Although nutritionists have long been aware of the importance of clean drinking water and sanitation, water is becoming part of the international political agenda only after a slow realization of its scarcity. This is mainly because water has been taken for granted in industrialized countries except during periods of drought. in many areas of developing countries, water shortages already exist. Even with improved management, new sources of water will have to be developed at higher costs per project. Provision of clean water and sanitation has been rendered difficult by rapid urbanization since the middle of the twentieth century. Although cities have managed to provide a water supply, they have not been able to provide sewage and wastewater treatment. Meanwhile, irrigated agriculture uses nearly 70% of world water. in the future, food security will become even more dependent on irrigation. Poor management, due mostly to low salaries and political interference, is one of the main reasons for inefficient water systems. Underpricing of water in towns and on farms discourages conservation. Furthermore, people who do not have access to tap water in developing countries pay 10 times more than those who have taps.

Fluoroquinolones are a valuable synthetic antibacterial class widely used in the treatment of infectious diseases both in humans and animals. Until recently, it has been thought that bacterial resistance to fluoroquinolones develops very slowly. Nowadays, there are multiple studies that reveal the alarming occurrence of bacterial resistance and there is a high risk of becoming therapeutically useless. The emergence of this phenomenon comes from injudicious usage in therapy, the presence of residues and their metabolites in food of animal origin and also in sewage, compost and domestic waste, which end up in soil and water sources. In the present paper, we reviewed important issues regarding fluoroquinolones impact on the environment in connection with the development of bacterial resistance: (1) the presence of fluoroquinolones as pollutants in soil, surface waters, and food. Fluoroquinolones are persistent with high specificity to interact with soil compared to other antibiotics. Pollution of water sources raises concerns regarding the effects of small concentrations (ng L⁻¹) on human health and also of the environment. The non-therapeutic use in animal farms conducts to food pollution; the cultivated plants could concentrate the fluoroquinolones (over 100 μg L⁻¹); (2) the increase of bacterial resistance to fluoroquinolones occurring with specific mutations in the target enzymes as well by the plasmid-mediated resistance and active efflux of the cell; (3) international regulations of the fluoroquinolone residues in food that are far to encompass all compounds; (4) fluoroquinolones residues analysis with standardized methods should provide limits of detection lower than maximum residue limit values; and (5) trends and perspectives: (a) a wider process of harmonization of regulations; (b) the fluoroquinolones restriction, necessary for low levels of bacterial resistance; (c) the soil and waste water purification methods; (d) the practice of soil planting scheme as an alternative; and (e) an environmental label in order to facilitate the selection of drugs.

To date, the land–water–food nexus has been primarily addressed from an ecological, hydrological or agronomic angle, with limited response to the governance interface between the input resources. Likewise, in widely used heuristic frameworks, such as the social–ecological system (SES) framework, governance interactions between resources are not sufficiently addressed. We address this gap empirically, using the case of Tajikistan, based on a farm household survey analysis of 306 farmers. The results indicate that land system variables contribute to the willingness to cooperate in irrigation management. Specifically, formal land tenure has a positive effect on farmers paying for water as well as on the likelihood of their investing time and effort in irrigation infrastructure, which is decisive for Tajikistan’s food and fiber production. Irrigation system variables show that, e.g., being an upstream user increases the likelihood to contribute to labor maintenance efforts. We further discuss how decisions with respect to the land sector could be designed in the future to facilitate cooperation in other resource sectors. Further, we conclude from a conceptual perspective that the SES framework integrating a nexus perspective can be adapted: either (1) by adding a second-tier “governance nexus” variable inside the governance variable of an irrigation system; or (2) by adding a land resource unit and system outside the irrigation system.

Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) are broadly cultivated in the Mediterranean but their environmental footprint is not very well studied. In this paper, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to determine the energy balance, carbon and water footprints (CF and WF, respectively) in 50 farms, organic and conventional, where four MAP species were cultivated; spearmint (Mentha spicata), oregano (Oreganum vulgare), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and Damask rose (Rosa damascena). The lowest value for energy intensity (EI) was observed for organic spearmint (0.18 MJ/kg fresh weight; f.w.) while the highest for conventional Damask rose (5.80 MJ/kg f.w.). Statistically significant differences were observed in EI between organic and conventional farms for spearmint and Damask rose while no differences were found for oregano and rosemary. The lowest CF was observed for organic rosemary (0.051 kg CO₂-eq/kg f.w.) while the highest for conventional Damask rose (0.463 kg CO₂-eq/kg f.w.). Statistical differences in the CF between organic and conventional farms for the four species followed the same pattern as for EI. Conventional spearmint had the lowest WF (61.5 L of water/kg f.w.) and organic Damask rose the highest (1522 L of water/kg f.w.). Statistical differences between the two management systems were observed only for Damask rose. The 50 farms were grouped according to the values of three indicators (EI, CF and WF) using cluster analysis. Four clusters were identified with 68% of the farms (34) belonging to the low footprint cluster which contained organic and conventional spearmint, oregano and rosemary farms. The other three clusters contained the (16) Damask rose farms, where the inputs were higher in comparison to the other three species and the highest footprint clusters contained conventional rose farms. Our work suggests that MAPs are viable candidates for the implementation of sustainable agriculture in the Mediterranean.

