Economic and agronomic feasibility of organic vegetable seed production in the UK, and subsequent seed quality (OF0166)

This is the final report of Defra project OF0166. There is a longer summary at the start of the attached main report. For many farmers and growers, a move to organic production presents major challenges. Among these, the issues regarding the use of organic seeds could yet be a stumbling block, as growers and the seed trade have reservations about using and producing them for four major reasons: 1) The availability of a wide range of organic varieties appropriate to all year round crop scheduling, and differing production techniques and markets 2) The impact of derogation on managing the supply and demand for organic seed 3) The technical issues of organic seed production 4) Maintaining high standards of seed quality, hygiene and vigour. Three biennial vegetable crops: parsnips, winter cauliflower, and bulb onions and a small range of annual crops including lettuces, runner beans, spinach, broccoli were grown for seed production. All the crops were grown under a Spanish “Haygrove” tunnel. These relatively cheap structures allow good ventilation whilst offering protection against wet weather. All the crops were grown following organic protocols. Seed yields were recorded, and comparisons with disease contamination, germination and vigour were made against seed of the same variety produced conventionally by the collaborating seed company. Yields were unpredictable for some crops in the early stages of the project, but this problem was overcome as techniques were better understood and more experience gained. Seed quality was generally very good for most crops, and few problems were encountered with seed borne diseases for most crops. High levels of seed surface contamination with saprophytic fungi (Penicillium and Cladosporium) may have masked the presence of other fungi. Where equivalent comparisons with conventional seedlots could be tested for disease and vigour differences were small. However, major problems were encountered with bulb onion seed production as neck rot resulted in loss of stock material (around 50% of bulbs were lost). Hot water treatments were used in this project and were found to be successful against a range of pathogens on infected onion seed. More research into organic seed treating is advocated. The project has shown that on a small scale at least, good quality organic seed can be produced under relatively inexpensive polythene tunnels. The yields attained can be as good as those from conventional production, but there are without doubt greater risks involved. It is suggested that should diseases or pests become rampant then their control will be difficult. This project has shown that crops like onions are extremely difficult to produce, and that neck rot in particular will be a problem for the seed producer and grower. The use of tunnels is strongly supported; they can keep crops dry at harvest, they do not necessarily encourage disease build up and natural predator populations can be built up in and around them. It can be summed up that 1) Organic seed production was found to feasible, but higher risk than conventional production 2) Seed quality differences were small 3) Costs in terms of management input were high 4) Neck rot ( Botrytis allii) on bulb onions was, and is likely to remain, a persistent problem 5) Hot water treatment was found to be satisfactory for the small volumes of seed treated. Urgent attention is needed to identify other more consistent methods than this which will satisfy Organic protocols

Optimal Permutation Routing for Low-dimensional Hypercubes

We consider the offline problem of routing a permutation of tokens on the nodes of a d-dimensional hypercube, under a queueless MIMD communication model (under the constraints that each hypercube edge may only communicate one token per communication step, and each node may only be occupied by a single token between communication steps). For a d-dimensional hypercube, it is easy to see that d communication steps are necessary. We develop a theory of “separability ” which enables an analytical proof that d steps suffice for the case d = 3, and facilitates an experimental verification that d steps suffice for d = 4. This result improves the upper bound for the number of communication steps required to route an arbitrary permutation on arbitrarily large hypercubes to 2d − 4. We also find an interesting side-result, that the number of possible communication steps in a d-dimensional hypercube is the same as the number of perfect matchings in a (d + 1)-dimensional hypercube, a combinatorial quantity for which there is no closed-form expression. Finally we present some experimental observations which may lead to a proof of a more general result for arbitrarily large dimension d. 2

