ASSESSING ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF POLICY SCENARIOS ON FARM LEVEL

Indicators, policy assessment, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Review of concepts for the evaluation of sustainable agriculture in Germany and comparison of measurement schemes for farm sustainability

Within the EU research project SVAPPAS, a method of sustainability measurement based on principles of financial markets, will be tested wrt sustainability issues in agriculture, and further developed. This analysis is oriented to farm level approach based on FADN data. The study goes in two directions; first, measurement concepts available in German are reviewed, and second, the different methods are applied to a sample of dairy farms selected from the national FADN. The results of DEA, Sustainable Value and economic indicators lead to similar conclusions in most assessments. In contrast to the high correlation between Sustainable Value and DEA, a rather low correlation with the ecological indicators can be observed. Moreover, results of SV and economic indicators are generally contrary to ecological indicators. In each case it seems to be reasonable to use more than one approach for the assessment, to get a more detailed and comprehensive picture of the individual dimensions and issues of sustainability. -- Im Rahmen des EU-Forschungsprojekts SVAPPAS wird die Anwendung einer Methode für Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung, basierend auf Prinzipien von Finanzmärkten (Sustainable Value (SV)), im Bereich der Landwirtschaft getestet und weiter entwickelt. Für die vorliegende Analyse werden Daten aus dem deutschen Testbetriebsnetz verwendet. Sie zielt darauf ab, verschiedene in Deutschland verfügbare und im Rahmen des Projektes weiter entwickelte Bewertungskonzepte am Beispiel von Milchvieh haltenden Betrieben anzuwenden und zu testen. Die Ergebnisse der Data Envelopment Analyse (DEA) und es SV-Ansatzes führen zu ähnlichen Bewertungen. Im Gegensatz zur hohen Korrelation zwischen SV und DEA kann eine ziemlich niedrige Korrelation mit den ökologischen Indikatoren beobachtet werden; zudem sind Ergebnisse von SV und ökologischen Indikatoren entgegengesetzt. Deshalb scheint es notwendig, mehrere Bewertungskonzepte zu verwenden, um ein umfassenderes Bild der einzelnen Dimensionen der Nachhaltigkeit zu bekommen.Sustainability,efficiency analysis,indicators,dairy farms,Nachhaltigkeit,Effizienzanalyse,Indikatoren,Milchviehbetriebe

Chemical Proteomics versus Leishmaniasis

In this issue of Chemistry & Biology, Wright et al. (2015) describe an elegant approach to evaluating substrates and the drug target potential of Leishmania donovani N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) using a technically simple and straightforward chemical proteomics approach

Analyse von Handlungsoptionen in der EU-Getreidemarktpolitik

Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Auswirkungen unterschiedlicher Handlungsoptionen im Bereich der Getreidemarktpolitik (Abschaffung der Gersteintervention sowie der Flächenstilllegung). Die quantitative Analyse wird mit dem partiellen Gleichgewichtsmodell AGMEMOD uud dem Betriebsgruppenmodell FARMIS durchgeführt; die Analysen konzentrieren sich auf Deutschland und Frankreich. Die Preisprojektionen orientieren sich an den Anfang 2007 von FAPRI veröffentlichten Ergebnissen. Daraus resultieren in 2014/15 Erzeugerpreise in der EU, die bei Weizen um etwa ein Drittel über dem Basisjahr liegen, während sich die Preise für sonstiges Getreide nicht wesentlich vom bestehenden Interventionspreis in der EU abheben. Die größten Veränderungen ergeben sich im Rahmen der Baseline (2004/05 bis 2014/15): Durch den starken Preisanstieg nimmt die Weizenerzeugung z. B. in Deutschland um etwa ein Drittel zu, während die Anbaufläche von Gerste und anderer ertragsschwächerer Getreidearten eingeschränkt wird. Durch Aufhebung der Flächenstilllegung werden in Deutschland etwa 0,7 Mio. ha Ackerfläche mobilisiert. Die Abschaffung der Gersteintervention führt partiell zu einem Rückgang der Gerste- und Roggenfläche um 6 % in Deutschland, während Weizen aufgrund einer verbesserten Preisrelation ausgedehnt wird. In der Summe ergeben sich Einkommenseinbußen von 1,2 %. -- The study examines the consequences of different options in the area of the cereal market policy (phasing out of barley intervention as weIl as the abandonment of obligatory set-aside). The quantitative analysis is carried out with the partial equilibrium model AGMEMOD and the farm group model FARMIS; the analyses concentrate on Germany and France. The price projections orientate themselves at the results published by FAPRI at the beginning of 2007. In the target year 2014/15, producer prices for wheat are around one third higher compared to the base year while the prices for coarse grains are close to the cereal intervention price. The greatest changes arise in the context ofthe Baseline (2004/05 to 2014/15): Due to the strong rise of wheat prices, wheat production in Germany increases by one third, while the area of other cereals is slightly reduced. The abolition of set-aside will mobilise about 0.7 million ha of arable land in Germany. The abolition of the barley intervention leads to a 6% reduction of barley and rye area in Germany, while wheat production is extended due to an improved price relation.Getreidemarktordnung,Gemeinsame Agrarpolitik,Politikfolgenabschätzung,cereals market regulation,common agricultural policy,policy assessment

