2^nd International conference on Food Security and Sustainability June 26-27, 2017 San Diego, USA

Christopher Bryant has almost 50 years of research experience in peri-urban agriculture (France, Canada and other countries) and 26 years research experience in adaptation of agriculture to climate change and variability as well as 30 years’ experience in community development. He was a Professor in Geography, University of Waterloo for 20 years and Professor in Géographie, Université de Montréal for 24 years. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph, Canada.

Food security deals with issues of food quality, sustainable agricultural practices and accessibility to impoverished populations. In many developed countries, many large cities are surrounded by high quality farmland resources in temperate climates (e.g., in North America and Western Europe). A rapidly emerging reality is the differential impact of Climate Change and Variability (CCV) on farming in different areas and the need for appropriate agricultural adaptation to CCV and the need for appropriate agricultural adaptation to CCV. In many developed countries, appropriate adaptation can maintain food production levels even though crop composition may change. However, in many developing countries (e.g., in North and West Africa) existing climate conditions and CCV can reduce peri-urban areas’ ability to contribute to national and local food security. Two challenges are: (1) Short of reversing CCV, many developing countries will become more dependent upon food imports from developed countries and so we need to ask what does this imply for developed countries? (2) And this increases the need to conserve farmland resources in developed countries, a real challenge given the continuing urban development pressures. How can agricultural management and development planning in such areas integrate food security both locally and internationally and conserve their farmland resources? This is illustrated using a number of pertinent examples from different countries.

Anup Sharma is a Professor of Physics at Alabama A&M University, USA. He holds MS degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and PhD from Columbia

University. His research in lasers and optics encompasses several areas including fabrication of chemical sensors. In recent projects funded by DHS and NSF, he has developed a technique for detecting adulteration in food from a distance of several meters. He has guided several PhD students and is a recipient of a Career

Award from the National Science Foundation.

Contamination of food within the supply chain can have far reaching consequences which include large-scale disease epidemics as well as loss of consumer confidence in the supply chain itself. The nature and source of contamination can be diverse and include bacteria, agrochemicals, industrial wastes and chemicals used in food processing. Food contamination can be accidental or a deliberate act of terror. Clearly, no single technique can be responsive for detecting all of these contaminants in the food-supply chain. A standoff Raman technique has been developed by us to detect economically motivated adulteration in common food items like olive oil, honey and flour. Unlike the traditional Raman approach, this technique remains largely unexplored for food sciences applications and has the potential to detect food contaminants/adulterants which could be toxic or laced with biological pathogens from a safe, non-contact distance of several meters. The technique is thus important for field and forensic applications needing minimum sample preparation protocol. Using a 785 nm Raman spectrometer coupled to a small telescope, the technique was characterized for standoff distances in the range of 1-10 meters and for typical concentrations of 1-10% used in economically-motivated adulteration. Adulteration of extra virgin olive oil with canola and grape seed oils was detected from near-contact and standoff distances up to 1 meter. Depending on the distance, the sensitivity for detecting adulteration was 2-5%. Likewise, feasibility of detecting adulteration of honey with high-fructose corn syrup and rice syrup was demonstrated. Adulteration in other food items like milk and flour was also investigated. For its potential for field application in the area of food security, the technique was demonstrated to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel at the US-Canada border in Champlain, New York.

Griffiths G. Atungulu is an Assistant Professor of Grain Process Engineering in the Food Science Department at the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture. His education has been in agricultural engineering with research specialization in grains process engineering. He holds Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Engineering from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya and MS and PhD degrees in Agricultural Engineering from Iwate University, Japan. Presently, his program is focused on engineering effective strategies to maintain grain quality and prevent mycotoxin development.

