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Macronutrients are fats, proteins, and carbohydrates (starch, fibre, sugar) that are needed for a wide range of bodily functions and processes.
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in the energy, macronutrients, or micronutrients that a person obtains. This is either because their diet is lacking or because their body is not able to fully absorb the nutrients from the foods eaten, e.g. due to illness. Malnutrition is an umbrella term that includes overnutrition (an excess of food energy), undernutrition (a lack of food energy and macronutrients such as protein), and micronutrient deficiencies (insufficient micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A or iodine).
A mangrove is a salt tolerant tree or shrub that grows in tidal and coastal wetlands and swamps, typically in tropical and sub-tropical regions. They typically form mangrove forests and are globally important for biodiversity and carbon storage, and also for their role in coastal protection.
Marginal land is often defined as land that has little value for agricultural production because the difference between the costs of agricultural inputs (e.g. labour, machinery, agrochemicals) and the revenue that can be achieved from yields is small compared to what can be achieved on other land. Marginal land is sometimes defined in contrast with arable land, where marginal land is understood to be land that is unsuitable for crop production but still could be used for grazing by livestock. While the agricultural value of marginal land can be low, both its existing and potential value for biodiversity conservation can be high.
Market liberalisation means that there is a lessening of government restrictions and regulations to the market, such that the market is primarily controlled through supply and demand.
A Mediterranean diet is an idealised dietary pattern that has commonalities with the diets traditional to many Mediterranean countries. It is a diet that is primarily based on vegetables, fruits, pulses, nuts, cereals, olive oil, and fish, with moderate consumption of dairy and low to moderate amounts of meat. Mediterranean type diets are considered to have health conferring benefits.
Microalgae are microscopic algae typically found in freshwater and marine ecosystems
Micronutrient deficiencies result from a diet lacking the essential vitamins and minerals that humans require in small amounts for proper growth, development, and bodily functioning. These include iodine, calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamins A, B, and C, among others. Micronutrient deficiencies are the cause of a range of diseases affecting physical and mental development, and can increase susceptibility to infectious diseases.
A micronutrient deficiency refers to not getting enough of one or more micronutrients, which can occur even if a person is receiving sufficient energy from their diet.
Micronutrients are minerals (e.g. iron) and organic compounds (e.g. vitamin A) found in food, which the body requires in very small amounts to produce substances such as enzymes and hormones. They are essential for proper growth, development and bodily functioning. Essential micronutrients are those that cannot be synthesised by the body and so must be obtained through diet.
Minimally processed food is a category of foods in the NOVA classification that have not been processed (e.g. fresh fruits and vegetables) or that have been modified only minimally by processes such as drying, roasting, boiling, freezing, and the removal of inedible parts. Advocates of NOVA understand minimally processed foods to be processed to extend their lifetime, enable their storage, make them easier to prepare, or to increase the number of ways they can be consumed. Examples include fresh meat and vegetables, whole wheat grains, wholemeal flour, ground coffee and pasteurised milk.
Mob grazing is a specific form of rotational grazing in which stocking density is particularly high but recovery time is particularly long. This is argued to have benefits for soil health and carbon sequestration, and as such forms part of regenerative grazing for some practitioners.
Monoculture agriculture consists of cultivating only a single type of crop on a specific field/piece of land. Often the preferred method of cultivation in intensive agriculture. Contrast with polyculture which involves cultivating two or more crops on the same piece of land.
A monogastric is an animal with a single-compartmented stomach. Examples of monogastrics include humans, poultry, pigs, horses, rabbits, dogs and cats. Most monogastrics are generally unable to digest much cellulose food materials such as grasses. Herbivores with a monogastric digestion system (e.g. horses and rabbits) are able to digest cellulose in their diets through microbes in their gut, but they extract less energy from these foods than do ruminants. A major proportion of the feed given to monogastrics reared in intensive systems comprises human edible grains and soybeans.
The multiple burdens of malnutrition refers to the simultaneous presence of more than one form of malnutrition (e.g. undernutrition and obesity) in an individual, household, or population.
Mycelium (often used as a mass noun, but also with plural mycelia) is the root-like part of a fungus, forming complex branching structures that spread through the growing medium, often soil. Mycelium networks describe these branching structures, often those of multiple individual fungi; they are able to carry electrical signals, transport water and nutrients, and absorb from and secrete nutrients into the growing medium. Mycelium networks perform various essential functions in ecosystems such as contributing to soil organic carbon, providing a food source for invertebrates, facilitating nutrient absorption by plant roots and facilitating decomposition.
A symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a plant’s root system (its rhizosphere). The plant supplies the fungus with sugars produced during photosynthesis. In exchange, the fungus provides the plant with water and mineral nutrients (such as phosphorous), with the fungus essentially acting to increase the root system’s absorptive area.