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Ruokavaliolla on keskeinen merkitys terveyden edistämisessä ja ilmastonmuutoksen hillinnässä. Ruokavaliomuutoksilla on useita seurannaisvaikutuksia ruokaturvaan, joka sisältää myös hyvän ravitsemuksen. Oikeudenmukaisuuden kannalta olennainen kysymys on, säilyykö ruokamurroksessa kaikilla ihmisillä mahdollisuus hyvään ravitsemukseen ja missä määrin murrosta tulee tukea eri ohjauskeinoilla tai edistämällä väestön ruokailukäytäntöihin ja ravitsemukseen liittyviä kyvykkyyksiä. Elintarvike-valinnoilla vaikutetaan samaan aikaan niin päästövähennyksiin, ravintoaineiden saantiin, ravintoaineiden hyväksikäytettävyyteen kuin ruokavalioperäiseen haitta-aine-altistukseen. Jo ruokavalion muuttaminen ravitsemussuositusten mukaiseksi tekisi sen selvästi ilmastoystävällisemmäksi. Jos lihaa ja maitovalmisteita korvataan ruoka-suositusten mukaisesti muilla elintarvikkeilla, ruokavalion ravitsemuksellinen kokonais-laatu paranee kaikissa väestöryhmissä ja kasvihuonekaasupäästöt vähenevät mutta haitta-ainealtistus voi kasvaa riippuen elintarvikevalinnoista. Tiettyjen ravintoaineiden saannin riittävyys vaatii edelleen tilannekohtaista arviointia ja seurantaa. Non

In the context of climate change, diet is a key driver of environmental impacts. Previous research has emphasized the environmental benefit of increasing consumption of fishery and aquaculture products (FAPs) in Europe. However, increasing the proportion of FAPs in consumer diets could also lead to a transfer of environmental damage from earth to sea. It is thus important to evaluate the environmental impacts of FAPs on marine ecosystems globally. For that purpose, an original database characterizing the origin of FAPs consumed in France has been constructed, and matched to indicators of environmental impact. Use of the database revealed that the FAPs in the French diets (1.7 Mt live weight) had a corresponding primary production required (PPR) worth 1252 Mt, with an impact per ton of product live weight worth 2622 kg CO2 eq. for climate change, 18 kg PO(4)(3)(-)eq. for eutrophication, and 26,604 MJ for energy use. Some heterogeneity across species was found, implying that the species composition of the FAPS consumed had a strong influence on environmental footprint. Furthermore, production methods also substantially affect global impact. The results show that, among FAPS consumed in France, trawled crustaceans and farmed shrimps or prawns are the greatest contributors to global warming (27,800 and 13,344 kg CO2 eq. per ton live weight, respectively), despite good performances regarding trophic level based ecosystem indicators (a PPR of 3 and 9 Mt respectively). Shellfish register the smallest footprint both globally and at ecosystem level (545 kg CO2 eq., 1 kg PO43- eq., 10,414 MJ, and a PPR of 5 Mt per ton live weight). Our result suggest that, to avoid a transfer of environmental burden from land to sea, policies aimed at promoting consumption of FAPs in European diets should be refined to take account of differential impacts across species, origin and production methods of those FAPs. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

To classify brackishwater pond farming systems in the Philippines, a farm-level survey in the two main production regions (Central Luzon and Western Visayas) produced input and data for principal components analysis and cluster analysis to generate a typology of farming systems. A solution of five farm types is described in detail and interpreted. The implications for comparative analysis of sustainability impacts are described.

By means of a population-based survey experiment, we analysed the effectiveness of two message characteristics – message framing and the refutation of misinformation – in persuading respondents to reduce their consumption of red meat and increase that of plant-based alternatives. We also tested whether the effects of those two message characteristics were moderated by prior beliefs about the health and climate impacts of red meat consumption. The data were collected with an online survey of the adult population living in Finland (N = 1279). We found that messages had a small but desired effect on intentions when the effect of prior beliefs was taken into account, but that that effect was strongly moderated by prior beliefs. In particular, messages changed behavioural intentions among the “meat-sceptics” (i.e., those believing relatively strongly in the negative health and climate effects of meat consumption) but not among the “meat believers” (defined symmetrically). The combination of frames and refutation of misinformation were not found to be more effective strategies than the provision of information through single-framed, one-sided messages. We found limited evidence that the way a message was formulated determined its effectiveness in changing behaviours.

