Climate change and population growth are contributing to a growing global freshwater crisis that is exacerbating agricultural water scarcity and compromising food security and public health. In light of these challenges, the increased reliance on nontraditional irrigation water sources, such as reclaimed or recycled water, is emerging as a potentially viable strategy to address water and food insecurity worldwide. This editorial provides an overview of the global need for agricultural water reuse and outlines the environmental and public health impacts associated with this practice. Policy implications, including an emphasis on “One Water” approaches, are discussed. Finally, the editorial leads off a Special Issue that includes a collection of articles reporting on the initial research and extension/outreach findings of CONSERVE: A Center of Excellence at the Nexus of Sustainable Water Reuse, Food and Health, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Taken together, this compilation of articles addresses the overarching theme that transdisciplinary teams are key with regard to moving the science of agricultural water reuse forward to achieve water and food security and advance public health in a changing climate.

Nations, particularly those with well-established infrastructure, have started to look for new, innovative solutions to address the expected, inevitable high demand for primary resources. The WEF (water-energy-food) Nexus approach, which holistically considers the dynamic interlinkages between water, energy, and food resources, has come to the forefront within scientific and practice communities. Supporters assert that sustainable solutions can be revealed through the use of this approach, rather than conventional approaches that often overlook the interlinkages. The authors developed a holistic framework to provide sustainable scenarios that include feasible infrastructure interventions. The framework focuses on water and associated links with other resources, includes a unique analytic tool for quantifying scenarios, and ultimately produces a sustainability analysis of each scenario. Optimal scenarios are offered that consider site-specific dynamic resource interlinkages. The platform was applied to the case study of Matagorda County, Texas, identified as one of the most water-stressed regions in the state of Texas by the Texas Water Development Board, the state's executive agency for water resources management. High demands from energy and agriculture sectors in the county and sharp population increase in the upper basins, which include the city of Austin, have put great pressures on the water resources of Matagorda County. Farmers have been forced to change their crops from high to lower water-demand crops, in spite of apparent and relatively abundant local water resources. The findings of the case study present a most sustainable scenario, including infrastructure interventions that will increase the annual income of agriculture sector from $188 million to $239 million. The approach also helps preserve resources while reducing annual water and energy demand by 22 million m3 and 21 million kWh, respectively, and does not sacrifice on-going municipal and industrial water use or energy production in Matagorda, Texas. © 2019 Kulat, Mohtar and Olivera.

This handbook is designed to provide an accurate, current, and authoritative summary of the principle Federal and Florida laws that directly or indirectly relate to agriculture. This handbook should provide a basic overview of the many rights and responsibilities that farmers and farmland owners have under both Federal and Florida laws as well as the appropriate contact information to obtain more detailed information. However, the reader should be aware that because the laws, administrative rulings, and court decisions on which this handbook is based are subject to constant revision, portions of this publication could become outdated at anytime. Several details of cited laws are also left out due to space limitations. This document is FE589, one of a series of the Food and Resource Economics Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Published December 2005.  FE589/FE589: 2021 Handbook of Florida Water Regulation: Food Quality Protection Act (ufl.edu)

This handbook is designed to provide an accurate, current, and authoritative summary of the principle Federal and Florida laws that directly or indirectly relate to agriculture. This handbook should provide a basic overview of the many rights and responsibilities that farmers and farmland owners have under both Federal and Florida laws as well as the appropriate contact information to obtain more detailed information. However, the reader should be aware that because the laws, administrative rulings, and court decisions on which this handbook is based are subject to constant revision, portions of this publication could become outdated at anytime. Several details of cited laws are also left out due to space limitations. This document is FE589, one of a series of the Food and Resource Economics Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Published December 2005.  FE589/FE589: 2021 Handbook of Florida Water Regulation: Food Quality Protection Act (ufl.edu)

This handbook is designed to provide an accurate, current, and authoritative summary of the principle Federal and Florida laws that directly or indirectly relate to agriculture. This handbook should provide a basic overview of the many rights and responsibilities that farmers and farmland owners have under both Federal and Florida laws as well as the appropriate contact information to obtain more detailed information. However, the reader should be aware that because the laws, administrative rulings, and court decisions on which this handbook is based are subject to constant revision, portions of this publication could become outdated at anytime. Several details of cited laws are also left out due to space limitations. This document is FE589, one of a series of the Food and Resource Economics Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Published December 2005.  FE589/FE589: 2021 Handbook of Florida Water Regulation: Food Quality Protection Act (ufl.edu)

Human societies depend on limited natural resources of our planet for their existence and economic development. Rise in human population and per capitaconsumption increases the human share of natural resources. In particular development in agriculture to meet the escalating demand for food has resultedin various environmental problems. The share of agriculture in water use represents the 70 % of the global total making water quantity and quality relatedproblems foremost impacts of agriculture on the environment. In this brief review environmental costs of agriculture on our limited freshwater resources havebeen summarized to draw attention to this critical issue.

