Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems
- 3rd Edition - November 14, 2025
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Editor: Peter Alexander
- Language: English
- Hardback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 1 5 9 7 6 - 3
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 1 5 9 7 7 - 0
Encyclopedia of Food Systems and Agriculture 3rd Edition will address important issues by examining topics of global agriculture and food systems that are key to understanding th… Read more
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Request a sales quoteEncyclopedia of Food Systems and Agriculture 3rd Edition will address important issues by examining topics of global agriculture and food systems that are key to understanding the challenges we face. Questions it addresses include:
- Will we be able to produce enough food to meet the increasing dietary needs and wants of the additional two billion people expected to inhabit our planet by 2050?
- Will we be able to meet the need for so much more food while simultaneously reducing adverse environmental effects of today’s agriculture practices?
- Will we be able to produce the additional food using less land and water than we use now?
- Climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Biodiversity
- Societal aspects
- Technology/innovation
- Diversity / local v global
- Resilience
These are among the most important challenges that face our planet in the coming decades. The broad themes of food systems and people, agriculture and the environment, the science of agriculture, agricultural products, and agricultural production systems are covered in more than 200 separate chapters of this work. The book provides information that serves as the foundation for discussion of the food and environment challenges of the world. An international group of highly respected authors addresses these issues from a global perspective and provides the background, references, and linkages for further exploration of each of topics of this comprehensive work.
- Provides a comprehensive overview of global challenges facing the food system
- Presents detailed information on concepts and issues relevant to global agriculture and today's food industry
- Addresses important challenges of sustainability and efficiency from a global perspective
- Contains information from multiple disciplinary perspectives
University students who are studying at undergraduate to postgraduate level, through to early-stage PhD students. Those teaching or studying agricultural science, plant science, ecology, environmental science, genetics, molecular biology and soil science. It will also be of interest to a wider audience who wish to have an up-to-date overview of different aspects of food systems, e.g., policymakers, journalists and NGOs
The section structure is to substantially revised from the previous edition. The new structure consists of the following 6 sections.
1. Planetary boundaries and sustainability of the food system
2. Agricultural production practices and challenges
3. Food consumption choices and outcomes
4. Food industry, policy, markets and trade
5. Food, agriculture and society
6. Transformation and innovation in food systems
1. Planetary boundaries and sustainability of the food system
2. Agricultural production practices and challenges
3. Food consumption choices and outcomes
4. Food industry, policy, markets and trade
5. Food, agriculture and society
6. Transformation and innovation in food systems
- Edition: 3
- Published: November 14, 2025
- No. of pages (Hardback): 2800
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Language: English
- Hardback ISBN: 9780443159763
- eBook ISBN: 9780443159770
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Peter Alexander
Peter Alexander is a senior lecturer at University of Edinburgh jointly between the School of Geosciences and the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security.
Peter’s research aims to better understand the socio-economic and environmental interactions and trade-offs associated with the global food system. Approaches use high-performance computing to apply data and computationally intensive techniques, such as agent-based modelling, to explore the complex interactions inherent with the system. Work has included developing a new global agricultural land use model (LandSyMM) integrated with an ecosystem model to represent the two-way and spatially specific interactions and trade flows. Interests include how changes in food consumption and preferences, e.g., dietary shifts, impact environmental outcomes such as biodiversity loss and climate regulation. He is the principal investigator on the Resilience of the UK food system to Global Shocks project (RUGS).
Affiliations and expertise
Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, UK