International audience; Sustainable diets are nutritious, culturally acceptable and have low environmental impact. The aim of this study was to identify sustainable diets among actual self-selected diets based on five national dietary surveys (Finland, France, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom), without ex ante assumptions concerning the food content of diets. Using nutrient intakes and dietary greenhouse gas emissions as active variables, energy-adjusted multiple factor analysis and agglomerative hierarchical clustering were applied to identify clusters of diets. The cluster with the lowest dietary GHGE had the lowest nutritional quality. Another cluster displayed a good compromise between nutritional quality and dietary GHGE (21% lower than the average of observed diets) and was therefore considered as more sustainable than the other clusters. Compared to the rest of the sample, diets in the more sustainable cluster were characterized by a larger quantity of plant-based products and lower quantities of meats, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. The average diet in this cluster contained approximately 1000 g per day (g/d) of plant-based products (including 400 g/d of fruit and vegetables, 100 g/d of juices and 500 g/d of other plants) and 400 g/d of animal-based products (including 100 g/d of meat/fish/eggs of which livestock meat represented 20 g/d, 50 g/d of animal-based composite dishes, 30 g/d of cheese and 220 g/d of other dairy products). We concluded that exclusion of entire food categories (e.g., meat) is not necessary to improve the sustainability of European diets.

We investigate ex-ante the effects of promoting simple climate-friendly diet recommendations in Denmark, Finland and France, with the objective of identifying cost-beneficial recommendations that lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve public health. The simulation approach combines a behavioural model of consumption adjustment to dietary constraints, a model of climate impact based on the life-cycle analysis of foods, and an epidemiological model calculating health outcomes. The five recommendations considered in the analysis focus on consumption of fruits and vegetables, red meat, all meat and all animal products, as well as the greenhouse gas emissions arising from the diet. The results show that trade-offs between climate and health objectives occur for some recommendations in all countries, and that substitutions may result in unintended effects. However, in all countries, we identify some recommendations that would raise sustainability in both its climate and health dimensions, while delivering value for money and increasing social welfare. In particular, promoting consumption of fruits and vegetables through campaigns of the “five-a-day” type is found to be cost-beneficial in all three countries. By contrast, targeting consumption of meat, consumption of all animal products, or the climate footprint of diets directly through social marketing campaigns is only found to be desirable in some country-specific contexts. We investigate ex-ante the effects of promoting simple climate-friendly diet recommendations in Denmark, Finland and France, with the objective of identifying cost-beneficial recommendations that lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve public health. The simulation approach combines a behavioural model of consumption adjustment to dietary constraints, a model of climate impact based on the life-cycle analysis of foods, and an epidemiological model calculating health outcomes. The five recommendations considered in the analysis focus on consumption of fruits and vegetables, red meat, all meat and all animal products, as well as the greenhouse gas emissions arising from the diet. The results show that trade-offs between climate and health objectives occur for some recommendations in all countries, and that substitutions may result in unintended effects. However, in all countries, we identify some recommendations that would raise sustainability in both its climate and health dimensions, while delivering value for money and increasing social welfare. In particular, promoting consumption of fruits and vegetables through campaigns of the “five-a-day” type is found to be cost-beneficial in all three countries. By contrast, targeting consumption of meat, consumption of all animal products, or the climate footprint of diets directly through social marketing campaigns is only found to be desirable in some country-specific contexts.

The last twenty years have witnessed substantial changes in retailing across most of Europe. The concentration of retail buying has increased considerably, and this general evolution has been particularly significant in Finland. For example, the top three supermarkets in Finland currently share 88% of the grocery market. As established by the EU commission, a common consequence of high concentration in retailing is a growing power of supermarkets over their suppliers, which may distort competition with upstream suppliers (food processors, farmers). For instance, retailers may use their power to push costs and risks up the supply chain, with the result that smallholder suppliers may be squeezed out. Downstream, consumers may also be affected through less innovation, a reduction in choice and higher prices in the long-run. However, while high concentration is a necessary condition for the existence of market power, it is not sufficient. It is also well known that growing marketing margins, or the imperfect transmission of prices along the food chain, may or may not be related to market power. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to measure market power directly by using the conceptual framework developed in the New Empirical Industrial Organisation. The paper presents a model suitable for that purpose and compatible with the highly aggregated data available in Finland. The empirical application uses data from Tilastokeskus and considers the three supply chains for cereal products, meat and dairy. The results provide evidence that retailers in Finland have significant market power, particularly in the cereals and meat sectors, and that the related distortions have an economically important impact on prices offered to upstream suppliers and downstream consumers. However, the robustness of the results is limited by the nature of the available data as well as the simplifying assumptions of the model. Further, it is evident that other factors, and above all wages in retail, are also important in explaining growing retail margins in Finland

