Browsing by Author "Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile"

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    Cuadernos Cátedra Italo Calvino: Sobre Fábulas y Seis propuestas
    (Ediciones UC, 2022) Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Gaune Corradi, Rafael; Rolle Cruz, Claudio
    Italo Calvino se preguntaba en su libro ¿Por qué leer a los clásicos? sobre qué convierte a un autor o a una obra en un clásico. Para él, existían múltiples factores, los que articuló en catorce definiciones que nos ofrece al inicio de esa recopilación de ensayos póstumos. Todas ellas son contundentes, sutiles e inteligentes. Sin embargo, podemos destacar la número 11: “Tu clásico es aquel que no puede serte indiferente y que te sirve para definirte a ti mismo en relación y quizás en contraste con él”. Esta cátedra, entonces, entiende a Calvino como un “clásico” que nos permite definirnos, no ser indiferentes, pero al mismo tiempo contrastarlo a través de las problemáticas contemporáneas que serán abordadas por humanistas en diálogo con este autor al que nunca estamos “leyendo”, sino siempre “releyendo”.
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    Food security and livelihood challenges of goat’s extensive-production systems in areas undergoing desertification
    (2021) Donoso H., Guillermo; Riveros Fernandez, Jose Luis; Ronda-Borzone, Pablo; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
    Undernourishment and food insecurity are still challenges threatening poor urban and rural communities. Approximately 12% of the global population faced severe food insecurity in 2020, representing 928 million people. A significant fraction of the world’s land surface is covered by drylands, and this proportion is expected to increase in the future, affecting the food security and livelihood of 2 billion people due to climate change. Goats have traditionally been a significant asset and source of protein for rural communities inhabiting arid and semiarid regions of the world. We hypothesize that goats were intentionally selected by communities in dry environments and might be the optimal animal to breed in the future due to their capability to survive in dry environments and to utilize less water than other livestock production systems. However, it must be considered that only a small fraction (1%–2%) of the total water consumed by goats is drunk or utilized directly by the animals. Most of the water consumed is utilized to grow the feed that livestock such as goats consumes. Which in most regions of the world is green water due to goats feed on the vegetation that grows in rainfed rangelands. Increasing water efficiency in goat production is thus critical in the context of increasing water scarcity and desertification. However, there is little research on goat water productivity and the impact of decreasing water security on the sustainability of goat production and, hence, on the livelihoods in small communities in developing countries. Therefore, the impact of increasing water scarcity and desertification on goat production in rainfed lands should be a research priority.