The typical convective heated air-drying methods for rice are not metered to inactivate harmful fungal spores that produce mycotoxins. Some mycotoxins such as aflatoxin are highly toxic and present health hazards to grain consumers. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of utilizing microwaves (MW) at 915 MHz frequency to achieve rapid rice drying and decontamination of aflatoxigenic fungal spores. Medium-grain rough rice (cv. CL721) at initial moisture content of 23% (w.b.) was dried using a 915 MHz industrial MW set to transmit energy at power levels 5, 10 and 15 kW for 4, 6 and 8 minutes and for rice bed thicknesses 5, 10 and 15 cm. Inactivation of the afaltoxigenc fungal spore (Aspergillus flavus) and other bacteria across the bed thickness was studied. For the studied range of processing conditions, aflatoxigenic fungal load was reduced by 2.75 log CFU/g and anaerobic bacterial load was reduced by 3.00 log CFU/g, respectively. Microbial loads were significantly affected (p<0.005) by increasing specific energy input; increasing rice bed thickness up to 15 cm had negligible effects on microbial load reduction and variability among the rice layers. This work showed that MW drying of rough rice, especially using the 915 MHz frequency, holds promise as a rapid drying method with potential benefits of microbial decontamination; this may help grain producers combat fungi related problems such as those resulting from mycotoxin contamination, especially aflatoxin, a highly toxic and known carcinogen.

Norbert G. Maroya is an Agricultural Engineer specializing on plant breeding with a Ph.D. from the Department of Botany, University of Ghana Lagon. His areas of expertise includes seed project management, seed systems development, seed quality control and certification, foundation seed production, breeder seed maintenance, seed industry development, and seed marketing, among others

The initial experimentations on yam propagation in aeroponics system were successful leading to production of tubers and bulbils on both D. alata and D. rotundata species. Planted in AS, virus-free and endophyte-clean plantlets from the Temporary Immersion Bioreactor System developed successfully with 95% survival. The harvests of tubers in aeroponics boxes were done every three to four months. The number of tubers harvested per plant varied among genotypes and the age of the plants with an average of 3.1±0.1 tubers. In addition to the tubers some plants produce bulbils. The third type of planting material generated from yam in aeroponics system is the one node vine cuttings. After 9-12 months of development plants generate on average 300 one-node vine cuttings. The vine cuttings are rooted in pots in nursery and developed new leaves between 3 to 4 weeks. They are transplanted to field at the density of 1m X 0.25 m where more than 92% of the rooted plantlets developed with vigour and produced after 6 months various sizes of tubers depending of the varieties. Among the white yams, the biggest tubers average of 1.6kg were recorded up to 30% of the tubers of TDr95/19177 while the smallest tubers average of 30g were recorded in large number 32% among the tubers of TDr95/18544. In the same growing condition the TDr 89/02665 has generated 47% of mini tuber weighting on average 83g against 5% and 97g for TDr 95/19177. Between the water yam varieties TDa 98/01176 produces 1% and 35% of ware and big seed weighting 1.3kg and 480g against 4% and 48% with 1.2kg and 535g respectively for TDa 98/01166.

James B Stukes is an Associate Professor of Biology and Biology Program Coordinator for the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences at South Carolina State University, USA. He has received his PhD in Microbiology from Atlanta University, USA. He has served as the Principal Investigator for several grants, written various publications and presented his work at numerous conferences. He was named University Teacher of the Year, Outstanding Young Man of America, served as a Member of the Governor’s Mathematics and Science Advisory Board and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. He currently serves as a Co-Principal Investigator of the Evans-Allen 1890 Food Safety Research Grant funded by the USDA.

The mold Aspergillus grows on a number of raw food commodities producing highly toxic compounds known as aflatoxins. These compounds can cause developmental and immune system suppression, cancer and death if ingested. Crops contaminated with aflatoxins can result in losses to the U.S. corn industry ranging from $52.1 million to $1.68 billion annually. Because of the harm these toxins pose, a food safety survey was administered to SC farmers. The results indicated that of the 190 farmers surveyed, 58% reported they never heard of it, 26% revealed they somewhat knew about it, while only 16% definitely knew about. The aim of this study was to determine the aflatoxin levels in corn obtained from farms in South Carolina. Aflatoxin levels were measured using a fast and convenient method involving the Vicam test reader. Five grams of corn were weighed, blended and transferred into an extraction tube containing 25 ml of 70% methanol. The mixture was vortexed for 2 minutes and filtered. One hundred microliters (100 μl) of the extracted sample were mixed with 100 μl of Afla-V dilute contained in an eppendorf tube. The samples were mixed well for 10 seconds using a vortexer. The sample mixture was then placed on the Alfa-V test strip for 5 minutes and inserted inside the Vicam test reader. Two of the samples collected from the six farms indicated readings of 58.40 ppb and 89.15 ppb. These numbers were 2.34 and 3.57 times higher, respectively, than the recommended 25 ppb established by the USDA.