While the adverse climate and health impacts of the Western diet have been demonstrated, the place of fish/seafood in climate-friendly and healthy diets is unclear. We tackle that question with a model simulating how a rational consumer urged to consume more fish would modify his diet. Those adjustments are translated into health outcomes by an epidemiological model and climate outcomes using life-cycle analysis coefficients. The application to France and Finland compares the impacts of promoting fish consumption to those of urging consumers to decrease their consumption of meat. For the same relative change, raising fish consumption generates more health benefits than decreasing meat consumption, and produces climate benefits as well. Promoting fish consumption is also highly cost-effective and should be prioritized over measures targeting meat consumption. Rather than stigmatizing meat consumers, climate-friendly and healthy diet recommendations may more effectively send a positive message urging citizens to consume more fish.

The dairy sector represents the cornerstone of Finnish agriculture but faces new challenges linked to the decoupling of farm subsidies and abolition of milk production quotas. Because of its increasing exposure to market forces, the sector must anticipate future changes in demand and deliver precisely what Finnish consumers want. This paper contributes to that goal by analyzing retroactively the drivers of demand for dairy products over the period 1975–2010 using National Accounts Data. After presenting the evolution of consumption for dairy products, we estimate a complete system of demand for food and dairy products and use it to decompose demand growth into a substitution effect, income effect, and trend effect. The analysis points to the severity of the challenges that the sector is facing. Stagnant consumption is at least partially the result of continuous but adverse taste changes, and as Finnish consumers grow more prosperous, they allocate an increasingly smaller share of their food budget...

Deliverables WP4 - Product and consumer trends

Convenience, taste, and prices are the main determinants of food choices. Complying with dietary recommendations therefore imposes a “taste cost” on consumers, potentially hindering adoption of those recommendations. The study presents and applies a new methodology, based on economic theory, to quantify this taste cost and assess the health and welfare effects of different dietary recommendations. Then, by comparison of those effects, we identify socially desirable recommendations that are most compatible with consumer preferences (i.e., that best balance health benefits against”taste cost”) and should be prioritized for promotion. The methodology proceeds in three-steps: first, an economic-behavioral model simulates how whole diets would change if consumers complied with dietary recommendations; second, an epidemiological model estimates the number of deaths avoided (DA) due to the dietary change; third, an efficiency analysis weighs the health benefits against the taste and policy costs of each recommendation. The empirical model is calibrated using French data.We find that recommendations to reduce consumption of red meat and soft-drinks, or raise consumption of milk products and fish/seafood impose relatively moderate taste costs. By comparison, recommendations related to F&V consumption and, to a lesser extent, butter/cream/cheese, snacks, and all meats impose larger taste costs on consumers. The F&V recommendation is the costliest for consumers to comply with, but it also reduces diet-related mortality the most, so that a large budget could be allocated to promoting F&V consumption while keeping this policy cost-beneficial. We conclude that promotion of most dietary recommendations improves social welfare. Our framework complements the programming models available in nutrition and public health: those models are best used to identify dietary targets, following which our framework identifies costbeneficial ways of moving towards those targets.

Maailmantalouden nykyinen taantuma on nostanut kilpailukyvyn käsitteen keskustelujen fokukseen koko taloudessa. Joka maan ja joka sektorin tavoitteena on kilpailukyvyn nostaminen. Näin on myös elintarvikeketjun sisällä. Euroopassa elintarvikealan kilpailukyky ja sen mittaaminen keskittyi monesti yksittäiseen toimialaan tai muutaman maan vertailuun ja tutkimuksia harvoin päästiin hyödyntämään konkreettisten toimialojen yritysten kesken. Yksi näitä tutkimuksen ja elinkeinon välisiä harvoja ja ainutlaatuisia yhteistyömuotoja edustaa IFAMA (International Food and Agrobusiness Management Association), joka itse on ollut toiminnassa vain vähän yli kaksikymmentä vuotta. 2000-luvulla valmistuneet laajat tutkimukset (esim. LEI) herättivät huolta Euroopan elintarvikealan alhaisesta kilpailukyvystä maailman muihin alueisiin nähden. Elintarviketeollisuuden toimialayhdistykset ryhtyivät kilpailukykynsä säännöllisempään syyniin, kuten viime vuosien CIAA:n (Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of Europe) vuosittaiset kilpailukykyraportit osoittavat. Kilpailukyky-käsitteen merkitystä on viime vuosina ymmärretty yhä enemmän myös Suomen elintarvikeketjussa. Kilpailukykyinen elintarvikeala menestyy paitsi kotikentällään niin myös vientimarkkinoilla. Mutta mitä kilpailukyky on ja mistä se koostuu? Kilpailukyky on moniulotteinen ja vaikea käsite ja yhtä vaikea on sen mittaaminen. MTT Taloustutkimuksessa on koottu kirjallisuuden pohjalta 15 tunnuslukua käsittävä mittaristo, jota testataan Suomen ja naapurimaiden liha- ja maitoketjujen vertailuun. Mittaristolla pyritään valottamaan kilpailukyvyn viisi ulottuvuutta: tuottavuutta, ulkomaankaupan ja taloudellisen toiminnan suorituskykyä, kasvua ja innovaatiota. Mittariston toimivuutta, käytännön esimerkkejä sekä aineistoa ja sen mahdollisten puutteiden tuomia haasteita esitetään Itämeren maiden liha- ja maitosektoreiden lukuja käyttäen.