Ground-dwelling beetles as bioindicators in transgenic corn

Ecological risk assessment for transgenic crops requires identification of appropriate biological indicator organisms for use in laboratory and field biomonitoring studies. Ground-dwelling predatory beetles in the families Carabidae and Staphylinidae comprise a diverse and abundant group of nontarget organisms in field corn systems where rootworm-resistant transgenic varieties are deployed. First, the utility of two sampling methods (pitfall trapping and suction-based litter extraction) was assessed for estimating ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) population parameters in Maryland cornfields. Sampling bias was established for pitfall trapping, confirming the limitations of this semi-quantitative method for capturing a representative portion of the epigeal community. Litter extraction data conformed to predictions for abundance in relation to trophic identity, body size and biomass. Litter extraction identified smaller bodied carabid omnivores and carnivores as numerically dominant over larger bodied species that have received focus in risk assessment studies. A small-bodied carabid, Elaphropus xanthopus (Dejean), was identified as the dominant carnivore, and therefore selected for nontarget exposure and toxicity studies. Second, in choice and no-choice experiments, corn pollen was identified as a realistic, direct exposure pathway to transgenic proteins for E. xanthopus. Third, organism-level exposure to Cry34Ab1 rootworm-resistant protein was demonstrated for E. xanthopus in the laboratory and field during corn pollen shed. Field studies also revealed contamination across transgenic and non-transgenic test plots, indicating experimental design must account for the movement of study organisms and/or transgenic plant tissues. Finally, a toxicity study examined the effects of dietary exposure to rootworm-resistant Cry34/35Ab1 corn pollen for two beetle species, a carabid, E. xanthopus, and a staphylinid, Strigota ambigua (Erichson). Transgenic pollen exposure did not affect longevity or sub-lethal behaviors for either species. Small-bodied, predatory ground beetles are recommended as candidate bioindicator organisms in risk assessment studies designed to optimize field monitoring, exposure detection, and bioassay for transgenic pesticides

Effect of curing conditions and harvesting stage of maturity on Ethiopian onion bulb drying properties

The study was conducted to investigate the impact of curing conditions and harvesting stageson the drying quality of onion bulbs. The onion bulbs (Bombay Red cultivar) were harvested at three harvesting stages (early, optimum, and late maturity) and cured at three different temperatures (30, 40 and 50 oC) and relative humidity (30, 50 and 70%). The results revealed that curing temperature, RH, and maturity stage had significant effects on all measuredattributesexcept total soluble solids