Solid food products are typically in an amorphous state, and their physical properties change dramatically at the glass to rubber transition temperature (Tsub(g)). Tsub(g) decreases with increasing water content because of water plasticizing effects. When Tsub(g) becomes lower than the ambient temperature, a glass to rubber transition occurs at the ambient temperature. The water content at Tsub(g) = 25℃ is usually described as the critical water content (w sub(c)). In this review, the effect of glass to rubber transition on the texture of cookies, the caking of mango powder and the compressibility of soup powder is explained. Tsub(g) of the food samples was evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry or thermal rheological analysis. Wsub(c) was determined from the relationship between Tsub(g) and water content. Fracture properties of the cookie samples changed from brittle to ductile at Wsub(c). Caking of mango powder occurred at water contents above Wsub(c). Hardness of soup powder compressed at temperatures above Tsub(g) was much higher than when compressed at temperatures below Tsub(g).

Iraq has faced significant security challenges due to wars and local conflicts over the past decades that have hindered its economic growth. These challenges have at times overshadowed the issue of a significant increase in families at risk of food insecurity in the country, exacerbated by poverty and scarcity of domestic production. To reduce the impacts of these challenges, successive governments have resorted to implementing many agri-food policies to encourage domestic production through subsidising the key crops on one hand, and to make food affordable for all citizens through providing the main staple food commodities at low prices through a public distribution system PDS policy on another hand. However, these policies have several negative consequences. They have burdened the economy of the country, putting the country fiscal budget under additional pressure. Moreover, the policy of production subsidies has had a significant impact on agricultural water demand, in what is a water scarce country. This research sheds the light on the motivations that stand behind these policies, as well as providing a clearer vision of the consequences of such policies, in terms of food self-sufficiency, equity, and water scarcity. Iraq's agri-food policies can be considered as a good example of highly distortionary policies that could prevent the country from achieving its goals and may even lead to greater burdens on the economy of the country. Iraq's economy has become less diversified during the last decade and more dependent on oil revenues than ever. Yet the oil sector employs only 1 % of the workforce in Iraq, so imposing inefficient policies to non-oil economic sectors such as agriculture is likely to have a greater impact on the Iraqi population than might have been anticipated (Sommer-Houdeville, 2017). This thesis explains the distortions caused by several of the most important food­related subsidies and assesses their performances. There are many aspects that need to be looked at accurately and in several respects. For example, particularly in a water-scarce country such as Iraq, increasing food production can improve food security but at the expense of water security. Conversely, relying on food imports can make the country less food secure, yet it might have an invisible positive impact as the embedded water in this importing food can play a key role to tackle domestic water shortages. According to Godfray et al., (2010) government investment in food production particularly in a lower-income country would have further impacts on increasing the competition for input resources such as water, land, and energy, which in the end might affect the food system itself. Iraq is striving for food security but there are no easy solutions. Subsidies have been used to promote food production and food affordability, hence ensure food security, yet at what cost to the country's economy and environment? The overarching aim of this study is to explain and assess the distortions caused by agri-food policies adopted by successive Iraqi governments. First, a careful assessment of the main agri-food policies adopted by the Iraqi government during the last two decades is undertaken. Then three interlinked research questions are answered. First, how does the government's current crop production subsidy policy affect farmers' crop choices and the profitability of their farming enterprises. This is achieved by measuring farmers' social and private profitability using a policy analysis matrix model, PAM. Four key crops are considered: wheat, barley, maize and rice. Primary data was collected, using a household survey of 155 farm households in Wasit governorate located in central of lraq, conducted in January 2017. The second research question asks the extent to which the crop production subsidy policy distorts demand for water in the agricultural sector. The water trade-offs between domestic production and imports are then considered using the concept of "virtual water" embedded in the imported crop. The third research question asks what the impact on inequality has been of the government's policy of subsidising all household consumption. The central message from this thesis is that there are no easy solutions for a country such as Iraq, given that the government must make a choice between growing a greater share of its staples, at a high cost in terms of water use and subsidies, and importing crops, which would reduce pressure on water demand and government finances, but reduce food security. This is particularly pertinent given how vulnerable food-importing countries are to price shocks, as evidenced by the food crisis of 2008, felt across the globe, a direct consequence of the harvest failure in Australia, a key grain exporting country. However, this thesis also demonstrates that better targeting of subsidies would lead to more equitable and efficient outcomes with respect to food security.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the largest water deficit in the world. It also has the least food self-sufficiency. Increasing food imports and decreasing domestic food production can contribute to water savings and hence to increased water security. However, increased domestic food production is a better way to achieve food security, even if irrigation demands an increase in accordance with projected climate changes. Accordingly, the trade-off between food security and the savings of water and land through food trade is considered to be a significant factor for resource management, especially in the MENA region. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the impact of food trade on food security and water-land savings in the MENA region. We concluded that the MENA region saved significant amounts of national water and land based on the import of four major crops, namely, barley, maize, rice, and wheat, within the period from 2000 to 2012, even if the food self-sufficiency is still at a low level. For example, Egypt imported 8.3&thinsp;million&thinsp;t&thinsp;yr<span classCombining double low lineinline-formula>ĝ'1</span> of wheat that led to 7.5&thinsp;billion&thinsp;m<span classCombining double low lineinline-formula>3</span> of irrigation water and 1.3&thinsp;million&thinsp;ha of land savings. In addition, we estimated the virtual water trade (VWT) that refers to the trade of water embedded in food products and analyzed the structure of VWT in the MENA region using degree and eigenvector centralities. The study revealed that the MENA region focused more on increasing the volume of virtual water imported during the period 2006-2012, yet little attention was paid to the expansion of connections with country exporters based on the VWT network analysis. © 2018 The Royal Society of Chemistry.