Anticipating the impact of changes in economic incentives on dietary quality and nutritional health requires knowledge of how physical quantities of food consumed respond to price and income variations. A problem arises, however, because physical quantities are: (1) not consistent aggregates in demand models; and (2) not measured at final/retail level in national statistics. The article develops a solution by establishing explicitly the theoretical link between composite demand and physical quantities, from which a novel empirical approach to the estimation of nutrient elasticities is derived. It is applied to Finnish aggregate data from the National Accounts and Food Balance Sheets over the 1975–2006 period, and the results are used to assess the potential effectiveness of several incentive-based nutritional policy instruments. JEL classifications: I10, Q11, Q18

What role does the growth in aquaculture play in poverty reduction? In theory, aquaculture development could affect the poor either positively or negatively, so the article reviews the available empirical literature. There is almost no evidence of aquaculture reducing poverty directly, but the literature presents numerous examples of how the development of aquaculture can influence poverty-related outcomes. The article concludes that the answer to the question stated in its title is highly context-specific, so rigorous social impact assessment of major projects in the sector will continue to be necessary. Further, if the objective of aquaculture development is to reduce poverty, more emphasis should be placed on the labour-intensity of new technologies, and less on their yield increasing properties. Finally, more research is needed to improve our understanding of the main barriers to adoption of aquaculture by the poor, and the effect of that adoption on the welfare of the poor.

This article investigates the usefulness of cost–benefit analysis for the assessment of food safety policies, drawing on the experience of professional economists at the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA). After reviewing the history of Impact Assessment at the FSA, the example of the review of the over-thirty-months (OTM) rule is used to illustrate the advantages of the approach. We also highlight issues of uncertainty and intangibility, which create particular difficulties in applying cost–benefit analysis in the area of food safety. The paper concludes, however, that given the limited number of practical alternatives, cost–benefit analysis currently represents the best available approach to the assessment of food safety policies.

The member countries of the World Health Organization have endorsed its Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health. We assess the potential consumption impacts of these norms in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence would involve large reductions in the consumption of fats and oils accompanying large rises in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and cereal. Further, in the United Kingdom and the United States, but not France, sugar intakes would have to shrink considerably. Focusing on sub-populations within each country, we find that the least educated, not necessarily the poorest, would have to bear the highest burden of adjustment. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.

Recent literature is sceptical about the ability of aquaculture development to enhance equity and reduce poverty. This article investigates the issue empirically by surveying 148 households randomly selected in five coastal communities of the Philippines. There is overwhelming evidence that aquaculture benefits the poor in important ways and that it is perceived very positively by poor and non-poor alike. In particular, the poor derive a relatively larger share of their income from it than the rich, and a lowering of the poverty line only reinforces this result. A Gini decomposition exercise also shows unambiguously that aquaculture represents an inequality-reducing source of income, providing employment to a large number of unskilled workers in communities characterised by large labour surpluses.

Aquaculture in the Philippines is long-established but has witnessed rapid technical change in the last 20 years with the introduction of hatchery technology and commercial feed mills changing the production possibilities for a fishpond operator. To understand the sector, a typology of brackish-water pond farming systems is constructed using multivariate methods (principal components analysis, cluster analysis). Eight input variables across all major factors of production are used in the analysis, gathered from a net sample of 136 farms in two regions in 2003. Three latent variables are described, accounting for 58% of variance in the original data: specialization; land vs. labor intensity; and feeding intensity. Five clusters (farm types) are subsequently described: extensive polyculture (40% of sample); semi-intensive prawn-oriented polyculture (11%); low-input labor-intensive farms (27%); very large, extensive milkfish-oriented farms (8%); and semi-intensive milkfish monoculture farms (14%). Implicatio...

