Organic Food for Youth in Public Settings: Potentials and Challenges. Preliminary Recommendations from a European Study

This report contains presentations from the four explorative work packages in iPOPY. The iPOPY project – innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth – is one of eight transnational research programs initiated by the 11 European countries participating in the CORE Organic I funding body network. iPOPY aims at increasing the consumption of organic food among young people, especially in school meal settings but also elsewhere, e.g. at music festivals. We work towards this goal by studying how organic food as well as the organic concept in general has been introduced in public food serving settings in various countries, and what may be the most promising approaches. Italy, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Germany are the countries being studied. The iPOPY work packages explore policy issues, supply chain organization and the impact of certification, the users’ perceptions and participation in the food system, and the health impacts of organic food implementation. By June 2010, iPOPY will be completed. Hence, this report is linked to the last iPOPY seminar arranged during the BioFach Trade Fair in Nuremberg, Germany. We arranged similar seminars also in 2008 and 2009. These seminars presented the situation with respect to organic school meals in many different European countries (2008) and in more detail in iPOPY countries as well as some relevant cases (2009). Proceedings are available from the 2009 seminar (Nölting et al 2009), and all presentations from the 2008 seminar are found on the iPOPY website, www.ipopy.coreportal.org. In the seminar in 2010, we will draw a link from iPOPY results to the municipality of Nuremberg, which has ambitious aims as to becoming an Organic Model City (BioModellstadt). This includes far reaching goals for the share of organic and regional food served in public schools and kindergartens. Further, the project results will be linked to the general situation for school meals in Europe. For this presentation, no written paper is available, but we will present the slides on the website. From the project we present preliminary recommendations and conclusions from the four explorative work packages

Organic and conventional public food procurement for youth in Norway

In Norway, public procurement of food to youth is not well developed in comparison to many other European and Scandinavian countries. School meals are only offered in very few primary schools, and the common school meal is a packed lunch (sandwiches) brought from home, consumed in the class room. Subscription schemes for milk were introduced around 1970, and for fruit around 1995. Organic milk and fruit is offered only in some regions. Since 2007, fruit is served without payment in all schools with a lower secondary level (class 8-10 or 1-10). This effort was introduced as a first step to develop a free school meal in all public schools, which is a goal of one of the political parties in the current government. As in many other European countries, free school meals were offered (especially to poor children) in schools in the larger Norwegian cities around 1900. However, these meals were criticised for being unhealthy, and replaced by whole grain bread, milk and vegetables around 1930. Increasing private wealth, and increased demand for investments in school buildings, books etc changed the public priority and free school meals disappeared in Oslo around 1960. Today, there is not a general agreement about the optimal school meal composition, and whether or not the meals should be funded by the public. However, the increasing length of the school day and unsatisfactory scores of Norwegian pupils in international comparison tests (e.g. PISA) makes the school meal sector highly relevant in the public debate. Three cases that will be studied in a research project about public organic food procurement for youth are briefly described: The municipality of Trondheim, Øya music festival in Oslo and the Air Force Academy. (Increased) serving of organic food is an important aim in all these cases, and young people are an important target group. The report is produced within the project “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth”, iPOPY, and will be updated and revised during the project period (2007-2010)

