Rural Land Use, Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture

Dear Colleagues,

Current trends in globalization can be characterized using descriptors such as environmental protection policies, resource conservation, food policies (food safety, food and nutritional security), socio-economic policies, sustainable agricultural development, and public health issues, etc.

Land is used for settlements, production systems (including agriculture and forestry), and infrastructure. Often, conflicting demands on land use arise, requiring decisions that will involve difficult trade-offs. Changes continue to modify our landscapes and environments today, leaving large and often irreversible footprints on land use. Tensions are emerging almost everywhere between society’s need for resources and space and the land’s capacity to support and absorb these needs. This situation is leading to excessive use and unprecedented degradation of landscapes, ecosystems and the environment. Therefore, a long-term management perspective is needed.

Issues related to food safety and security have been and are major concerns at local and global levels. Food security is a concept based on four dimensions: availability, accessibility, utilization (circumstantial dimensions), and stability, which is an integrative dimension. For all four defining dimensions of food security, various indicators can be considered. In the case of availability, the assessment should be made according to the fertility of agricultural land, population fluctuation and food production. Accessibility is influenced by the cost of food, consumer income, and daily food consumption (per capita). Utilization has as indicators the physical development status of consumers based on anthropometric measurements, possible morbidity states and mortality rates. Stability, as an integrative dimension, is related to the circumstantial dimensions.

Concerns about food, nutrition, and food security can be integrated into research aimed at identifying problems in the field of agriculture, forestry, and agricultural land use in the context of sustainable development.

Therefore, the interest of Special Issue Rural Land Use, Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture is oriented towards original research/studies. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

• case studies regarding sustainable development of rural area,
• different ”smart” proposals regarding land use,
• research on different directions on the topic food security,
• articles about leveraging food products or land resources through rural tourism,
• innovation and sustainable "branding" for rural land/agriculture/food products,
• analysis of the impact and sustainability of the tourist activity on rural land/products,
• management and marketing for sustainable forms of tourism.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Nicoleta Mateoc-Sirb
Prof. Dr. Gabriela Popescu
Dr. Oana Brînzan
Dr. Ramona Mariana Ciolac
Guest Editors

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