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Farmland is a major land cover type in Europe and Africa and provides habitat for numerous species. The severe decline in farmland biodiversity of the last decades has been attributed to changes in farming practices, and organic and low-input farming are assumed to mitigate detrimental effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity. Since the farm enterprise is the primary unit of agricultural decision making, management-related effects at the field scale need to be assessed at the farm level. Therefore, in this study, data were collected on habitat characteristics, vascular plant, earthworm, spider, and bee communities and on the corresponding agricultural management in 237 farms in 13 European and two African regions. In 15 environmental and agricultural homogeneous regions, 6–20 farms with the same farm type (e.g., arable crops, grassland, or specific permanent crops) were selected. If available, an equal number of organic and non-organic farms were randomly selected. Alternatively, farms were sampled along a gradient of management intensity. For all selected farms, the entire farmed area was mapped, which resulted in total in the mapping of 11 338 units attributed to 194 standardized habitat types, provided together with additional descriptors. On each farm, one site per available habitat type was randomly selected for species diversity investigations. Species were sampled on 2115 sites and identified to the species level by expert taxonomists. Species lists and abundance estimates are provided for each site and sampling date (one date for plants and earthworms, three dates for spiders and bees). In addition, farmers provided information about their management practices in face-to-face interviews following a standardized questionnaire. Farm management indicators for each farm are available (e.g., nitrogen input, pesticide applications, or energy input). Analyses revealed a positive effect of unproductive areas and a negative effect of intensive manageme, Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

Conversion of semi-natural habitats, such as field margins, fallows, hedgerows, grassland, woodlots and forests, to agricultural land could increase agricultural production and help meet rising global food demand. Yet, the extent to which such habitat loss would impact biodiversity and wild species is unknown. Here we survey species richness for four taxa (vascular plants, earthworms, spiders, wild bees) and agricultural yield across a range of arable, grassland, mixed, horticulture, permanent crop, for organic and non-organic agricultural land on 169 farms across 10 European regions. We find that semi-natural habitats currently constitute 23% of land area with 49% of species unique to these habitats. We estimate that conversion of semi-natural land that achieves a 10% increase in agricultural production will have the greatest impact on biodiversity in arable systems and the least impact in grassland systems, with organic practices having better species retention than nonorganic practices.

Background: This protocol outlines research to explore family members' and paid staff's perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers. Evidence suggests that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience disparities in healthcare access and utilisation. This disparity was evident early in the pandemic when discussions arose regarding the potential exclusion of this population to critical care. Methods: An anonymous online survey will be conducted with caregivers, both family members and paid staff, to explore their perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 in terms of demographics, living arrangements, access to services, social distancing, and carer wellbeing. The survey will be developed by the research team, many of whom are experts in intellectual disability within their own jurisdictions. Using back-translation our team will translate the survey for distribution in 18 countries worldwide for international comparison. The survey team have extensive personal and professional networks and will promote the survey widely on social media with the support of local disability and advocacy agencies. Statistical descriptive and comparative analyses will be conducted. Ethical approval has been obtained for this study from University College Dublin's Human Research Ethics Committee (HS-20-28-Linehan). Dissemination: Study findings will be prepared in a number of formats in order to meet the needs of different audiences. Outputs will include academic papers, lessons learned paper, practice guidelines, reports, infographics and video content. These outputs will be directed to families, frontline and management delivering disability services, national-level policy makers, healthcare quality and delivery authorities, national pandemic organisations and international bodies., Previously titled: COVID-19 IDD: A global survey exploring the impact of COVID-19 on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers

Some soil scientists or biologists (14, one preferring anonymity) answered the three following questions:1. Introduction)2. Why is organic food better (e.g. tastes better, is healthier, richer in nutrients, contains less pesticide) than food produced with hydroponic or intensive farming techniques?3. In a humipedon, are soil functioning, biodiversity and carbon content three interdependent and intersected aspects of a single ecosystem? In other words, can we treat these aspects as if they were inseparable in a humipedon?4. Are agriculture and civilization (society, culture, way of life) interconnected?All scientists expressed affirmative answers. Nuances or in depth information were also furnished. The article allows understanding the real “agronomic challenge” that predicted global change might represent for humanity.

En las últimas décadas hemos asistido a un rápido proceso de globalización de los mercados, y el control de los mismos se ha ido concentrando cada vez más en las manos de un número reducido de empresas multinacionales. A lo largo de este último año, en concreto, se ha ido perfilando una transición de proporciones dantescas, con tres megafusiones en el sector agroalimentario y químico-farmacéutico, que implicará que las tres multinacionales resultantes controlarán entre el 70-75% del mercado mundial de pesticidas, el 60-65% del mercado mundial de semillas y la casi totalidad de las patentes sobre seres vivos. Estas grandes alianzas intersectoriales de las corporaciones agroalimentarias, abren el camino a una agrupación y a un control corporativo sin precedentes en los primeros niveles de la cadena alimentaria industrial y sobre recursos básicos. Se deben tomar acciones urgentes para vigilar, regular, controlar y frenar el poder corporativo antes de que la soberanía alimentaria de los pueblos se vea más amenazada, si cabe. A lo largo de este artículo se explorarán los problemas que podría comportar la formación de estas concentraciones para el sistema agroalimentario, y nos centraremos en el caso de Bayer-Monsanto y sus repercusiones en el contexto de la Unión Europea.

The wide-ranging literature on food systems provides multiple perspectives and world views. Various stakeholders define food and food systems in non-equivalent ways. The perception of the performance of food systems is determined by these specific perspectives, and a wide variety of policies responding to different aims are proposed and implemented accordingly. This paper sets out to demonstrate that the pre-analytical adoption of different narratives about the food system leads to non-equivalent assessments of the performance of food supply chains. In order to do so, we (i) identify a set of relevant narratives on food supply chains in Spanish and Catalan contexts; (ii) identify the pertinent attributes needed to describe and represent food supply chains within the different perspectives or narratives; and (iii) carry out an integrated assessment of three organic tomato supply chains from the different perspectives. In doing so, the paper proposes an analysis of narratives to enable the analyst to characterize the performance of food supply chains from different perspectives and to identify the expected trade-offs of integrated assessment, associating them with the legitimate-but-contrasting views found among the social actors involved.