No abstract

The aim of the present research is to provide a comprehensive review about the current challenges related to food security and hidden hunger. Issues are presented according to major factors, such as growing population, changing dietary habits, water efficiency, climate change and volatile food prices. These factors were compiled from reports of major international organizations and from relevant scientific articles on the subject. Collecting the results and presenting them in an accessible manner may provide new insight for interested parties. Accessibility of data is extremely important, since food security and its drivers form a closely interconnected but extremely complex network, which requires coordinated problem solving to resolve issues. According to the results, the demand for growing agricultural products has been partly met by increasing cultivated land in recent decades. At the same time, there is serious competition for existing agricultural areas, which further limits the extension of agricultural land in addition to the natural constraints of land availability. Agricultural production needs to expand faster than population growth without further damage to the environment. The driving force behind development is sustainable intensive farming, which means the more effective utilization of agricultural land and water resources. Current global trends in food consumption are unsustainable, analyzed in terms of either public health, environmental impacts or socio-economic costs. The growing population should strive for sustainable food consumption, as social, environmental and health impacts are very important in this respect as well. To this end, the benefits of consuming foods that are less harmful to the environment during production are also to be emphasized in the scope of consumption policy and education related to nutrition as opposed to other food types, the production of which causes a major demand for raw materials.

Abstract:This review studies biofuel expansion in terms of competition between conventional and advanced biofuels based on bioenergy potential. Production of advanced biofuels is generally more expensive than current biofuels because products are not yet cost competitive. What is overlooked in the discussion about biofuel is the contribution the industry makes to the global animal feed supply and land use for cultivation of feedstocks. The global ethanol industry produces 44 million metric tonnes of high-quality feed, however, the co-products of biodiesel production have a moderate impact on the feed market contributing to just 8-9 million tonnes of protein meal output a year. By economically displacing traditional feed ingredients co-products from biofuel production are an important and valuable component of the biofuels sector and the global feed market. The return of co-products to the feed market has agricultural land use (and GHG emissions) implications as well. The use of co-products generated from grains and oilseeds can reduce net land use by 11% to 40%. The proportion of global cropland used for biofuels is currently some 2% (30-35 million hectares). By adding co-products substituted for grains and oilseeds the land required for cultivation of feedstocks declines to 1.5% of the global crop area.

This study presents the sequestration and emissions of forests and algae related to CO 2 while providing a comparison to other biomass sources (arable crops, short rotation coppices). The goal of the paper is to analyze the impact of the current CO 2 balance of forests and the future prospects for algae. Our calculations are based on data, not only from the literature but, in the case of algae, from our own previous experimental work. It was concluded that the CO 2 sequestration and natural gas saving of forests is typically 3.78 times higher than the emissions resulting from the production technology and from the burning process. The economic and environmental protection-related efficiency operate in opposite directions. The CO 2 sequestration ability of algae can primarily be utilized when connected to power plants. The optimal solution could be algae production integrated with biogas power plants, since plant sizes are smaller and algae may play a role, not only in the elimination of CO 2 emissions and the utilization of heat but also in wastewater purification.

The Visegrad countries – or the V-4 countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – is strong regional cooperation of four EU member states in Eastern-Central-Europe aimed at strengthening the positions of the members on both a European and a global level. The aim of this research is to analyse the capital structure of the agricultural and food companies in the V4 Member States. The results show that more profitable companies were less dependent on debt finance, while the fast-growing companies had limited access to the financial market. Company size had a significant effect only in the Czech Republic. Overall, the capital structure seemed to be strongly affected by the farm structure and the relative company size.

The present study is a synthesizing analysis of international literature on correlations between sustainability, sport, and physical activity. The study of sustainability is considered essential in modern research; its multidisciplinary approach relies on sports science and sports economics as well. There are several aspects of sustainability that are closely associated with health and health preservation; the beneficial effect of exercise on health is also widely known. For the analysis of this complex matter, our current study relied on secondary sources, and besides exploring specialist literature, it also illustrates and analyzes related statistical data. Our results highlight the correlations between living environment and physical activity, the importance of increasing individual commitment towards sustainability and using green spaces for exercising, as well as questions on social and environmental development in relation to physical activity. The study revealed the existence of highly complex links between physical environment, physical activities, and sustainability. The results section of our study provides a brief summary on the possible ways of making people physically active. Increasing physical activity is of paramount importance for achieving the objectives formulated in relation to sustainability.

As aging causes challenges in several countries globally, more and more people are suffering from bad health conditions. Nowadays, COVID-19 causes many problems—and one of the root causes of these problems is the isolation of people from each other. The aim of our article is to investigate the effects of COVID-19 on people’s physical activity. Physical activity is strongly correlated with health status and health preservation is very important to minimize the negative effects of the pandemic. In order to investigate this topic, we prepared an extended literature review, citing the most important sources of COVID-related health-preservation issues. Our results showed that the negative economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic have caused a decrease in physical activities in several cases. A reduction in possible physical activities has a potential negative effect on the life expectancies of elderly people. In order to underline the importance of physical activities, we prepared an extended literature review, aiming to summarize the available knowledge related to COVID-19. As a conclusion we recommend to strengthen, maintain, and develop available sporting possibilities for people. The most important of these recommendations is the development of physical activities that are available for free.

The goal of this study is to investigate the cause of a growing food price volatility. We analyse whether food price volatility is mainly induced by transfer of the oil price shock or if it is the consequence of a rising and competitive biofuel production. Furthermore, we evaluate the impact of biofuels on land use as well. Food prices have lately surged and declined sharply and become more volatile. High fuel prices combined with a rising biofuel production created a link between crude oil and food prices. We investigated the impact of a biofuel production on an increased volatility in oil and food prices, and found correlations between cereals, sugar and vegetable oil price index and crude oil prices from 2003 to 2016. Our results show that the main driver for food price fluctuation is mainly the oil price shock. The increasing biofuel output has been associated with a rising protein-rich animal feed production. The use of co-products as animal feed has land use implications including GHG emission savings because co-products reduce land and the demand for chemical inputs required in the feed production.