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The purpose of this paper is to present the evolution of Brazilian food patterns, based on the 2002-2003 and 2008-2009 Brazilian Household Budget Surveys (POFs), and to evaluate similarities in food acquisition among the Brazilian states, in search for the main drivers of the changes.

Using the data gathered from the 17 food groups within the POFs and multidimensional scaling, the Brazilian states were divided into groups and analysed according to their similarities in terms of annual per capita household food acquisition.

The study’s results point to five groups with similarities in terms of food acquisition among the Brazilian states. Additionally, the issues that reflect Brazil’s diversity were discussed, highlighting possible factors that caused the movement of some states between groups during the analysis period. The heterogeneity observed in food acquisition in Brazil emphasises Brazilian agribusiness development and underscores the influence of the food supply chains on the regional food patterns.

This research presents the geographic changes in the Brazilian agribusiness, and how these changes are reflected in the population food patterns and in the heterogeneity in food acquisition among the Brazilian states. Concerning this work, supply chains of agri-industrial products focussed on the domestic market can be analysed in depth, offering guidelines for future research in logistics and agri-industrial economy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the situation and trends regarding prevalence of underweight, overweight, and undernourished populations worldwide. Thus, we defend that the conditions of hunger, underweight, overweight, and obesity are seen as anomalies resulting from nutritional and dietary food insecurity related to the concept of malnutrition.

This investigation was conducted through an ecological study, using indicators related to undernourishment, underweight, and overweight. Data, obtained through the WHO and United Nations, were analyzed through scatter plots and angular coefficient from linear regression.

Evidence suggests that some nations have high levels of undernourished and overweight populations at the same time. Results showed a significant reduction in the prevalence of underweight children and a significant increase in the prevalence of overweight children worldwide. Western Pacific has shown declining trends in both overweight and underweight children. Southern Africa has shown a strong increase in its child overweight population and no downward trend in its underweight child population.

The authors defend that programs and actions better aligned to diagnoses of some countries that face problems related to both underweight and overweight/obesity conditions are needed. This investigation can help public and private efforts to combat underweight and overweight diagnoses worldwide.

The authors present evidence of the co-occurrence of underweight and overweight in child populations worldwide. Thus, the authors show alarming trends regarding to these diagnoses.

Macro‐environmental scanning is a first step in strategic planning, which is essential in an emerging industry such as liquid biofuels. The purpose of this paper is to identify the dimensions within which the governments of Brazil, the USA and Germany have constructed the macro‐environment for liquid biofuels over time and to test for similarities between the governments’ constructs.

Documentary research was carried out on official public policies and program documents on the topic of liquid biofuels, covering a ten‐year period from 1997 to 2006. The database consisted of 624 documents from the Brazilian government, 854 from the American government and 168 documents from the German government. Text mining was used to extract information from the texts by applying a specific analysis structure that was built on macro‐environmental dimensions as expressed by their respective dimensional words “d‐words”. The “d‐words” were selected based on their usage frequency in the knowledge fields related to each dimension.

The results indicate that the macro‐environments for liquid biofuels, as configured by the governments under analysis, differ systematically and over time in their emphasis of specific macro‐environmental dimensions.

There are two primary aspects of this study which are original and valuable: the application of text‐mining techniques as a tool for strategic planning and the development of a particular tool to extract knowledge from text documents and to categorize them according to their macro‐environmental dimensions.

Considering Brazil as a food producer with global prominence and the urgency for food security in some developing countries, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the exports of Brazilian dry-beans against food security of its buyers.

The investigation was conducted through analysis of data from official databases as FAO and WHO. This study elaborated dispersion maps crossing characteristics of the international buyers of Brazilian dry-beans considering their food security situations.

Brazil has a high domestic consumption of dry-beans, and exports are seen as a secondary activity. However, its production is superior to their domestic needs. Exports of Brazilian dry-beans are generally volatile and unstable. Evidence suggests that countries with serious problems of child and population’s malnutrition (e.g. India and Angola) buy more Brazilian dry-beans. However, their domestic consumptions are still low.

