Food security, risk management and climate change

This report identifies major constraints to the adaptive capacity of food organisations operating in Australia. This report is about food security, climate change and risk management. Australia has enjoyed an unprecedented level of food security for more than half a century, but there are new uncertainties emerging and it would be unrealistic – if not complacent – to assume the same level of food security will persist simply because of recent history. The project collected data from more than 36 case study organisations (both foreign and local) operating in the Australian food-supply chain, and found that for many businesses,  risk management practices require substantial improvement to cope with and exploit the uncertainties that lie ahead. Three risks were identified as major constraints to adaptive capacity of food organisations operating in Australia:  risk management practices; an uncertain regulatory environment – itself a result of gaps in risk management; climate change uncertainty and projections about climate change impacts, also related to risk management

Enterprise Risk Management at Top Agro Inc.

Top Agro (TA - not its real name) is a small crop protection start-up operating in the European Union. In a relatively short period of time TA has been able to secure a reasonable profit margin and build a solid niche in the Italian crop protection market. The driving force in their success is the professional expertise of the two owners, their knowledge of the domestic market, and the highly flexible business model they’ve developed. Chemicals are sourced either in the Far East via a Hong Kong based commercial partner or purchased directly from other European domestic suppliers. TA is responsible for the formulation and packaging of the finished product, which is then distributed in the domestic Italian market. Although TA is now profitable, further sales growth is unlikely. One of the owners is convinced that significant benefits may be obtained by identifying and controlling the key risks that TA is exposed to, in particular by reducing the price risk in their international supply chain. This case has been classroom tested at the senior undergraduate and MBA level with good results. It works well as opening case for an eMBA course on managing price risk, as it provides an opportunity to map the risk “opportunity set†via the ERM challenging students to reason and set intervention priorities by focusing on currency exchange rates and risk management as the most immediate and promising action.supply chain, enterprise risk management, currency risk management, crop protection., Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Productivity Analysis, Risk and Uncertainty,

Editors’ introduction : the new EU enlargement.

this item has no abstract

DEFRA Clothing Action Plan

As part of Defra’s Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) programme, a voluntary clothing industry initiative was co-ordinated by Defra with the aim to improve the environmental and ethical performance of clothing. The Sustainable Clothing Roadmap aims to improve the environmental and social performance of clothing, building on existing initiatives and by co-ordinating action by key clothing supply chain stakeholders. Although organisations in the clothing supply chain have already taken significant steps to reduce adverse environmental and social impacts, further industry-wide co-operation and agreed commitments will enable that process to accelerate. That is the rationale behind the collaborative nature of the roadmap. The DEFRA initiative is now a WRAP (Waste Resources Action Plan) initiative. Centre for Sustainable Fashion participate on the WRAP steering group and the sub groups on design and recycling. Dilys Williams advised this report's lead author

Reports Of Conferences, Institutes, And Seminars

This quarter\u27s column offers coverage of multiple sessions from the 2016 Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) Conference, held April 3–6, 2016, in Austin, Texas. Topics in serials acquisitions dominate the column, including reports on altmetrics, cost per use, demand-driven acquisitions, and scholarly communications and the use of subscriptions agents; ERMS, access, and knowledgebases are also featured

Effects of Restructuring at Regional Level and Approaches to Dealing with the Consequences

While restructuring and structural change are increasingly acknowledged as inherent characteristics of economic development and receive much policy attention at European and Member State level, the topic is rarely discussed from a regional perspective. However, most large-scale restructurings have effects on the regions and employment areas in which they take place. Specific information on the effects of restructuring at regional level and approaches to tackle its potential consequences for the local economy, labour market and society is scarce. This report aims to help close the knowledge gap. Based on secondary data analysis, a literature review and five in-depth case studies, it identifies and discusses the effects of large-scale restructuring outside the firm undergoing restructuring. It also seeks to illustrate success stories of positive regional management directed towards maintaining and improving labour markets following an important restructuring event