Current use and legal status of crop protection inputs

This deliverable presents the results of the survey carried out in the frame of Tasks 3.1. and Task 5.1 in the Horizon 2020 Project Organic PLUS. A common table/questionnaire for both tasks was used in order to map the use of contentious inputs linked to plant protection (mainly Cu, S and mineral oils), and the use of peat, plastic and fertilisers used in growing, in 10 countries participating in Organic-PLUS (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Turkey and UK). The survey was carried out mainly by interviewing one to three experienced advisors per crop, asking them to fill in a table describing a typical organic production of the relevant crop, emphasising the use of various inputs. In some cases the survey was based on already available data of the Organic-PLUS partner while an online questionnaire was also developed and used (e.g. CUT for Poland). The collected raw material is presented in a separeate report, the D3.1 Annex I. Statistical data concerning the organic farming in the countries under study are also presented. The deliverable includes also documentation of current policies and legal status of the use of contentious plant protection products in organic farming with emphasis on potato, tomato, citrus and olive crops. Copper-based products are used in plant protection as bactericides and fungicides. Copper is the only active ingredient with a strong antimicrobial effect and a wide range of action that is approved for use in organic farming particularly for grape, potato and apple crops. Recently, the demonstrated adverse effects on the environment (on soil organisms and auxiliary species) have led to a reduction in its use in several European countries. The current regulation in EU related to the use of copper in organic production sets the limit of up to 6 kg copper per ha per year. For perennial crops, Member States may, by derogation, provide that the 6 kg copper limit can be exceeded in a given year provided that the average quantity actually used over a 5-year period consisting of that year and of the four preceding years does not exceed 6 kg. Among the investigated crops (mainly citrus, olive, tomato, potato, strawberry), large amounts of copper are used mainly by Mediterranean growers in citrus, olive and potato. For crops like citrus and olives the limit of 6 kg per ha and per year may not be always respected. Tomato producers apply high amounts of copper in winter crops (greenhouses). In the case of Norway, the use of copper and mineral oil were not permitted for organic growing until March 2017, when the EC regulations were implemented. However, the national limit for copper in Norway is 4 kg per ha and year, thus it is easier for these growers to comply with lower limits of copper use than those in EU. In Denmark, copper is not used in organic agriculture at all because national authorities have not (yet) been asked to approve any commercial product containing copper, or they have not approved it. Many alternatives to copper are under development, but few are already available on the market, and fewer still are currently used by growers to a substantial extent. Alternatives with a low concentration of copper ion are demonstrating good levels of efficacy. Possibly, a reduction of the concentration of copper, together with more efficient formulations, could reduce the presence of copper in the crops (and soils). Nevertheless, abandoning copper cannot be easily achieved through a simple substitution strategy (for instance, replacing copper by biocontrol products); it requires a more or less profound reconstruction of the crop production system, including changing cultivars (in favour of resistant ones), developing prophylaxis and sanitation measures, adjusting fertilisation, etc. This requires an integrative approach, which is still under-developed. Regarding sulphur, this substance is very common for organic vegetable growers, especially for greenhouse growers. The uses of sulphur can move from 10 to 100 kg/ha/year depending on the production system and the incidence of pests. However, it is seldom considered that the use of sulphur is problematic, except as a main component of sulphites in wine production. It is a sort of universal phytosanitary product: repellent to pests, killer of mites, and effective against powdery mildews. However, it is not selective, and it has harmful effects on beneficial arthropods. So, the use of sulphur can limit biological control. Alternatives to sulphur are not currently applied mainly for economic reasons since sulphur is cheap compared to other compounds. Moreover, since sulphur can be an alternative to mineral oil, its use is not easily reduced. Mineral oils are applied to exclusively control insects and mites in citrus and olive orchards and occasionally in tomato. There are not many data available for the use of mineral oils but from the data presented it was found that in some cases (e.g. in citrus) they are considered as the main contentious input. The wide spectrum of this substance makes it more versatile than other alternatives. In other cases, mineral oils are of minor use, and can easily be replaced by organic oils

Performance assessment of urban precinct design: a scoping study

Executive Summary: Significant advances have been made over the past decade in the development of scientifically and industry accepted tools for the performance assessment of buildings in terms of energy, carbon, water, indoor environment quality etc. For resilient, sustainable low carbon urban development to be realised in the 21st century, however, will require several radical transitions in design performance beyond the scale of individual buildings. One of these involves the creation and application of leading edge tools (not widely available to built environment professions and practitioners) capable of being applied to an assessment of performance across all stages of development at a precinct scale (neighbourhood, community and district) in either greenfield, brownfield or greyfield settings. A core aspect here is the development of a new way of modelling precincts, referred to as Precinct Information Modelling (PIM) that provides for transparent sharing and linking of precinct object information across the development life cycle together with consistent, accurate and reliable access to reference data, including that associated with the urban context of the precinct. Neighbourhoods are the ‘building blocks’ of our cities and represent the scale at which urban design needs to make its contribution to city performance: as productive, liveable, environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive places (COAG 2009). Neighbourhood design constitutes a major area for innovation as part of an urban design protocol established by the federal government (Department of Infrastructure and Transport 2011, see Figure 1). The ability to efficiently and effectively assess urban design performance at a neighbourhood level is in its infancy. This study was undertaken by Swinburne University of Technology, University of New South Wales, CSIRO and buildingSMART Australasia on behalf of the CRC for Low Carbon Living

Characterisation framework of key policy, regulatory and governance dynamics and impacts upon European food value chains: Fairer trading practices, food integrity, and sustainability collaborations. : VALUMICS project “Understanding Food Value Chains and Network Dynamics” funded by EU Horizon 2020 G.A. No 727243. Deliverable D3.3