ObjectiveTo investigate the sociodemographic determinants of diet quality of the elderly in four EU countries.DesignCross-sectional study. For each country, a regression was performed of a multidimensional index of dietary qualityv. sociodemographic variables.SettingIn Finland, Finnish Household Budget Survey (1998 and 2006); in Sweden, SNAC-K (2001–2004); in the UK, Expenditure & Food Survey (2006–07); in Italy, Multi-purpose Survey of Daily Life (2009).SubjectsOne- and two-person households of over-50s (Finland,n2994; UK,n4749); over-50 s living alone or in two-person households (Italy,n7564); over-60 s (Sweden,n2023).ResultsDiet quality among the EU elderly is both low on average and heterogeneous across individuals. The regression models explained a small but significant part of the observed heterogeneity in diet quality. Resource availability was associated with diet quality either negatively (Finland and UK) or in a non-linear or non-statistically significant manner (Italy and Sweden), as was the preference for food parameter. Education, not living alone and female gender were characteristics positively associated with diet quality with consistency across the four countries, unlike socio-professional status, age and seasonality. Regional differences within countries persisted even after controlling for the other sociodemographic variables.ConclusionsPoor dietary choices among the EU elderly were not caused by insufficient resources and informational measures could be successful in promoting healthy eating for healthy ageing. On the other hand, food habits appeared largely set in the latter part of life, with age and retirement having little influence on the healthiness of dietary choices.

Cet article a fait l'objet d'un WP, voir lien; International audience; The paper develops a framework combining a model of rational behaviour under dietary constraints, an epidemiological model of diet-related mortality, and a life-cycle-analysis model of environmental impact, which permits the ex-ante assessment of dietary recommendations in multiple sustainability dimensions (i.e., taste cost, welfare effect, deaths avoided, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and acidification). It is applied to compare in a French context the relative effects and efficiency of six popular sustainable diet recommendations. The results confirm the synergies between the health and environmental dimensions: healthy-eating recommendations usually have a positive effect on the environment, although some exceptions exist. Most of the sustainable diet recommendations appear highly cost-effective, but those most commonly promoted on health grounds (e.g., targeting consumption of salt, fruits and vegetables and saturated fat) rank highest in terms of overall efficiency. Moreover, the valuation of benefits indicates that in most cases health benefits are significantly larger than environmental benefits. Overall, the analysis reveals some under-investment in the promotion of sustainable diet recommendations in France. The general lack of enthusiasm in policy circles for informational measures promoting behavioural change may reflect unrealistic expectations about the speed and magnitude of dietary change rather than an objective assessment of the efficiency of those measures.

We seek to address formally the question raised by Gardner (2003) in his Elmhirst lecture as to the direction of causality between agricultural value added per worker and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Using the Granger causality test in the panel data analyzed by Gardner for 85 countries, we find overwhelming evidence that supports the conclusion that agricultural value added is the causal variable in developing countries, while the direction of causality in developed countries is unclear. We also examine further the use of the Granger causality test in integrated data and provide evidence that the performance of the test can be increased in small samples through the use of the bootstrap.

A two-sector Ramsey-type model of growth is developed to investigate the relationship between agricultural productivity and economy-wide growth. The framework takes into account the peculiarities of agriculture both in production ( reliance on a fixed natural resource base) and in consumption (life-sustaining role and low income elasticity of food demand). The transitional dynamics of the model establish that when preferences respect Engel's law, the level and growth rate of agricultural productivity influence the speed of capital accumulation. A calibration exercise shows that a small difference in agricultural productivity has drastic implications for the rate and pattern of growth of the economy. Hence, low agricultural productivity can form a bottleneck limiting growth, because high food prices result in a low saving rate.

Productivity growth is conventionally measured by indices representing discreet approximations of the Divisia TEP index under the assumption that technological change is Hicks-neutral. When this assumption is violated, these indices are no longer meaningful because they conflate the effects of factor accumulation and technological change. We propose a way of adjusting the conventional TFP index that solves this problem. The method adopts a latent variable approach to the measurement of technical change biases that provides a simple means of correcting product and factor shares in the standard Tornqvist-Theil TFP index. An application to UK agriculture over the period 1953–2000 demonstrates that technical progress is strongly biased. The implications of that bias for productivity measurement are shown to be very large, with the conventional TFP index severely underestimating productivity growth. The result is explained primarily by the fact that technological change has favoured the rapidly accumulating factors against labour, the factor leaving the sector.

