriculture, as well as to Extension agents seeking to communicate the sustainability implications of urban agriculture.

Demographic, economic, social, and climate change are all putting pressure increasing on natural resources through global energy, food, and water demand growth, which threatens the well-being of the ecosystems. To address this scientific and political challenge, a dual-purpose optimization tool has been proposed with the approach of minimizing the environmental effects and development costs of the region in line with resource consumption management, which optimally takes resources from the ecosystem, and regarding development approach (ecotourism development in this study), it has suggested the optimal strategy to improve the economic benefits. Moreover, this model is able to propose some effective management policies on resource planning at the regional level. This approach has been applied to Shif Island in the south of Iran. The main results are: (i) The regional potential has the possibility of increasing more than 2067 tourism numbers per year, which can compensate for a large part of the regional development costs. (ii) The regional management strategy of wastewater and solid waste resources with the view of the nexus approach development of the system (development of the eco-industrial park) and the ecosystem (the relationship between the soil and plant model) and the system development models in line with the regional demand), can reduce waste production to about zero and provide more than 90% of the region's fertilizer needs in order to improve the ecosystem's performance. (iii) In this model, the producers of materials and energy are the main inputs of the ecosystem, and the outputs of the ecosystem include the outputs of the agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishing process in the remote areas, as well as mineral resources (industrial raw materials and fossil resources), renewable energy, etc. Consumers consist of humans and living organisms of the urban-rural ecosystem.In general, in this paper, the aim is to develop a practical method for analyzing the symbiosis of living and non-living parts of the ecosystem in terms of water- Food-Energy and Ecosystem nexus model. In this regard, a hybrid technology model has been suggested to minimize the dynamic cost of changes in line to reach an optimal path for the development of living and non-living interaction.

This document provides a method module for the assessment of the true price of an agricultural or horticultural product, within the public-private partnership ‘Echte en Eerlijke Prijs’. It contains the key methodological aspects to measure and value three impacts of agri-food products and value chains: air, soil and water pollution.

The study aims to compare three methods used for the evaluation of water absorption of wheat flour: a) a direct method consisting of a standard procedure on a Farinograph-E device and b) two indirect methods, namely NIR spectroscopy and centrifugation. Forty-four samples of Czech food wheat were collected from the harvest year 2021. Namely, 23 samples of food wheat from the standard maturity collection ‘SM2’ and 21 samples from the early maturity collection ‘EM2’. All wheat samples were ground to obtain wheat flour of fine granulation. The flour samples were characterised by protein and ash content of 10.55-14.75% and of 0,59-0.63%, respectively. The water absorption ranged from 55.7% to 63.2% flour weight (Farinograph standard procedure), 60.1-67.1% flour weight (NIR spectroscopy), and 67.6-77.2% flour weight (centrifugation). Based on the results obtained by ANOVA statistical analysis, no significant difference was found for all qualitative parameters of SM2 and EM2 (p = 95%). According to the mentioned methods for both indirect determinations of water absorption in the sets SM2 and EM2, the prediction of the standard farinograph water absorption was more accurate using the NIR technique (minimal and maximal pair differences of 1.01 and 6.86 percentage points, in contrast to 1.78 and 14.87 percentage points for the centrifugation method). Linear regression confirmed the primary importance of protein content for the water absorption values. Also, the ash content should be considered because it reflects the dietary fibre level, and the fibre influences the water absorption values as well.

This document provides a method module for the assessment of the true price of an agricultural or horticultural product, within the public-private partnership ‘Echte en Eerlijke Prijs’. It contains the key methodological aspects to measure and value three impacts of agri-food products and value chains: air, soil and water pollution.