Maridaje de alimentos y bebidas desde una perspectiva sensorial y cultural

Esta tesis se enfoca en el estudio de las percepciones del maridaje de alimentos y bebidas con el objetivo de incrementar nuestro entendimiento de los fenómenos culturales y sensoriales que subyacen al acto de maridar. Durante los últimos años, el maridaje de alimentos ha recibido gran atención entre científicos, chefs y gastrónomos que intentan encontrar combinaciones exitosas e identificar un patrón de cómo los consumidores combinan los alimentos. En consecuencia, el maridaje de alimentos y bebidas ha sido estudiado en diversas disciplinas, como gastronomía, ciencia sensorial, ciencia del consumidor e historia. La mayor parte de la literatura disponible indica que además de las características intrínsecas de los productos alimenticios (como la química y física de los alimentos), otros factores influyen en la forma en la que los consumidores combinan los alimentos, siendo la cultura uno de esos factores. A pesar de la popularidad del maridaje de alimentos, existe una falta de metodologías adecuadas para su investigación en los campos de la ciencia sensorial y del consumidor. Por lo tanto, el principal alcance de esta tesis es el uso de métodos no tradicionales e innovadores que permitan el estudio del maridaje de alimentos y bebidas a través de los ojos de los consumidores en diferentes culturas. En específico, las redes sociales y el mapeo proyectivo fueron explorados como alternativas a los métodos tradicionales. Los resultados mostraron que las redes sociales pueden ser una metodología adecuada para estudiar la relación entre alimentos y bebidas en diferentes países. Se debe prestar atención especial a las plataformas basadas en imágenes, las cuales podrían proporcionar información más detallada sobre el maridaje de alimentos y bebidas. Por otro lado, el mapeo proyectivo proporcionó evidencia de ser una herramienta valiosa al analizar las distancias entre productos y, por lo tanto, explorar la forma en que los consumidores maridan alimentos y bebidas. Asimismo, el mapeo proyectivo permitió explorar las similitudes y diferencias entre los participantes de diferentes culturas. En general, los resultados de esta tesis mostraron que las metodologías no tradicionales pueden ser utilizadas para comprender las combinaciones de alimentos y bebidas, así como explorar la influencia de la cultura en las percepciones de los consumidores hacia el maridaje de alimentos y bebidas.This thesis focuses on the study of food and beverage pairing perception, with the objective of increasing our understanding of the cultural and sensory phenomena underlying the act of pairing. Over the last few years, food pairing has received increasing attention among scientists, chefs, and gastronomists who want to find successful food combinations and identify a pattern of how consumers pair certain foods. In consequence, food and beverage pairing has been studied by diverse disciplines like gastronomy, sensory science, consumer research, and history. Most of the available research has stated that, besides the intrinsic characteristics of products, such as their chemical and physical properties, several factors influence the way consumers pair food, with culture being a key factor. Despite the popularity of food pairing, there is still a lack of agreement about which methods are more appropriate for its research in sensory and consumer science fields. Therefore, the main scope of this thesis is the use of non-traditional and innovative methods that enable the study of food and beverage pairing through the eyes of consumers in different cultures. Social media investigation and projective mapping with consumers were explored as alternatives to traditional methods. In addition, the influence of culture on the perception of food and beverage pairing was investigated. Results showed that social media could be a suitable methodology to research the relationship between foods and beer pairing across countries. In particular, image-based platforms could provide detailed information regarding food-beverage pairing and its context of consumption. In the case of projective mapping, the method proved to be a valuable tool for exploring consumers’ food-beverage pairing and made it easy to understand the similarities and differences across participants from different cultures. To sum up, the results of this thesis showed that non-traditional methodologies could be used to better understand consumers perception regarding food and beverage pairings, as well as to explore the influence of culture

Peasant Subsistence in Northwestern Haiti: Geography, Cultural Ecology, and Rural Development.

Geographers are challenged to explain the why of where. This study grapples with whys of peasant subsistence in contemporary rural Haiti. Cultural ecology, one of the fundamental themes in cultural geography, examines the interplay between cultural traditions and the realities of subsistence in a given physical environment. Haitian cultural traditions derive from a rich melange of folkways from West Africa, Indian Middle America, and Western Europe. The land is semiarid and hilly in Northwestern Haiti, the poorest, driest, and most sparsely settled of Haiti\u27s provinces. Crops and livestock betray traditional preferences in foodways, and reveal much about the constraints of the land. This study examines crops such as the roots and tubers that come from various culture realms but that particularly emphasize Haiti\u27s African heritage. The predominant species of livestock, goats, chickens and hogs, fill roles required of them by both human society--place in voodoo ritual, ease of marketing--and by constraints of the land--the need to forage and browse in wasteland scrub. While cultural geographers generally focus their attention on material manifestations of culture on the landscape, non-material culture traits are influential upon the local genre de vie, or way of life. Religion and belief systems are commonly accepted subjects of geographical inquiry, yet this study gives more attention to a parallel cultural construct, local political traditions and how they interrelate with and influence rural subsistence strategies. Among the rural folklife elements with strongest political implications are land tenure customs, coffee marketing mechanisms, maize storage methods, and the rationale behind the selection of root crops. These factors are compounded with the troubles of three of Haiti\u27s most important agricultural industries--coffee, sugar cane, and swine. This paper calls attention to the convergence of these impacts upon the Haitian peasant. The ensemble of demands of rural subsistence is summarized with the basic needs approach to development. Groundwork is laid for an alternative rural development plan based on economic resources now relatively underexploited. Citrus cultivation is reexamined in the context of international markets. Renewable energy resources are reevaluated in light of changing technology