We evaluate the profitability and technical efficiency of aquaculture in the Philippines. Farm‐level data are used to compare two production systems corresponding to the intensive monoculture of tilapia in freshwater ponds and the extensive polyculture of shrimps and fish in brackish water ponds. Both activities are very lucrative, with brackish water aquaculture achieving the higher level of profit per farm. Stochastic frontier production functions reveal that technical efficiency is low in brackish water aquaculture, with a mean of 53%, explained primarily by the operator's experience and by the frequency of his visits to the farm. In freshwater aquaculture, the farms achieve a mean efficiency level of 83%. The results suggest that the provision of extension services to brackish water fish farms might be a cost‐effective way of increasing production and productivity in that sector. By contrast, technological change will have to be the driving force of future productivity growth in freshwater aq...

The effect of consumers’ compliance with nutritional recommendations is uncertain because of potentially complex substitutions. To lift this uncertainty, we adapt a model of consumer behaviour under rationing to the case of linear nutritional constraints. Dietary adjustments are thus derived from information on consumer preferences, consumption levels, and nutritional contents of foods. A calibration exercise simulates, for different income groups, how the French diet would respond to various nutrition recommendations, and those behavioural adjustments are translated into health outcomes through the DIETRON epidemiological model. This allows for the ex-ante comparison of the efficiency, equity and health effects of ten nutritional recommendations. Although most recommendations impose significant taste costs on consumers, they are highly cost-effective, with the recommendations targeting salt, saturated fat, and fruits and vegetables (F&V) ranking highest in terms of efficiency. A five percent change in consumption of any of those nutrients or food would reduce premature mortality in excess of 2100 lives annually. By contrast, urging consumers to modify their consumption of fibers, sugar-fat products and dietary cholesterol is unlikely to be socially desirable, often due to large unintended adjustments in some dimensions of dietary quality. Most recommendations are economically progressive, with the exception of that targeting F&V.

This paper develops a two-sector growth model incorporating the essential distinguishing features of agriculture, including the reliance of production on a natural resource base as well as on industrially produced inputs, the low income elasticity of demand for food and the life-sustaining function of food consumption. In this framework, the ability of an economy to supply an adequate supply of food to a growing population can be related to the existence of a steady state. This property is used to define a simple analytical criterion upon which to assess the long-term food situation of a closed economy. This sustainability condition relates all the dynamic parameters of the economy: rates of technological change in the two sectors, rate of population growth and rate of land degradation. The condition is used to highlight the technological characteristics in agriculture conducive to sustainability and to assess empirically the food situation of a number of countries. Although no global food crisis appears ...

International audience; The development of a chronic, low grade, inflammatory status named "inflammaging" is a major characteristic of ageing, which plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of age-related diseases. Inflammaging is both local and systemic, and a variety of organs and systems contribute inflammatory stimuli that accumulate lifelong. The NU-AGE rationale is that a one year Mediterranean whole diet (considered by UNESCO a heritage of humanity), newly designed to meet the nutritional needs of the elderly, will reduce inflammaging in fully characterized subjects aged 65-79 years of age, and will have systemic beneficial effects on health status (physical and cognitive). Before and after the dietary intervention a comprehensive set of analyses, including omics (transcriptomics, epigenetics, metabolomics and metagenomics) will be performed to identify the underpinning molecular mechanisms. NU-AGE will set up a comprehensive database as a tool for a systems biology approach to inflammaging and nutrition. NU-AGE is highly interdisciplinary, includes leading research centres in Europe on nutrition and ageing, and is complemented by EU multinational food industries and SMEs, interested in the production of functional and enriched/advanced traditional food tailored for the elderly market, and European Federations targeting policy makers and major stakeholders, from consumers to EU Food & Drink Industries.

This paper summarises the simulated effects on Finnish agricultural production and trade of a 20% decrease in Finnish demand for red meat (beef, pork, lamb). According to our results, reduced red meat consumption would be offset by increased consumption of poultry meat, eggs, dairy products and fish, as well as small increases in consumption of fruits and vegetables, peas, nuts, cereal products and sweets. By including the derived demand changes in an agricultural sector model, we show that livestock production in Finland, incentivised by national production-linked payments for milk and bovine animals, would decrease by much less than 20% due to the complex nature of agricultural production and trade. Overall, assuming unchanged consumer preferences and agricultural policy, a 20% reduction in red meat consumption is not likely to lead to a substantial decrease in livestock production or changed land use, or greenhouse gas emissions, from Finnish agriculture.

