Jahrgang 2013

Focus 4/2013: Agricultural policies – finding the right approach
The development of rural areas calls for a holistic policy approach. Social and environmental policy, economic and trade policy and food and agricultural policy need to be cleverly combined in order to boost the rural economy without overexploiting natural resources, and if this is to succeed in the long term, to combat hunger and poverty. In this edition, with a view to agriculture as a driving force of rural development, we have chosen to focus on a sub-aspect of this policy mix: agricultural policy. Erfahren Sie mehr

Focus 3/2013: Soil – a resource under threa
Over the last few years, the increased rush on farmland has demonstrated just how precious and scarce soil is. However, seldom are public awareness and the need for action so far apart as is the case with “soil”. The authors of this edition of Rural 21 first of all demonstrate the wide range of ecosystem services that the essential and finite resource of soil performs and show the dramatic effects that poor governance of transformation of soils has – in all areas of human life. The second part then takes up sustainable land management practice. Finally in the third part we look at the political level. There con tinues to be a lack of an international and legally binding policy framework for the regulation of soil protection. Why are the inter- national community as well as individual countries so reluctant to reach such an agreement, as called for at the Rio+20 Conference last year? Erfahren Sie mehr

Focus 1/2013: Food losses
Roughly one third of the food produced globally for human consumption is lost or wasted – 1.3 billion tons per year. Even if these estimates are subject to numerous uncertainties, one thing is beyond doubt: every kilogramme of food that is produced but not consumed is one too many. For it embodies valuable, wasted resources such as land, water, agricultural inputs and energy, unnecessary CO2 emissions have been released into the atmosphere, farmers have lost not only income but also a valuable part of their nutrition, and consumers pay the increased prices that result. Erfahren Sie mehr