The report provides a framework that categorises the different European Union (EU) policies, laws and governance actions identified as impacting upon food value chains in the defined areas of: fairer trading practices, food integrity (food safety and authenticity), and sustainability collaborations along food value chains. A four-stage framework is presented and illustrated with examples. The evidence shows that European Union policy activity impacting upon food value chain dynamics is increasing, both in terms of the impacts of policies upon the chains, and, in terms of addressing some of the more contentious outcomes of these dynamics. A number of policy priorities are at play in addressing the outcomes of food value chain dynamics. unevenness of the distribution of profit within food value chains, notably to farmers. Regulation of food safety and aspects of authenticity has been a key focus for two decades to ensure a functioning single market while ensuring consumer health and wellbeing. A food chain length perspective has been attempted, notably through regulations such as the General Food Law, and the rationalisation of the Official Controls on food and feed safety. However, there are still gaps in the effective monitoring and transparency of food safety and of food integrity along value chains, as exemplified by misleading claims and criminal fraud. This has led to renewed policy actions over food fraud, in particular. EU regulations, policies and related governance initiatives provide an important framework for national-level actions for EU member states and for EEA members. The more tightly EU-regulated areas, such as food safety, see fewer extra initiatives, but where there is a more general strategic policy and governance push, such as food waste reduction or food fraud, there is greater independent state-level activity. Likewise, there is much more variation in the application of both national and European (Competition) law to govern unfair trading practices impacting upon food value chains. This report presents the findings of a survey of members from the VALUMICS stakeholder platform, that were policy facing food value chain stakeholders across selected European countries, including both EU and EEA Member States. The survey was conducted to check the significance of the main policies identified in the mapping exercise at EU and national levels and so to incorporate the views of stakeholders in the research. The responses suggest the policy concerns identified in EU and national-level research resonate with food value chain stakeholders in participating nations. The report concludes by exploring in more detail how the themes of fairness and of transparency are being handled in the policy activities presented. Highlighted are the ways that both fairness and transparency can be extended within the existing frameworks of EU policy activity. The findings in this report provide an important context for further and detailed research analysis of the workings and dynamics of European food value chains under the VALUMICS project

Consumer Power to Change the Food System? A Critical Reading of Food Labels as Governance Spaces: The Case of Acai Berry Superfoods

This article argues that the marketing claims on food labels are a governance space worthy of critical examination. We use a case study of superfood açaí berry products to illustrate how marketing claims on food labels encapsulate dominant neoliberal constructions of global food systems. These marketing claims implicitly promise that by making careful choices consumers can resist and redress the ravages of unbridled global capitalism. Food labels suggest that consumers can use market signals to simultaneously govern our own selves and the market to ensure sustainable, fair, and healthy consumption. In response, this article develops, justifies and applies a socio-legal approach to researching food chain governance which uses the food label as its unit of analysis and traces from the micro level of what the everyday consumer is exposed to on a food label to the broader governance processes that the food label both symbolizes and effects. We demonstrate our approach through a “label and chain governance analysis” of açaí berry marketing claims to deconstruct both the regulatory governance of the chain behind the food choices available to the consumer evident from the label and the way in which labels seek to govern consumer choices. Our analysis unpacks the nutritionist, primitivist undertones to the health claims made on these products, the neo-colonial and racist dimensions in their claims regarding fair trade and rural socio-economic development, and, the use of green-washing claims about biodiversity conservation and ecological sustainability. Through our application of this approach to the case study of açaí berry product labels, we show how food labels can legitimize the market-based governance of globalized food chains and misleadingly suggest that capitalist production can be adequately restrained by self-regulation, market-based governance and reflexive consumer choices alone. We conclude by suggesting the need for both greater deconstruction of the governance assumptions behind food labels and to possibilities for collective, public interest oriented regulatory governance of both labelling and the food system

The Organic Market in Switzerland and the EU - Overview and market access information for producers and international trading companies

The organic market is highly diverse. Production standards and certification and trade rules place considerable demands upon market participants. At the same time, this market holds out excellent opportunities for creative and circumspect producers, processors and traders. To operate successfully in organic import and export business alike, it is crucial to have accurate information on the potential of the specific organic market and on the conditions governing market access. The attractively designed handbook offers the very latest market information for producers an international trading companies, organized both by product group an by country on 80 pages. This second edition is updated in all chapters and has in addition three new markets: Austria, Italy and Sweden. In addition, the handbook provides an easily accessible overview of the - in some instances - quite complicates - import requirements applicable in Switzerland and the EU. In a further 50-page appendix, the handbook contains an extensive collection of addresses (trading companies, authorities, certification bodies, organizations etc.) and Internet Websites. The second edition of this handbook has been produced in English