In this paper, we use the duality theory framework and the concept of virtual or shadow price of a rationed good to analyse producer behaviour under output quota when individual quota rights can be leased or rented for one production cycle. We propose a formal model of tradable quota rights which allows us to determine the lease price of quota and the exchanged quantity at equilibrium. The implications of trading On farmers' decisions (output choice level and traded licences), and on their incomes, are derived formally. The theoretical framework is applied to a sample of French milk producers for the year 1991. We then determine efficiency gains and regional shifts in production that such a market would generate.

This paper implements the profit change decomposition methodology developed by Grifell-Tatjé & Lovell (1999). Profit change over time is first decomposed into a price effect and a quantity effect; the quantity effect is then decomposed into a productivity effect and an activity effect; in turn, the productivity effect is subdivided into a technical efficiency effect and a technical change effect, while the activity effect is divided into a scale effect, resource mix effect and product mix effect. The end result is therefore a measure of six distinct components of profit change. The methodology is used to investigate profit changes for a sample of cereal farms drawn from the Farm Business Survey in England and Wales for the period 1982 to 2000. The results of the analysis show an overall decline in profit levels for the period at the average speed of £4,400 annually, with the major part of this decline attributable to a negative price effect amounting to £7,000 annually on average. However, this was to some degree offset by a positive quantity effect largely driven by the positive contribution of technical change to profit growth, worth £4,000 annually on average. .

The member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) have recently endorsed its Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The strategy emphasizes the need to limit the consumption of saturated fats and trans fatty acids, salt and sugars, and to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables in order to combat the growing burden of non communicable diseases. Adherence to the norms recommended by the WHO would call for major changes in the consumption, production and trade of several key food products and several sectors of the food industry have expectedly raised serious concerns about the potential impact of these norms on their future growth prospects. This paper attempts a broad quantitative assessment of the consumption impacts of these norms in OECD countries using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence to the WHO norms would involve a significant decrease in the consumption of vegetable oils (30%), dairy products (28%), sugar (24%), animal fats (30%) and meat (pig meat, 13.5%, mutton and goat 14.5%) and a significant increase in the human consumption of cereals (31%), fruits (25%) and vegetables (21%). The paper also explains the apparent dilemma that some OECD countries face when simultaneously trying to liberalise agricultural markets and promote healthy diets.

Mikroökonomische Analyse eines Marktes der Erzeugungsrechte in der Landwirtschaft: eine Anwendung auf die Milchquoten in Frankreich, von Xavier Delache, Catherine Goudounèche, Hervé Guyomard, Xavier Irz , Louis-Pascal Mahé. In diesem Artikel wird anhand der Ergebnisse der Dualitätstheorie und des Begriffes des virtuellen oder dualen Preises in Verbindung mit einem rationierten Output das Verhalten des rationierten Produzenten gegenüber dem Erzeugnis in einem System analysiert, in dem die Quoten frei auf einem Markt gehandelt werden können. Wir schlagen einen mikroökonomischen Rahmen zur Analyse des Erzeugerverhaltens in einem System der handelbaren Quoten vor und definieren die Merkmale des Marktes (zum Mieten) der Quoten in einer Gleichgewichtssituation: Quotenpreis, gehandelte Mengen und Schwankungen der Einkommen aus der Milcherzeugung. Angewandt wird das Modell auf eine Stichprobe von französischen Milchbetrieben im Jahre 1991., A Microeconomic Analysis of an Agricultural Production Rights Market: Application to Milk Quotas in France, by Xavier Delache, Catherine Goudounèche, Hervé Guyomard, Xavier Irz and Louis-Pascal Mahé. This article uses the duality theory framework and the virtual or shadow price concept of a rationed good to analyze producer behaviour under output quotas when quota rights can be leased or rented. We develop a microeconomic model of producer behaviour in a marketable quota system and use it to define the (renting) quota market: quota price, traded licences and income effects. The theoretical framework is applied to a sample of French dairy farms for 1991., Analyse micro-économique d'un marché des droits à produire en agriculture : application aux quotas laitiers en France, par Xavier Delache, Catherine Goudounèche, Hervé Guyomard, Xavier Irz et Louis-Pascal Mahé. Dans cet article, nous utilisons les résultats de la théorie de la dualité et le concept de prix virtuel ou dual associé à un netput rationné pour analyser le comportement du producteur rationné sur le produit dans un régime où les quotas peuvent être librement échangés sur un marché. Nous proposons un cadre micro-économique d'analyse du comportement du producteur en régime de quotas échangeables et nous définissons les caractéristiques du marché (de location) des quotas à l'équilibre : prix du quota, quantités échangées et variations des revenus laitières des producteurs. Le modèle est appliqué à un échantillon d'exploitations laitières françaises pour l'année 1991., Análisis microeconómico de un mercadp de los derechos a producir en la agriculture : aplicación a los contingentes de leche en Francia, por Xavier Delache, Catherine Goudounèche, Hervé Guyomard, Xavier Irz , Louis-Pascal Mahé. En este documento utilizamos los resultados de la teoría de la dualidad y el concepto de precio virtual o dual asociado a una producción racionada para analizar el comportamiento del productor racionado sobre el producto en un régimen en el que los contingentes pueden ser intercambiados libremente en un mercado. Proponemos un marco microeconómico de análisis del comportamiento del productor en un régimen de contingentes intercambiables y definimos las características del mercado (de alquiler) de los contingentes en equilibrio : precio del contingente, cantidades intercambiadas y variaciones de los ingresos del sector lechero de los productores. El modelo se aplica a una muestra de explotaciones lecheras francesas para el año 1991., Delache Xavier, Goudounèche Catherine, Guyomard Hervé, Irz Xavier, Mahé Louis-Pascal. Analyse micro-économique d'un marché des droits à produire en agriculture : application aux quotas laitiers en France. In: Économie & prévision, n°117-118, 1995-1-2. Agriculture et environnement, sous la direction de Xavier Delache. pp. 61-75.