Sustainability Issues and Strategies in the Outdoor Apparel Brand Industry

Going green has seeped into the nation’s consumer consciousness. And while some industries have received more attention than others, research has shown that even for consumers with knowledge of environmental impacts resulting from apparel production and manufacture, purchasing green over conventional apparel has not historically been a concern for many consumers. This paper theorizes that the outdoor apparel industry, with their history of championing environmental conservation efforts can serve as an industry leader by implementing product sustainability efforts across their supply chain to influence other apparel brands and actors within the textile supply chain to employ greener practices. This paper explores that question by researching (1) the potential of whether the outdoor recreationalist, the main consumer of outdoor brands’ products, will be receptive to purchasing green apparel and the potential for a higher price tag, (2) environmental impacts associated with apparel life cycle, (3) product sustainability best practices as advocated by industry trade associations, and (4) a benchmark of product sustainability practices implemented by several outdoor brands as identified by publicly available literature. A review of the environmental impacts associated with apparel across the entire product life cycle revealed that impacts from the production and processing and apparel consumer use stage dwarf those of transportation and product end-of-life. An additional comparison of environmental impacts from specific fiber types revealed that wool was the most sustainable fiber among those examined. Lastly, the review of apparel product sustainability practices found, at an approximate result of two to one, that the majority of outdoor brands did not exhibit or at least advertise their efforts for production of sustainable apparel and that only five (5) of the fourteen (14) brands reviewed publicly exhibited a comprehensive sustainability strategy. However, the study did reveal some brands that exhibited best practices for implementation of sustainable apparel measures and that these brands through their actions were already serving as advocates within the broader apparel industry for adoption of product sustainability measures

Development of a framework for enhancing resilience in the UK food and drink manufacturing sector

This thesis presents research undertaken to understand and enhance resilience in the UK Food and Drink Manufacturing Sector. It focuses on the development of a conceptual framework which establishes how specific vulnerabilities link to individual mitigation strategies available to the sector and the impact of such strategies on wider sustainability. The research in this thesis is divided into four main parts. The first part consists of three complementary review chapters exploring resilience as a theoretical concept, resilience in the UK Food and Drink Manufacturing sector and existing methods used to study and/or enhance resilience. The second part of the thesis begins by describing how the pragmatic philosophy and abductive stance underpinning the research, in combination with review findings, helped to determine the research techniques used in this work, which included the systematic review process and the mixed methods case study. Next, the research facilitating a novel conceptual framework describing how real-time vulnerabilities can be identified and mitigated in a way that is complimentary to the wider sustainability of the organisation is discussed. [Continues.

Managing suppy chain risk through collaboration

In an increasingly uncertain, complex, and global supply chain environment, supply chains face a greater multitude of risks. Information sharing and collaboration between supply chain players can reduce risk within the supply chain. This project discusses emerging supply chain risk management (SCRM) strategies pertaining to the distribution of products and how purchasing and logistics departments can work to build a resilient and agile supply chain

Optimised padlock probe ligation and microarray detection of multiple (non-authorised) GMOs in a single reaction

Background To maintain EU GMO regulations, producers of new GM crop varieties need to supply an event-specific method for the new variety. As a result methods are nowadays available for EU-authorised genetically modified organisms (GMOs), but only to a limited extent for EU-non-authorised GMOs (NAGs). In the last decade the diversity of genetically modified (GM) ingredients in food and feed has increased significantly. As a result of this increase GMO laboratories currently need to apply many different methods to establish to potential presence of NAGs in raw materials and complex derived products. Results In this paper we present an innovative method for detecting (approved) GMOs as well as the potential presence of NAGs in complex DNA samples containing different crop species. An optimised protocol has been developed for padlock probe ligation in combination with microarray detection (PPLMD) that can easily be scaled up. Linear padlock probes targeted against GMO-events, -elements and -species have been developed that can hybridise to their genomic target DNA and are visualised using microarray hybridisation. In a tenplex PPLMD experiment, different genomic targets in Roundup-Ready soya, MON1445 cotton and Bt176 maize were detected down to at least 1%. In single experiments, the targets were detected down to 0.1%, i.e. comparable to standard qPCR. Conclusion Compared to currently available methods this is a significant step forward towards multiplex detection in complex raw materials and derived products. It is shown that the PPLMD approach is suitable for large-scale detection of GMOs in real-life samples and provides the possibility to detect and/or identify NAGs that would otherwise remain undetecte