Steve Worth is an Associate Professor of Extension and Rural Resource Management and Academic Leader in Teaching and Learning in the School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN), South Africa. He is also the Director of the African Centre for Food Security (ACFS) at UKZN, South Africa. For 13 years, he has worked in agricultural extension and development in the North West province of South Africa. Since 2001, he has been serving as an academic involved in teaching, research and community in agricultural extension, curriculum development, rural development and food security. He has also consulted with various international and South African agencies, writing and editing books and training materials, drafting policy for agricultural extension,agricultural education and food security and developing agricultural curricula.

Food security and sustainability are concepts that are perhaps two of the most over-worked, over-used concepts in development. They have virtually become empty words. Agencies throughout Africa have initiated programs and projects ostensibly to create sustainable livelihoods or to ensure sustainable food security but which in reality achieve neither in the long run. SADC, for example, has extensive infrastructure to monitor food security vulnerability. However, there is no agreement on the indicators or approaches to measuring vulnerability. Further, the recommendations are all grounded in humanitarian relief including grain imports and stimulating production (e.g., through input subsidies). This paper suggests some fundamentals are not sufficiently understood or accommodated in policy and project planning that prevents achieving sustainable food security. First it suggests contextualizing food security in the broader aim of advancing populations toward prosperity and well-being understanding more starkly what food security is and what it is not. Linked to this is the need to review responses to human issues along a spectrum of relief, project development, systems and institutions and vision-led human capacity development. This paper then suggests that the underpinnings of what makes things sustainable need to be examined. It concludes that while food security is important, it is but one milestone on the pathway to prosperity and not an end unto itself. The paper also concludes that no matter how well relief and development projects are designed and implemented; they do not and cannot address the root issues bedevilling achieving a permanent, widespread sustainable food security. Achieving an enduring solution will require substantive changes in social and political norms, structures and systems, working from the ground up as well as from the top down. And it will require pervasive building of human capacity, particularly, but not exclusively, building capacity at the level of the farmer and the household.

Beatrice Anim Aighewi is an agronomist and Yam Seed Systems Specialist in the “Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa” project of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria. She has completed her PhD in 1998 from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria after an MSc from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. She has lectured on different aspects of Agronomy at the University of Dschang, Cameroon and University of Abuja, Nigeria. Her research activities and publications are focused on propagation of tropical root and tuber crops.

Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is important for household food security and income generation for at least 60 million people in West Africa, a region that produces more than 93% of world yam in 47 million hectares. However, average yield of 12 t/ha is much lower than the potential of 26 t/ha. Among the major constraints in yam production are the shortage of quality seed due to low multiplication ratio and high prevalence of diseases and pests in field and storage. The BMGF funded “Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA)” project was set up with a five-year goal toincrease yam productivity by 40% for 200,000 smallholder yam farmers in Ghana and Nigeria, as well as deliver technologies to improve the productivity and livelihoods of these farmers. A participatory approach integrating training, demonstrations and study visits is used to encourage smallholder yam farmers to improve the quality of their saved seed. So far, 323 demonstration plots (300 m2) have been established and 54,872 farmers directly trained in production of quality seed. A formal seed yam system was initiated with novel methods of rapidly multiplying yams using the temporary immersion bioreactor and aeroponics systems, developed to produce high quality pre-basic and basic seed. Production of micro-tubers using vine cuttings is being promoted. Sensitive virus indexing tools, procedures to generate virus-free yams and a seed yam quality management protocol were developed to produce quality planting material. This integrated approach will ensure sustainable availability of high quality seed yams.

