S. Ahmed, Asad Sarwar Qureshi, Upali A. Amarasinghe, A.R. Khan, 'Projecting food and water demands of Pakistan for 2025 using Policy Dialogue Model', 2014

Mark W. Rosegrant et al., 'Policies and institutions for sustainable water resource management: a research agenda. Challenge Program on Water and Food background paper 5', 2014

New legislation, rules and regulations concerning food waste creation mostly aim at private households and not the industry sector. This thesis is broaching on the issue of food waste within the food service sector to tackle the problem on a managerial level. The research question tries to answer in which way the food service sector, with special focus on Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), can reduce and prevent food waste and related energy and water consumption. As part of the methodology, the research area was determined by making use of the Ishikawa diagram which represents causal relationships to determine main causes for food waste. Three main areas were defined as men, methods and environment. The most common responses towards the causes were identified. All responses that met the criteria to be a best practice example, according to the literature analysis, were clustered in a matrix. The literature analysis also led to the development of a change management strategy for food waste, energy and water reduction. All processes, occurring in a food & beverage area of a QSR that could be linked to the different best practices were than analysed by using the five-step-extrapolation approach developed by Edoardo Ongaro to determine common factors that would make it possible to use the process also in different organizations. Result was a catalogue of different actions and routines that makes it possible to determine whether an organization is on the right track already with their environmental management or needs more assistance. This catalogue therefore functions also as a tool which was used to evaluate how far the investigated case studies have come in their environmental change management strategy.

Simon E. Cook, Tassilo T. Tiemann, M. Fisher, Larry W. Harrington, 'Food, water and poverty: basin and global scale patterns of water availability, use and its impacts on rural development (Abstract only)', 2014

Sarfraz Munir, Waqas Ahmad, Asghar Hussain, 'Effect of transboundary water agreements on water and food security of downstream riparian communities: a case study of Indus Waters Treaty', 2014 | Transboundary water conflicts are awfully crucial in their nature as they not only endanger the food and water security of the riparian communities but also jeopardize the security and existence of the conflicting nations. Any inappropriate action done by upper riparians directly affects the existence of lower riparians. Therefore they need special care to be dealt with. There are 261 international rivers, covering almost one-half of the total land surface which are shared between two or more nations. The management of international waters has been poorly defined in the international arena. In 1947, after the independence of subcontinent, the Indus Basin was divided into two parts between India and Pakistan. Soon after independence India started to halt the river supplies to Pakistan and closed all supplies to the canals which were crossing the India-Pakistan border. India agreed to restore some of the supplies to Pakistan in May 1948, when quite a pro-Indian temporary agreement was signed. It was, however, generally realized that Pakistan could not live without restoration of the full supplies and on this question there could be no compromise. Direct negotiations between the parties failed to resolve the dispute. Negotiations under the World Bank commenced in May 1952. The World Bank planned to divide Indus Basin Rivers into two parts the eastern rivers, under completely Indian control and the western rivers for unrestricted use by Pakistan. Pakistan was not fully convinced and refused to sign until 1958 but ultimately the Treaty was formalized in 1960 after some necessary modifications. Pakistan, on one hand, was deprived a substantial amount of its waters in the Indus Waters Treaty, but on the other, it also got the right of unrestricted use of western rivers. Pakistan also received some assistance (grants and loans) from the World Bank for construction of replacement works for some water storage and diversions. It is evident that the closure or diversion of river flows in the upstream reaches not only affect the downstream river ecology but also puts the downstream irrigated agriculture at stake. This paper highlights the effects of the IWT on water availability and irrigated agriculture in Pakistan. Study finds that though there are some deprivations of surface waters availability to the Pakistan under the IWT but at the same time there are also some improvements in canal water diversions, which are mainly due to the construction of water storage reservoirs. An increase in the cropped area and crop production also has been observed which owes to many other social, economical and technical factors but all this was not possible without reliable irrigation water supplies

Human exposure to N -nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) from foods and beverages was modeled and upper-bound cancer risks were predicted for the United States and Canada. Approximately 0.5 (0–10.8) cancer incidents per million population from lifetime exposure to NDMA in drinking water were estimated. Lifetime exposure to NDMA from the major exogenous sources may result in 49.6 (range: 17.7–171.7) cancer incidents per million population, while meat products contribute the most (15.9/million) followed by milk products (10.9/million). Drinking water may contribute approximately 1% to the exogenous cancer risk and holds the 10th position among 10 exogenous sources. The sum of the cancer risks from the major exogenous sources (e.g. , 49.6/million) is higher than the permissible limits (1–10/million) of several regulatory agencies. Thus, NDMA in exogenous sources can pose a significant source for cancer risk. Cancer risk from the exogenous sources was estimated to be much lower than that of the NDMA in the endogenous source (<1%).

The Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) was a 10-year (January 1, 2004–December 31, 2013) investment by the CGIAR, conducted over two phases and aimed at an overarching goal of raising water productivity and improving food security while helping alleviate poverty, improve health, and attain environmental security. This review, undertaken between November 2013 and March 2014, was commissioned by CPWF to assess CPWF’s achievements, but also to identify lessons to take forward by CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) and other research and development stakeholders.

Background: Diabetic neuropathy is one of the serious problems due to microvessel vasculopathy in diabetes. It has been reported that hyperglycemia and hypertriglyceridemia are the underlying mechanisms in inducing and progression of diabetic neuropathy. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of melatonin on serum glucose and lipid levels, as well as food consumption and water intake in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: Eighty male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to six groups including; normal control group, diabetic control group and 4 diabetic experimental groups that received melatonin intraperitoneally at doses of 2.5, 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg at the end of sixth week after verification of neuropathy by means of evaluation of sciatic nerve conduction velocity (MNCV), for two weeks. Blood glucose and lipid levels, body weight, the amounts of food consumption, and water intake were determined in all groups at weeks 0 (before diabetes induction), 3, 6, and at the end of eighth week. Results: Treatment with melatonin reduced significantly the serum glucose (P < 0.001) and triglyceride (P < 0.05) levels, food consumption (P < 0.001), and water intake (P < 0.001) in diabetic rats at the end of eighth week. However, melatonin had no significant effect on body weight of diabetic animals. Conclusions: Treatment with melatonin could improve several signs of diabetes, including hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, polyphagia, and polydipsia. Therefore, melatonin may be used as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of diabetes.

Water is one of the most important limiting resources for food production. How much water is needed for food depends on the size of the population, average food consumption patterns and food production per unit of water. These factors show large differences around the world. This paper analyzes sub-continental dynamics of the water footprint of consumption (WFcₒₙₛ) for the prevailing diets from 1961 to 2009 using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The findings show that, in most regions, the water needed to feed one person decreased even if diets became richer, because of the increase in water use efficiency in food production during the past half-century. The logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) decomposition approach is used to analyze the contributions of the major drivers of WFcₒₙₛ for food: population, diet and agricultural practices (output per unit of water). We compare the contributions of these drivers through different subcontinents, and find that population growth still was the major driver behind increasing WFcₒₙₛ for food until now and that potential water savings through agricultural practice improvements were offset by population growth and diet change. The changes of the factors mentioned above were the largest in most developing areas with rapid economic development. With the development of globalization, the international food trade has brought more and more water savings in global water use over time. The results indicate that, in the near future and in many regions, diet change is likely to override population growth as the major driver behind WFcₒₙₛ for food.