The process of economic development brings along a transformation of diets that initially generates benefits in the form of additional calories and reduced undernutrition, but growing prosperity eventually correlates with nutritionally undesirable adjustments and a rise in diet-related chronic diseases. This nutrition transition has also considerable macroeconomic and environmental significance, making the search for underlying causes an important priority for food economists interested in sustainable diets. Most of existing research, however, originates from public health and points to broad distal macroeconomic factors, such as urbanization and globalization, without identifying the precise behavioural and structural causes of the transition. In this context, food economics provides a framework to disentangle the influences of the numerous correlates of economic development (for example, prices, income, state of the labour market, health care, informational environment). The chapter reviews this framework and its few applications, concluding to the need for more research into the factors linked to economic development that drive food choices. Building a deep understanding of the causes of the nutritional transition is a necessary first step to harness the potential of dietary change to contribute to the 'Great Food Transformation' required to make food systems sustainable.

How important is agricultural growth to poverty reduction? This article first sets out the theoretical reasons for expecting agricultural growth to reduce poverty. Several plausible and strong arguments apply - including the creation of jobs on the land, linkages from farming to the rest of the rural economy, and a decline in the real cost of food for the whole economy - but the degree of impact is in all cases qualified by particular circumstances. Hence, the article deploys a cross-country estimation of the links between agricultural yield per unit area and measures of poverty. This produces strong confirmation of the hypothesised linkages. It is unlikely that there are many other development interventions capable of reducing the numbers in poverty so effectively.

To improve the welfare of the rural poor and keep them in the countryside, the government of Botswana has been spending 40% of the value of agricultural GDP on agricultural support services. But can investment make smallholder agriculture prosperous in such adverse conditions? This paper derives an answer by applying a two-output six-input stochastic translog distance function, with inefficiency effects and biased technical change to panel data for the 18 districts and the commercial agricultural sector, from 1979 to 1996. This model demonstrates that herds are the most important input, followed by draft power, land and seeds. Multilateral indices for technical change, technical efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) show that the technology level of the commercial agricultural sector is more than six times that of traditional agriculture and that the gap has been increasing, due to technological regression in traditional agriculture and modest progress in commercial agriculture. Since the levels of efficiency are similar, the same pattern is repeated by the TFP indices. This result highlights the policy dilemma of the trade-off between efficiency and equity objectives.

Over the past 30 years, food chains in Europe have undergone a dramatic transformation resulting from technological, economic and other societal changes. In turn, this evolution has opened multiple new areas of research for food economists, and this review attempts to summarise major developments in the field by focusing on four salient topics : (i) the formation of retail food prices in the context of rising concentration in the food chain ; (ii) the continuous process of differentiation of the goods exchanged on food markets, and concurrent decline in the importance of commodity markets ; (iii) the issue of consumer trust in the safety of the goods supplied by the food chain, following several food scares ; and (iv) the problem of the growing burden of diet-related chronic diseases. After summarising the main methodological and empirical contributions in the analysis of those issues, we conclude by identifying gaps in knowledge and unanswered questions which food economists may want to turn their attention to in the coming years., Irz Xavier, Mazzocchi Mario, Réquillart Vincent, Soler Louis-Georges. Research in Food Economics: past trends and new challenges. In: Revue d’études en Agriculture et Environnement, Vol. 96, N°1, 2015. pp. 187-237.