Deviant behaviour on various levels of the food supply chain may cause food risks. It entails irregular technological procedures which cause (increased probabilities of) adverse outcomes for buyers and consumers. Besides technological hazards and hitherto unknown health threats, moral hazard and malpractice in food businesses represent an additional source of risk which can be termed 'behavioural food risk'. From a regulatory perspective, adverse outcomes associated with deviance represent negative externalities that are caused by the breaking of rules designed to prevent them. From a rational choice perspective, the probability of malpractice increases with the benefits for its authors. It decreases with the probability of detection and resulting losses. It also decreases with bonds to social norms that protect producers from yielding to economic temptations. The design of mechanisms that reduce behavioural risks and prevent malpractice requires an understanding of why food businesses obey or do not obey the rules. This project aims to contribute to a better understanding of malpractice on the restaurant/retail level through comparative case studies and statistical analyses of food inspection and survey data. Accounting for the complexity of economic behaviour, we will not only look at economic incentives but consider all relevant behavioural determinants, including social context factors.
Farm structures are often characterized by regional heterogeneity, agglomeration effects, sub-optimal farm sizes and income disparities. The main objective of this study is to analyze whether this is a result of path dependent structural change, what the determinants of path dependence are, and how it may be overcome. The focus is on the German dairy sector which has been highly regulated and subsidized in the past and faces severe structural deficits. The future of this sector in the process of an ongoing liberalization will be analyzed by applying theoretical concepts of path dependence and path breaking. In these regards, key issues are the actual situation, technological and market trends as well as agricultural policies. The methodology will be based on a participative use of the agent-based model AgriPoliS and participatory laboratory experiments. On the one hand, AgriPoliS will be tested as a tool for stakeholder oriented analysis of mechanisms, trends and policy effects. This part aims to analyze whether and how path dependence of structural change can be overcome on a sector level. In a second part, AgriPoliS will be extended such that human players (farmers, students) can take over the role of agents in the model. This part aims to compare human agents with computer agents in order to overcome single farm path dependence.
To overcome the limitation in spatial and temporal resolution of methane oceanic measurements, sensors are needed that can autonomously detect CH4-concentrations over longer periods of time. The proposed project is aimed at:- Designing molecular receptors for methane recognition (cryptophane-A and -111) and synthesizing new compounds allowing their introduction in polymeric structure (Task 1; LC, France); - Adapting, calibrating and validating the 2 available optical technologies, one of which serves as the reference sensor, for the in-situ detection and measurements of CH4 in the marine environments (Task 2 and 3; GET, LAAS-OSE, IOW) Boulart et al. (2008) showed that a polymeric filmchanges its bulk refractive index when methane docks on to cryptophane-A supra-molecules that are mixed in to the polymeric film. It is the occurrence of methane in solution, which changes either the refractive index measured with high resolution Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR; Chinowsky et al., 2003; Boulart et al, 2012b) or the transmitted power measured with differential fiber-optic refractometer (Boulart et al., 2012a; Aouba et al., 2012).- Using the developed sensors for the study of the CH4 cycle in relevant oceanic environment (the GODESS station in the Baltic Sea, Task 4 and 5; IOW, GET); GODESS registers a number of parameters with high temporal and vertical resolution by conducting up to 200 vertical profiles over 3 months deployment with a profiling platform hosting the sensor suite. - Quantifying methane fluxes to the atmosphere (Task 6); clearly, the current project, which aims at developing in-situ aqueous gas sensors, provides the technological tool to achieve the implementation of ocean observatories for CH4. The aim is to bring the fiber-optic methane sensor on the TRL (Technology Readiness Level) from their current Level 3 (Analytical and laboratory studies to validate analytical predictions) - to the Levels 5 and 6 (Component and/or basic sub-system technology validation in relevant sensing environments) and compare it to the SPR methane sensor, taken as the reference sensor (current TRL 5). This would lead to potential patent applications before further tests and commercialization. This will be achieved by the ensemble competences and contributions from the proposed consortium in this project.
