This paper investigates the state of food security in Romania and its place in the world. We analysed the level of food security indicators for 1990–2012, in Romania, and their average levels worldwide. References are also made to developed and developing countries. The research seeks to answer the questions: Is food security achieved in Romania and, if so, what kind of structural changes can be made towards improving food quality and people’s living standards? As indicators show, the findings indicate that food security is ensured, on average, in Romania. Dietary energy supply is above dietary energy requirements, the ratio of cereals import dependency is below its average level worldwide, and the daily diet is balanced between vegetal and animal origin food. Having solved the quantitative aspect of food security, Romania can look towards improving the qualitative aspects of it. In this regard, organic food may be considered as a direction of developing sustainable agricultural economy.

This research explores the systemic nature of competitiveness within the cereal sector of the European Union (EU) and addresses the structural interdependencies among key competitiveness drivers through a network-based model. The goal of this research is to offer policy alignment solutions based on the empirical findings derived from a sparse Gaussian graphical model that was operationalized to identify conditional dependencies, synergies, and decouplings across five dimensions: factor endowments, self-sufficiency, trade strategy, resource productivity, and environmental impact. The results showed systemic vulnerabilities, including the decoupling of factor endowments from strategic trade specialization, a pronounced East–West productivity divide, and the asymmetry between the economic valorization of harvested land and its environmental impact, reflected in land management practices. Research findings underscore the need for synergy-driven strategies to coherently align agricultural competitiveness outcomes with the economic and structural potential of each EU country. A critical policy incongruency has been identified: the current prioritization of ecological performance under the Common Agricultural Policy overlooks essential agricultural infrastructural disparities, thereby perpetuating competitiveness asymmetries across the Union. In response, this study introduces a systemic amelioration framework designed to reconcile environmental priorities with agricultural infrastructure development, fostering cohesive and resilient competitiveness throughout the EU cereal sector.

Sustainable development is a worldwide concern. This paper presents an analysis of the influence of the final consumption expenditure on the total consumption of households in Romania. The regression function of the association between “the amount of municipal waste” and “the total consumption of households” has a direct linear relationship. The regression variable “total household consumption” (X) has a regression coefficient of −0.03031, which indicates that the amount of municipal waste decreases by one unit as household consumption increases by 30.31 units. Therefore, this regression coefficient indicates that the volume of municipal waste decreases by 30.31 tons to an increase in the final consumption expenditure of households of EUR 1 million. The influence of the final consumption expenditure of households by consumption purpose on the quantity of municipal waste is in the following order: health; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; clothing and footwear; miscellaneous goods and services; recreation and culture; food and non-alcoholic goods; restaurants and hotels; furnishing and household equipment and routine household maintenance; alcoholic and tobacco goods; communications; and education. The value of the Significance F must be less than 0.05. In the case of the model, it is found that this value exceeds the threshold of 0.05 in the case of consumption generated by health services, recreation and culture, restaurants and hotels, alcohol and tobacco goods, and communications. Regarding the high value of Significance F in relation to consumption, we find the sectors that generate the least amount of waste (services). In the case of all of the independent variables, we can note that the relationship is a negative one, which proves that an increase in the quantity of any expenditure of the households generates a decrease of the municipal waste quantity.

The article examines the links between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the transformative aspects of establishing an encompassing agri-food trade policy in the European Union (EU). Starting with a review of the Sustainable Development Goals, this article focuses on the goal of sustainable agriculture and food security. The paper then investigates the transformative aspects of building a fair agri-food trade policy, including the significance of international trade agreements and the need for effective monitoring and enforcement. Research also includes a quantitative analysis of the scientific community’s interest in the EU’s effectiveness in implementing its agri-food trade policy, with a focus on the policy’s impact on global food security. The findings indicate that the EU is making progress toward achieving its objective of boosting global food security, but significant impediments remain to be surmounted.

Over the last three decades, agricultural systems have been at the center of numerous policies designed to deliver society closer to a more sustainable future. Emergent research show agriculture as a vector of change that can significantly contribute to transforming economic models–from linearity to circularity–one of the premises of the circular economy. Turning waste into resource suggests new windows of opportunity for agriculture, as well as its potential to gain competitive advantages in relation with other economic sectors and become highly performant in this regard. Considering the new meanings of competitiveness and performance in the economics of sustainability, the objective of this research was to carry out a literature review on three types of environmentally friendly agricultural systems (ecological, organic, regenerative), and explore how the concepts of competitiveness and performance converge and/or diverge based on the different characteristics of each type of agricultural system. The literature is generally convergent towards the fact that ecological, organic, and regenerative agricultural systems are highly competitive in terms of low environmental impact, especially if compared to conventional agriculture, yet they are poorly competitive from a legislative point of view–as it is considered that those three agricultural systems are highly reliant on incentives and political support. From an economic perspective, they are also not the best-performing in terms of cost generation, yields, and income volumes. More research is still needed in order to identify pathways for the large-scale practicing of profitable, resilient, and environmentally friendly agricultural systems.