This research based only on exports of dry-bean is faced as a significant limitation. Future studies adding other staple foods commonly consumed by economically disadvantaged populations may contribute to the investigation of the role of Brazil against the need for food security in developing countries and emerging economies.

Social implications are focussed in the pursuit of malnutrition decrease in the populations of developing countries through the consumption of nutritionally rich and economically viable food, such as dry-beans.

The original value is based on the analysis of Brazilian dry-beans production and trades and its potential to contribute to nutritional safety and food security in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize food consumption outside the home and verify the existence of relationships between income, expenditure and the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adult individuals in Brazil.

Food expenditure data were used as well as those on the prevalence of overweight and obesity available in the reports from Family Budgets Research carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in the years 2002-2003 and 2008-2009. In addition, the authors used the Kruskall-Wallis test to verify whether there were significant differences between the classes of income with respect to the average expenditure on food outside the home.

It was observed that the higher the income of the individual, the greater the expenditure on food outside the home. It was also found that the prevalence of overweight and obesity is higher in individuals who have higher income, particularly among men. Thus, it is suggested that the higher the income of the individual, the larger the expenditure on food outside the home and the greater the prevalence of overweight and obesity.

This study used spending on food away from home (FAFH), but the authors know that is need to use other variables like frequency of FAFH and quantities but this data were not available.

The study points to the importance of restaurants in the prevention of obesity, since they can offer in their menus foods with fewer calories, and they can also increase the variety and availability of fruits and vegetables.

The study discusses the public health problem, obesity, at the same time as it presents the importance of agribusiness in providing a balanced diet for individuals.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the production and commercialisation of organic products in Brazil since 1980.

The literature review in this study assesses scientific papers, studies conducted by Brazilian and international institutions, and trade news related to the evolution of the production and commercialisation of organic products. The analysis is based on theories of consumer behaviour and competitive strategies.

The results provide evidence that the organic food market in Brazil was initially based on social ideology and a movement that was opposed to conventional farming; however, since 1980, the supply and demand patterns have changed. The commercialisation of organic products since the turn of the decade has expanded beyond ideological motivation and into the Brazilian agribusiness sector. The main reasons for this expansion are changes in preferences by the Brazilian consumer, a substantial number of whom have become more concerned with the nutritional value and quality of the food they eat. This study also demonstrates that in Brazil, as well as in other countries, organic products have become a market trend.

The limited research material concerning the ideological aspects of production and trading of organic products is a factor to be considered with respect to this study.

The presentation of comparative elements for two phases of organic agricultural development in Brazil, especially by the establishment of comparative elements, provide value and originality to this study.

This paper aims to present an ecological study that analyzed the impact of societal and behavioral factors on the obesogenic situation worldwide. The societal variables included urbanization, motorization and educational and economic developments, while the behavioral variables consisted of nutritional intake and insufficient physical activity (IPA).

This investigation was based on official data concerning 99 countries, in the first part of the reference model, and 92 countries, in the second part. The constructs were measured through urban population (per cent), energy/protein/fat supply, expected years of schooling, gross domestic product and gross national income per capita, vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, average body mass index and IPA level of the populations. Data, obtained through the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank and United Nations, were analyzed mainly through descriptive, factor and multiple regression analyses.

The results suggested that nutritional supply/intake, IPA and educational-level impact significantly and positively on the obesogenic situation (p < 0.01, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). In addition, urbanization significantly affects the IPA (p < 0.01). Evidence also suggested that economic development impacts negatively on obesogenic severity (p < 0.01).

Developing economies might face severe obesogenic problems in the future, given their limited access to healthy food and their growing urbanization; thus, nutritional intake should not be seen as the main antecedent of the obesogenic environment. This paper provides comprehensive information to policymakers and researchers interested in the severity of the global obesogenic environment.