In less than one year the Niger Basin Authority, an intergovernmental body tasked with the sustainable development of the Niger waters and associated resources, passed the first ever nexus policy in a transboundary river basin, contributing to a true acceleration of change for improved water and associated development in the Niger River Basin. The guidelines were developed in close collaboration with the nine basin countries and complemented by a large capacity building program. Using the guidelines can reduce the threat of adverse impacts on the Basin’s shared water and land resources and save millions of dollars of investment funds, while meeting various Shared Vision objectives. Doing so can also help strengthen positive impacts, reduce crosssectoral constraints of single-sector solutions, and identify multisector solutions. Application of the nexus guidelines will increase the efficiency of natural resources use and support implementation and monitoring of (multipurpose) investments. If this can be achieved, the River of Rivers—thought to be the original meaning of the name Niger—will continue to enhance water, food and energy security, and environmental sustainability for generations to come. To support the application of the guidelines, the study team developed an online, simplified nexus assessment tool that is summarized in Appendix 4.

The demand for water, energy, and food resources increased in tandem with the world's population, industrialization, and urbanization. Anthropogenic sources of environmental pollutants degrade the water resources while population expansion contributes to rising demand for non-renewable energy resources which further enhances the greenhouse gas emissions. Also, maintaining the food security/-safety is another challenge which needs to be addressed for securing ‘planetary public health’. The sustainability programs, pragmatic studies, and strategies from regulatory/scientific institutions attempt to reduce the depletion of these resources and mitigate environmental challenges however, the individualistic approaches proves to be inadequate. Therefore, the present review emphasizes the use of Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus as a tool to combat environmental degradation, address climate action, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this article, we investigate methodological paradigm and application of WEF Nexus in an inter-related framework through case studies on water resources, energy efficiency, urban food production, food waste reduction, cross-sectoral perspectives, and the circular economy. It has been widely observed that excessive exploitation of these resources influences the global food supply and demand, water availability, resilience in energy and socio-economic sector. Also, such perturbations in water, energy, and food sectors were found to be inextricably linked with climate change. The results further revealed that WEF nexus approach stimulates multilevel and inter-sectoral governance, thereby aiding to address the complexities and inefficiencies in achieving the SDGs. The prioritization of WEF Nexus strategy, especially under the event of COVID-19 can be a holistic approach to sustainably utilise natural resources to help achieve the environmental sustainability.

The critical interlinkages among the food, land, and water (FLW) systems are complex and context-specific. There has been limited research on how policies governing one resource have deep implications for the other linked resources. Further, the process of developing policies is highly complex, and each evolves differently. In addition, policy changes are implemented in response to socio-cultural, economic, environmental, and political changes. Thus, individual policies may develop conflicting priorities and effects. To ensure the effectiveness of national policies and strategies, it is crucial to gather context-specific evidence on the coherence between policies governing FLW systems and address points of incoherence. Policy coherence is important to identify and strengthen synergies across economic, social, and environmental policy areas and address any trade-offs1 between them to align domestic policy objectives with internationally agreed objectives. The study offers key evidence-based recommendations to address the identified gaps and challenges in the selected national policies, which are essential for enhancing policy coherence.

Although there seems enough water available for our global food needs, there are large areas with growing water scarcity. Food security in these water scarce areas cannot be met through self-sufficiency. The only option is to become more dependent on food imports which is increasingly risky due to volatility in production and food prices. Before 2008, declining food prices and increasing global cereal production favoured the food import strategy. The 2008 world food crisis represented a shock to this strategy and renewed attention was paid to the self-sufficiency strategy. The aim of this paper is to compare the food security strategies of Egypt and Jordan, two water-stressed, increasingly populated, oil-poor countries, pre and post 2008, by means of a food-water analytical framework using FAOSTAT data. Findings show that Egypt and Jordan have many similarities in their food security situation as both are highly dependent on food imports (Egypt 50%, Jordan 95%), and both have a reduced capacity to absorb future price increases. As food imports are inevitable under the water scarce context of Egypt and Jordan, it is important to focus on how to cope with volatilities. Our analysis shows that Jordan has better absorbed the costs of rising food imports than Egypt and that Egypt is trapped by its high domestic cereal production. Having revealed the limited options available to water-scarce countries for food security, we discuss the potential of grain reserves to cope with future price hikes and production shocks.