Research and practice during the last 20 years has shown that urban agriculture can contribute to minimising the effects of climate change by, at the same time, improving quality of life in urban areas. In order to do so most effectively, land use and spatial planning are crucial so as to obtain and maintain a supportive green infrastructure and to secure citizens' healthy living conditions. As people today trend more towards living in green and sustainable city centres that can offer fresh and locally produced food, cities become again places for growing food. The scope of urban agriculture thereby is to establish food production sites within the city's sphere; for example, through building-integrated agriculture including concepts such as aquaponics, indoor agriculture, vertical farming, rooftop production, edible walls, as well as through urban farms, edible landscapes, school gardens and community gardens. Embedded in changing urban food systems, the contribution of urban agriculture to creating sustainable and climate-friendly cities is pivotal as it has the capacity to integrate other resource streams such as water, waste and energy. This article describes some of the current aspects of the circular city debate where urban agriculture is pushing forward the development of material and resource cycling in cities.
SummaryRetardation of microbial spoilage of bread can be achieved by the use of spontaneous sourdough with an antimicrobial activity. This study was undertaken to identify lactic acid bacteria naturally occurring in spontaneous sourdough and use them for quality improvement and prolonging shelf life of rye, wheat and rye with wheat bread. Identifi cation of isolates from spontaneous sourdough by pyrosequencing assay showed that Lactobacillus reuteri were dominant lactic acid bacteria. The isolates showed a wide range of antimicrobial activity and displayed a synergistic activity against other lactobacilli, some lactococci and foodborne yeasts. The best application of spontaneous sourdough was noticed in the rye bread with the lowest crumb fi rmness of the fi nal product, although the sensory results of wheat and rye with wheat bread did not statistically diff er from control bread. L. reuteri showed a high preserving capacity against fungi during storage. This may be due to bacteriocins and various fatt y acids secreted into the growth medium that were identifi ed by agar well diff usion assay and gas chromatography. L. reuteri showing high antimicrobial activity have the potential to be used as a starter additive that could improve safety and/or shelf life of bread.
Liutkevičius A., Speičienė V., Alenčikienė G., Mieželienė A., Narkevičius R., Kaminskas A., Abaravičius J.A., Vitkus D., Jablonskienė V., Sekmokienė D. The technology of a functional fermented buttermilk-based beverage was developed and the impact of beverage consumption on the health parameters of young volunteers was studied. Three functional beverages were made on the basis of buttermilk, which differed in the composition. The beverage containing the buttermilk-skimmed milk-milk protein concentrate (0.3%) as a product with the preferred quality characteristics (synaeresis, viscosity, sensory properties, and acceptability) was used for further studies regarding the impact on human health. The medical nutrition experiments did not show any statistically significant effect on the biochemical blood parameters of 25 young volunteers after a 21-day period of the consumption of fermented buttermilk beverage with milk protein concentrate, although some of them (e.g. total, low-and high-density cholesterol, triacylglycerol concentrations, etc.) slightly decreased. The anthropometric and body composition, arterial blood pressure, and pulse evaluation indicators of recipients did not change significantly.
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