Ámbitos de gobernanza en las políticas alimentarias urbanas: una mirada operativa

The present research tries to identify the different areas of governance, which are significant to urban food policies, and its operational weaknesses and potentialities. With this aim, it analyses the actions developed to improve food governance in 13 Spanish cities, all of them related to the Network of Cities for Agroecology. The information obtained through a questionnaire has been complemented with personal interviews and analysis of documentation on specific actions. In addition, three Local Food Strategies (Valladolid, Zaragoza and Segovia) have been analyzed). The study identifies at least six fields of food governance (1-Grassroots; 2-Multi-actor; 3-Intra-administration; 4-Multi-level; 5-Territorial; and 6-Trans-local). Around these areas, urban food policies discuss concepts such as the new multi-actor institutions, dialectics between grassroots movements, farmers and local governments, or the relevance of different approaches such as the City-Region Food System. The conclusions suggest deepening the articulation of the top-down and bottom-up approaches to food policies, giving centrality to the role of the organic farming sector and to the marginalized urban groups, as well as to the importance of transcending the merely local scale in order to develop the potential for sustainable food policies. In this sense, the governance of urban food policies goes beyond urban territories and landscapes and general urban dynamics generate significant impacts overall territory.La presente investigación pretende identificar los ámbitos de gobernanza significativos en las políticas alimentarias urbanas, así como las deficiencias y potencialidades en su implementación. Para ello se analizan las acciones para mejorar la gobernanza alimentaria en 13 ciudades españolas, relacionadas todas ellas con la Red de Ciudades por la Agroecología. La información obtenida mediante un cuestionario ha sido complementada con entrevistas personales y análisis de documentación sobre acciones específicas. Además, se han analizado las Estrategias Alimentarias Urbanas de tres ciudades (Valladolid, Zaragoza y Segovia). El estudio identifica 6 ámbitos de la gobernanza alimentaria (1-De base; 2-Multi-actor; 3-Intra-administración; 4-Multi-nivel; 5-Territorial; y 6-Gobernanza translocal). En torno a estos ámbitos se discuten conceptos como las nuevas institucionalidades multi-actor que se están generando en torno a las políticas alimentarias urbanas; la dialéctica entre administración, organizaciones sociales y sector agrario o la pertinencia de distintas miradas como los enfoques de Sistema Alimentario de Ciudad-Región. Las conclusiones sugieren profundizar en la articulación de los enfoques top-down y bottom-up de las políticas alimentarias, aportando centralidad al papel del sector agrario ecológico y a actores urbanos desfavorecidos, así como a la importancia de trascender la escala meramente local para poder desarrollar el potencial de sostenibilidad de las políticas alimentarias. De esta forma, la gobernanza de las políticas alimentarias urbanas va más allá de los territorios y paisajes urbanos, del mismo modo que las dinámicas generales urbanas generan importantes impactos sobre el conjunto del territorio

Mercury in Sediment Cores from the Southern Gulf of Mexico: Preindustrial Levels and Temporal Enrichment Trends

Spatial and temporal variability of mercury concentrations in sediments was evaluated in 210Pb-dated sediment cores from offshore and intertidal areas in the southern Gulf of Mexico. In offshore cores, mercury concentrations were comparable (11.2–69.2 ng g−1), and intermediate between concentrations in intertidal cores from the eastern (6.0–34.4 ng g−1) and the western (34.9–137.7 ng g−1) inlets of Términos Lagoon. The enrichment factor (EF) indicated minimal contamination (EF  \u3c  2) in most offshore cores, whereas in some intertidal cores steadily increasing mercury enrichment and fluxes were observed along the past century. No evidence of oil industry related mercury contamination was found, as the minor but increasing enrichment in intertidal cores is most likely related to land-derived sources such as catchment eroded soils and waste water runoff. Results highlight the importance to control catchment erosion and untreated sewage releases to reduce mercury loadings to the coastal zone