Dairy farming across Germany displays diverse production systems. Factor endowment, management, technology adoption as well as competitive dynamics in the local or regional land, agribusiness and dairy processing sectors contribute to this differentiation on farm level. These differences impact on the ability of dairy farms and regional dairy production systems to successfully respond to pressures arising from future market and policy changes. The overall objective of the research activities of which this project is a part of, is to develop a thorough understanding of the processes that govern the spatial dynamics of dairy farm development in different regions in Germany. The central hypothesis of this research project is that management system and technological choices differ systematically across local production and market conditions. The empirical approach will focus on the estimation of farm specific nonparametric cost functions for dairy farms located in across Germany differentiated by time and location. A spatially differentiated data base with information on input use, resource availability, as well as local market conditions for land and output markets will be compiled. The nonparametric approach is specifically suited to disclose a more accurate representation of dairy production system heterogeneity across locations and time compared to parametric concepts as it provides the necessary flexibility to accommodate non-linearities relevant for a wide domain of explanatory variables. The methodology employed goes beyond the state of the art of the literature as it combines kernel density estimation with a Bayesian sampling approach to provide theory consistent parameters for each farm in the data sample.The specific methodological hypothesis is that the nonparametric approach is superior to current parametric techniques and this hypothesis is tested using statistical model evaluation. Regarding the farm management and technological choices, we hypothesize that land suitability for feed production determines the farm intensity of dairy production and thus management and technological choices. With respect to the ability of farms to successfully respond to market pressures we hypothesize that farms at the upper and lower tail of the intensity distribution both can generate positive returns from dairy production. These last two hypotheses will be tested using the estimated spatially differentiated farm specific costs and marginal costs.The expected outcomes are of relevance for the agricultural sector and the food supply chain economy as a whole as fundamental market structure changes in the dairy sector are ongoing due to the abolition of the quota regulation in the years 2014/2015. Thus, exact knowledge about differences and development of dairy cost heterogeneity of farms within and between regions are an important factor for the actors involved in the market as well as the political support of this process.
Phosphorus (P) is one essential element for plant, which can neither be produced synthetically nor substituted by any other element. In organic farming, long term P management is one of the most important management challenges, as high soluble P fertilizers derived from fossil sources are not allowed and their use does not meet the basic ideas of closing nutrient cycles by effective management measures. Organic farming systems rely on the efficient use and recycling of available resources. Currently, some mineral nutrients like phosphorus (P) are used only once to produce food. Subsequently, they are lost due to poor recycling of organic wastes back to farmland. There is an urgent need to improve the recycling of P from urban areas and the food industry, back to cropland. However, the traditional application of some of these waste products in agriculture is facing increasing concerns about pollutants (heavy metal, xenobiotics) and protection of soils and environment. There are many technological alternatives to recycle and clean the phosphorus already available, affecting P bio-availability and pollutants content. The different options will be evaluated from an agronomical and ecological point of view in the frame of this project.
The current project proposal discloses a novel biorefinery process for a sustainable, waste free, low energy conversion route of negative value marine waste streams into high value, high performance chemical intermediates and products for the polymer industry. The project has a strong emphasis on technology development and transfer to low-tech and developing countries in the EU and associated ICPC and therefore will significantly contribute to the technological and economic leadership of the EU. The technologies disclosed in this project will foster the natural growth of sustainable economies in the EU and beyond by eliminating the need for fossil resources to preserve and exceed the current standard of living. The innovative technologies developed in this project will apply novel concepts for the production of bio-based platform chemicals that act as 'drop-ins' for existing and novel polymer production processes with high atom efficiencies. The unique assembly of the current consortium consisting of academics, SME's and large scale chemical industry partners, clearly has the scientific and technical expertise to rapidly transform laboratory based results into novel product lines at an accelerated time frame. As a part of the strategy the consortium has included Demonstration Activities as require by the FP7-KBBE-Call.
Objective: This collaborative research project will last 36 months and involve 10 partners. Its general aim is to contribute to the EU Renewed Sustainable Development Strategy through the enhancement of the links between policy and research on sustainable development in the field of sanitation (a crucial area with regard to environmental sustainability and quality of life in general). The project has two specific aims. - Generating new knowledge on the factors hindering the dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge that can be immediately applied in support to sustainable development, and of identifying knowledge brokerage methods enabling to overcome these hindering factors and to maximise the exploitation of relevant knowledge. - Starting up a learning process on knowledge brokerage in general as a tool for the socialisation of Scientific and Technological Research. The project components, to be implemented in the partner countries, are: - Research. Activities will carried out for mapping the knowledge and technological options for environmentally sustainable sanitation (ESS), and the actors that possess this knowledge. This, together with a consultation of experts aimed at listing the obstacles to knowledge brokerage dissemination, will provide the basis for experimentations. - Experimentation. Knowledge brokerage experiments on ESS will be carried out in the Netherlands, Italy and Bulgaria via 3 pilot projects. - Learning. The results achieved will serve to start up a process aimed at drafting policy guidelines (including a position paper) on knowledge brokerage on ESS. - Dissemination. Dissemination and awareness-raising initiatives will be carried out on the project issues and results. 9 WPs are foreseen. WP1 and 2 for the first part of the research; WP3-6 will be devoted to the design and implementation of 3 pilot projects, WP7 will be devoted to learning process; WP8 will deal with dissemination and WP9 with project management.
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