The definition of sustainable development has a past which spans two decades. Today it is evident that the three pillars of sustainable development – environment, economy and society – have a strong correspondence and equally effect on every people. The UN’s Environment and Development Conference in 1992 declared the requirement in the document of Objectives for the XXI. century, that governments should prepare national sustainable development strategies. The World Conference of Sustainable Development in August 2002 made a stronger decision: „the states should make immediate steps forward … defining and preparing their national sustainable development, and for the purpose to start its realization until 2005”. Most of the countries fulfilled these requirements, and the Hungarian government promises to prepare its national strategy by the end of 2004.The aim of my study is to survey the knowledge of university students about the above mentioned process and generally about the topic of sustainable development. The selection of the target group is justified by the importance of young intelligentsia in the future. In order to examine their knowledge, I prepared a questionnaire and from the emerging primary data, my conclusion and statements have been deducted by a processing-analysing course, on the bases of which I made my suggestions.

Apiaries must be ecologically and economically sustainable to provide pollination as a unique ecosystem service. Pollination as an ecosystem service is economically, socially, and environmentally irreplaceable. Therefore, it is essential to improve the profitability of beekeeping activities, which are mainly carried out in rural areas. With this in mind, the main objective of this article is to assess pollination as one of the ecosystem services provided by bees, based on the specificities of Hungarian honey production. The authors’ analysis is based on a Hungarian apiary with 300 colonies active in migratory beekeeping. The model farm produces a wide variety of honey thanks to its migratory beekeeping, visiting several bee pastures during the beekeeping season. This paper presents an approach to quantify the ecosystem services provided by honey bees (Apis mellifera) using two economic valuation methods (productivity change and surrogate market goods) belonging to the family of cost-based valuation. The results of the monetary valuation of the ecosystem services provided by bees can provide a starting point for further research to help decision-makers and farmers to calculate a fair “pollination fee” for beekeepers, which will significantly help beekeepers to maintain beekeeping, an important and beneficial activity for all of us.

Earth's population has been growing steadily over the last centuries, with increasing demand for food production. For this reason, despite the current technological progress, even more and more cultivated lands are needed. The purpose of our research is to examine the proportion of local products that are being used by those who follow different alternative diets, which can also be used to test the behaviour towards sustainability. In order to reach our goals, we have developed a national survey including 504 Hungarian consumers. The survey consists of several questions about alternative diets, food-oriented lifestyle, and local products. The answers were weighted in order to properly represent the gender distribution of the population and were analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. According to the results, environmental conscious behaviour appears among the alternative diet followers, but for sustainability this is not a sufficient condition. Local products are bought by 82.9% of the respondents. The biggest incentives of buying local products are the origin, the support of local producers / merchants, the reduction of food kilometres, the healthy and natural characteristics of the products, and the positive experiences with local products. In contrast, the reasons why local products are mostly refused by consumers are the facts that they are time consuming and difficult to obtain.

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In Hungary, beekeeping is a relatively small-scale sector within the livestock sector, but it is essential for maintaining biodiversity and rural employment. In order to provide ecosystem services such as pollination by honey bees, apiaries need to be economically sustainable, and it is therefore of strategic importance that beekeepers can continue their activities. Based on this, this article’s main objective is the economic analysis of Hungarian honey production, which enables the evaluation of the cost–benefit relationships, production volume and the efficiency of the operation. The authors’ analysis is based on a Hungarian apiary with 300 bee colonies, which also engages in migration and produces a significant amount of acacia honey. The model farm produces several types of honey due to migratory beekeeping, and its average yield reaches 60 kg/bee colony/year, which the authors calculated based on the average purchase prices in 2021. Based on the farm model, the analysis showed that 71 bee colonies and 4253 kg of honey production reached the profitability threshold.

Mind a hazai mind a nemzetközi szakirodalomban egyetértés van abban, hogy az egészségtudatosság és a környezettudatosság együttesen jellemzi a fenntartható élelmiszer-fogyasztást. A vizsgálat jelen esetben a felnövő generáció élelmiszer-fogyasztási szokásainak felmérésére irányult, a mostani 18-25 éves korosztály tekinthető a „közeljövő fogyasztójának”, a vizsgált korcsoportban a felsőoktatási hallgatók esetében elmondható, hogy a fogyasztásaik során, különösen az élelmiszer-fogyasztás területén önálló döntéshozónak tekinthetőek. Ezen életszakaszban kialakuló fogyasztási minták – melyet az oktatásból szerzett információk is befolyásolnak – meghatározóak lehetnek a későbbiekre is. A felmérésünk alapján megállapítható, hogy a Debreceni Egyetem hallgatói kevésbé ismerik a környezettudatosság kritériumait, mint az egészségtudatosság jellemzőit, inkább tekintik magukat egészségtudatos élelmiszer-fogyasztónak, mint környezettudatos élelmiszer-fogyasztónak, s nagyobb arányban utasítják el az élelmiszer-fogyasztás kapcsán a környezeti szempontokat, inkább az önérdek dominál a mások érdekeivel szemben a döntéseiknél. Kiemelendő, hogy a fentiek minden esetben a vélt, saját magukról véleményezett egészségtudatosságra és környezettudatosságra tett megállapítások. A továbbiakban azt szándékozzuk vizsgálni, hogy a vélt és a valós tudatosság között milyen összefüggés fedezhető fel az élelmiszer-fogyasztás tekintetében.