This paper presents results from comprehensive field surveys of jatropha projects in Mozambique, Tanzania and Mali in 2012. The article singles out the salient economic and social impact results and derives lessons. The results clearly demonstrate the weak business case for jatropha biofuel...

International agri-food trade has expanded rapidly during the past decades and changed considerably in structure with important implications, especially for developing economies. One of the main environmental concerns regarding international trade is the exploitation and redistribution of water...

This article explores the complex relationship between environmental regulation, innovation, and sustainable development within the context of an increasingly globalizing economy. The economic development, environment, and employment aspects of sustainable development are emphasized. We contend...

In the late 1990s, the author conducted research entitled “Modeling the demand and supply structure for food in Asia”. The research was based on a system dynamics method and, using time series datasets up to 1998 to estimate the parameters, tried to figure out the demand and supply structure...

According to the recent Spanish legislation, the amount of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste (C&D waste) by weight must be reduced by at least 70% by 2020. However, the current behavior of the stakeholders involved in the waste management process make this goal difficult to...

This paper applies the pressure-state-response (PSR) model to establish environmental quality indices for 30 administrative regions in China from 2003 to 2011 and employs panel data analysis to study the relationships among the urbanization rate, economic development and environmental change....

A few years have passed since the financial crisis began with the bankruptcy of the American Lehman Brothers bank and few dare predict the moment when we will overcome the crisis. Chaotic human resource policy in the Romanian economy and complex taxation have lowered our chances to overcome it....

Rice forage systems can increase the land use efficiency in paddy fields, improve the self-sufficient feed ratio, and provide environmental benefits for agro-ecosystems. This system often decreased economic benefits compared with those through imported commercial forage feed, particularly in...

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been increasingly used to improve the environmental performance of food systems and simplification of LCA appears to be a vital question, especially for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Following a literature review on simplified LCA tools and their...

With rapid development since the 1970s, China is entering a period of social transformation, which not only creates favorable conditions for sustainable development but also presents new challenges. The transitional period in China is a stage in which two types of social transformation coexist,...