How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.

Recent interest in how poultry are housed and managed in order to ensure profitability, sustainability, and good levels of animal welfare, are challenging issues that commercial poultry keepers face, particularly where legislation is bringing about legal requirements for housing. This book compares and contrasts alternative housing with conventional and traditional systems for commercial poultry (laying hens, meat chickens, turkeys, waterfowl and gamebirds) with regards to welfare, disease, health, nutrition, sustainability and genotype-environment interaction.

The welfare of egg-producing poultry is a topic of great concern to the poultry industry and to researchers in applied animal behaviour. It is also subject to increased legislation. Issues such as battery cages, space requirements, access to daylight and ''free-range'' eggs have attracted public interest.

Eight papers from an informal meeting, dealing with examples from Asia, Africa and Latin-America

This authoritative textbook provides an introduction and guide to poultry behavior and welfare. It describes the origin and biology of the various species of bird that are of agricultural importance, as well as giving a succinct overview of their key behavior patterns. There is careful discussion of the many factors that influence their welfare, and detailed consideration of the ways in which legislation and commercial interests interact in an attempt to satisfy the many needs involved. The final chapters discuss possible future developments within the subject. The book is in part an update of a previous work, Poultry Production Systems: Behaviour, Management and Welfare (CABI, 1992), completely rewritten and with much new material added.

Annotation. In this comprehensive research book issues associated with poultry breeding are addressed, by examining quantitative and molecular genetics and the uses of transgenic technology. The important area of disease resistance and transmission is also covered in a special section looking at the genetics of disease resistance. This book represents the first complete integration of our current knowledge of biotechnology and quantitative and molecular genetics as applied to poultry breeding.

The development and practical application of welfare friendly aviary housing systems for laying hens, that generally emit more ammonia per hen than battery cage housing systems, would conflict with the Dutch policy to substantially reduce the total emission of ammonia from animal husbandry.

Animal welfare considerations are becoming increasingly important for the keeping and farming of animals, both in Australia and internationally. Practices that may have once been deemed acceptable are now being reassessed in light of new knowledge and changing attitudes. The minimum standards outlined in this Code are intended to help people involved in the care and management of poultry to adopt standards of husbandry that are acceptable. Special requirements for various species are given in the appendices. This Code of Practice is intended as a guide for people responsible for the welfare and husbandry of domestic poultry. It recognizes that the basic requirement for welfare of poultry is a husbandry system appropriate to their physiological and behavioral needs. The Code emphasizes that--whatever the form of husbandry--managers, employees and all others responsible for the day-to-day needs of domestic poultry have a responsibility to care for poultry under their control.