Alternative food networks (AFNs) have become a common response to the socioecological injustices generated by the industrialized food system. Using a political ecology framework, this paper evaluates the emergence of an AFN in Chiapas, Mexico. While the Mexican context presents a particular set of challenges, the case study also reveals the strength the alternative food movement derives from a diverse network of actors committed to building a "community economy" that reasserts the multifunctional values of organic agriculture and local commodity chains. Nonetheless, just as the AFN functions as an important livelihood strategy for otherwise disenfranchised producers it simultaneously encounters similar limitations as those observed in other market-driven approaches to sustainable food governance.

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This paper addresses how food systems and transboundary food supply chains are mediated and shaped by (cross-) cultural and geopolitical borders that function as selective filters. We focus on the ways in which the political boundary in a formerly cohesive foodshed generates "edge effects" that affect (1) food safety, and (2) food waste, particularly in desert communities adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border. We hypothesize that as these various boundary lines get "out of register" with one another, their dissonance creates both unexpected impacts as well as opportunities for positive change. This initial analysis demonstrates how multiple (and often permeable)

Pharmaceuticals gather more than 1000 biologically active molecules used in human and veterinary medicine around the world. The increase in drugs consumption and the development of improved analytical environmental techniques have resulted in identifying these emerging pollutants in all aquatic compartments, ranging from surface water and groundwater ressources to the marine environment.Numerous investigations have indicated that a hundred of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are frequently detected in the aquatic environment, at international level, at concentrations ranging from ng/l to µg/l. The concentrations even surpass the mg/l level in sewage treatment effluents. Once there, they may be responsible for chronic poisoning of aquatic species due to their still effective biological activity. The European authorities have considered this hazard for years, leading to investigations only for new pharmaceuticals entering the market and when the predicted exposure concentration is greater than 100 ng/l.

Food projects have become an increasingly popular engine for economic development and branding efforts to promote “creative cities” in the neoliberal context (Joassart-Marcelli & Bosco, 2017). However, proponents of food-based devel­opment often overlook the uneven impacts of such projects and neglect underlying structural, social, and environmental issues. University researchers can play a key role in raising awareness about these issues, inform food policy needs, and create university-community partnerships that can disrupt dominant narratives and support local initiatives that build capacity, equity, and resilience in regional food systems. Located in Tucson, Arizona—a UNESCO City of Gastronomy—researchers at the University of Arizona (UA)’s Center for Regional Food Studies (CRFS), in collaboration with the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), endeavor to accomplish these urgent tasks through several collaborative efforts described here.