The expected worldwide demand for agriculture, energy, and manufactured products will result in a supply chain that is increasingly dependent on exported rural products (e.g., livestock, cereal grains, fossil fuel, and biofuel). Rural areas such as the northern Great Plains are net exporters of food and energy, essentially “mining” valuable water and nutrient resources to do so. Rural areas are the foundation of supply chains; thus, to achieve sustainability, one must begin focusing at the source of the supply chain– with the farm, ranch, mine, or well. There are many knowledge gaps within the food–energy–water nexus in rural areas that shroud regional sustainability thresholds. Research and legislation are needed to address these critical issues.

This paper synthesizes the spatial and temporal relationship between forest cover and water, as well as its implications for food security in the northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Different studies addressing the topic of land cover and hydrology have been reviewed. Analyses of 20–40 year long time series showed little and inconsistent relationships between forest cover change and hydrology on meso-scale (100–1000km2) watersheds. Spatial studies, however, showed stronger relationships between land cover and low flow features such as grasslands and woodlands. Interviews with local communities suggested land cover change impacts are more pronounced at smaller scale (<100km2) watersheds; which is consistent with observational studies on small scale watersheds and farm level plots. The stronger relationships between forests and hydrology at smaller scales suggests land management policies should be oriented to farm level conditions, where water is vital for the food security of subsistence farmers who comprise 86% of the population in the highlands.

As the basis for virtually any form of nitrogen fertilizers, ammonia plays a vital role in agriculture; in addition, there has been an increased interest in its use as a carbon-free energy carrier. However, ammonia is also associated with two major environmental concerns: CO₂ emissions from the conventional production process and nitrogen pollution from the excessive use of ammonia-based fertilizers. To mitigate these environmental impacts, we develop an optimization framework for the design of a sustainable ammonia-based agricultural system that synergistically integrates the production of ammonia from renewable resources and effective measures for nitrogen management. The proposed model captures the effect of intermittency by incorporating both design and detailed operational decisions. By applying a multiscale time representation that reduces the problem size and a tailored surrogate model that accurately approximates model nonlinearity, we are able to achieve optimal solutions within reasonable computation times. A computational case study is conducted using real-world data from a local farm in Morris, Minnesota, and the results indicate the trade-off between cost and nitrogen loss. Importantly, we show that practicing effective nitrogen management can significantly reduce the nitrogen loss with only a small increase in net present cost.

During the past three decades, the Pisque watershed in Ecuador's Northern Andes has become the country's principal export-roses producing area. Recently, a new boom of local smallholders have established small rose greenhouses and joined the flower-export business. This has intensified water scarcity and material/discursive conflicts over water use priorities: water to defend local-national food sovereignty or production for export. This paper examines how including peasant flower farms in the capitalist dream – driven by a ‘mimetic desire’ and copying large-scale capitalist flower-farm practices and technologies – generates new intra-community conflicts over collective water rights, extending traditional class-based water conflicts. New allocation principles in Ecuador's progressive 2008 Constitution and 2014 Water Law prioritising food production over flowers' industrial water use are unlikely to benefit smallholder communities. Instead, decision-making power for peasant communities and their water users' associations on water use priority would enable water user prioritization according to smallholders' own preferences.

The institutional reform of the State established in Ecuador during the last decade has aimed at regaining control of specific sectors such as the consumptive use of water. Since 2014, regulation, consumption, and use of water, especially in agriculture, have been analyzed through policies and fiscal instruments. This research presents itself in the context of the simulation of scenarios using positive mathematical programming, to analyze the economic impact of pricing policies on agro-food farms. Policies of fixed costs, water blocks, and volumetric prices are evaluated. The results show that the existing fixed costs do not reduce water consumption. In contrast, the scenarios of water blocks and volumetric prices impact on the behavior of farmers. The tendency of water consumption to the application of volumetric prices demonstrates that banana farms have a greater tolerance to the increase of water costs. On the other hand, the response to an increase in cost in the case of cacao, sugar cane, and rice depends on the productivity of farmers. The negative effects can lead to the abandonment of agriculture. Thus, volumetric policies are more efficient in reducing water consumption as well as in recovering the costs of the irrigation system.