Zengqi Peng, PhD, a professor in Nanjing Agricultural University and National Center of Meat Quality and Safety Control, majors in meat science. He devotes himself to the green manufacture technology (GMT) for processed meat in recent years. He hosts and attends more than 10 projects including National Key Technology Support Program, National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program), National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Technology R&D Program since 2003. He is the laureate of the National Award for Science and Technology Progress in 2013, the award of the Chinese Association of Animal Products Processing in 2014, the award of the China Industry-University-Research Institute Collaboration Association in 2015, which are about GMT and its application of traditional processed meat.

There were increasing reports on food-borne carcinogens and mutagens resulting from meat processing in recent decades, such as grilling, barbecuing, frying and smoking. High-temperature cooking methods generate compounds that may contribute to carcinogenic compounds, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), trans-fatty acids (TFAs), formaldehyde, and PM2.5. Conclusions on the possible risk of certain human cancers caused by consumption of processed meat were drawn since 1990s. This symposium introduced Green Manufacture Technology (GMT) for processed meat, which is characterized by developing meat products by thermo-mechanical drying (below 120oC), that is, with non-grilling, non-frying, non-smoking and non-braising. A series of meat products developed by GMT have remarkable reduced content of hazardous chemicals such as PHAs, HAAs, TFAs, formaldehyde and PM2.5, while maintained attractive color, pleasant flavor and favorable texture as well.

Luqi Wei, second year in her Master degree in Nanjing Agricultural University and National Center of Meat Quality and Safety Control, majors in meat science and quality control. She became a member of Prof. Peng’s team in 2014 and has been devoting herself to the green manufacture technology (GMT) for processed meat since then. She has taken part in Program of National Beef Cattle Industrial Technology System, Program of Herbivore Livestock fattening and Technique of High Quality Meat Produce Research of South China and Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China.

There were increasing reports on food-borne carcinogens and mutagens resulting from meat processing in recent decades, such as grilling, barbecuing, frying and smoking. High-temperature cooking methods generate compounds that may contribute to carcinogenic compounds, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), trans-fatty acids (TFAs), formaldehyde, and PM2.5. Conclusions on the possible risk of certain human cancers caused by consumption of processed meat were drawn since 1990s. This symposium introduced Green Manufacture Technology (GMT) for processed meat, which is characterized by developing meat products by thermo-mechanical drying (below 120oC), that is, with non-grilling, non-frying, non-smoking and non-braising. A series of meat products developed by GMT have remarkable reduced content of hazardous chemicals such as PHAs, HAAs, TFAs, formaldehyde and PM2.5, while maintained attractive color, pleasant flavor and favorable texture as well.

Yao Yao is a Lecturer in Jiangxi Agricultural University and Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Natural Products and Functional Food, majors in livestock products processing and quality control. She devotes herself to the green manufacture technology (GMT) for processed meat in recent years. As a Member of Professor Peng’s team, she has taken part in projects including National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program), National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. She is the Laureate of the Marine Fisheries and Technology Innovation Award of Jiangsu Province in 2013.

There were increasing reports on food-borne carcinogens and mutagens resulting from meat processing in recent decades, such as grilling, barbecuing, frying and smoking. High-temperature cooking methods generate compounds that may contribute to carcinogenic compounds, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), trans-fatty acids (TFAs), formaldehyde, and PM2.5. Conclusions on the possible risk of certain human cancers caused by consumption of processed meat were drawn since 1990s. This symposium introduced Green Manufacture Technology (GMT) for processed meat, which is characterized by developing meat products by thermo-mechanical drying (below 120oC), that is, with non-grilling, non-frying, non-smoking and non-braising. A series of meat products developed by GMT have remarkable reduced content of hazardous chemicals such as PHAs, HAAs, TFAs, formaldehyde and PM2.5, while maintained attractive color, pleasant flavor and favorable texture as well.