Activation by sub-stoichiometric inhibition

Startling reports described the paradoxical triggering of the human mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway when a small-molecule inhibitor specifically inactivates the BRAF V600E protein kinase but not wt-BRAF. We performed a conceptual analysis of the general phenomenon "activation by inhibition" using bacterial and human HtrA proteases as models. Our data suggest a clear explanation that is based on the classic biochemical principles of allostery and cooperativity. Although substoichiometric occupancy of inhibitor binding sites results in partial inhibition, this effect is overrun by a concomitant activation of unliganded binding sites. Therefore, when an inhibitor of a cooperative enzyme does not reach saturating levels, a common scenario during drug administration, it may cause the contrary of the desired effect. The implications for drug development are discussed

Increased breath naphthalene in children with asthma and wheeze of the All Age Asthma Cohort (ALLIANCE).

Background
Exhaled breath contains numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) known to be related to lung disease like asthma. Its collection is non-invasive, simple to perform and therefore an attractive method for the use even in young children. We analysed breath in children of the multicenter All Age Asthma Cohort (ALLIANCE) to evaluate if "breathomics" have the potential to phenotype patients with asthma and wheeze, and to identify extrinsic risk factors for underlying disease mechanisms.
Methods
A breath sample was collected from 142 children (asthma: 51, pre-school wheezers: 55, healthy controls: 36) and analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Children were diagnosed according to GINA guidelines and comprehensively examined each year over up to seven years. Forty children repeated the breath collection after 24 or 48 months. 
Results
Most breath VOCs differing between groups reflect the exposome of the children. We observed lower levels of lifestyle-related VOCs and higher levels of the environmental pollutants, especially naphthalene, in children with asthma or wheeze. Naphthalene was also higher in symptomatic patients and in wheezers with recent inhaled corticosteroid use. No relationships with lung function or TH2 inflammation were detected.
Conclusion
Increased levels of naphthalene in asthmatics and wheezers and the relationship to disease severity could indicate a role of environmental or indoor air pollution for the development or progress of asthma. Breath VOCs might help to elucidate the role of the exposome for the development of asthma.
The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02496468).
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ASSESSING ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF POLICY SCENARIOS ON FARM LEVEL

The paper deals with policy assessments on economic and ecological impacts of different policy scenarios. The existing farm group model FARMIS currently being used for the analysis of Common Agricultural Policy reforms (LEDEBUR et al., 2008; GÖMANN et al., 2009), has been extended to include policy analysis in the area of integrated assessment. This paper is based on modelling work realised within the EU research project “Sustainable Value Analysis of Policy and Performance in the Agricultural Sector” (SVAPPAS1). FARMIS is a comparative static model which uses Farm Accountancy Data (FADN) as the main data source (BERTELSMEIER, 2004; OFFERMANN et al., 2005). Further adaptation possibilities for farmers with regard to intensity classes of crop production and indicators were implemented. The economic and environmental indicators which can be derived from underlying farm accounting data considered here will be briefly described. The policy analysis based on FARMIS includes the following policy areas: a) environmental policy measures (fertilizer taxes and restrictions); b) direct payments (reduction of their level) and variation of input and output prices. Results are briefly summarized: A fertilizer tax mainly affects arable crop production, it influences which oilseeds and cereals will be reduced in favour of fodder crops and set-aside. A high reduction of income can be observed in this scenario. Restrictions on nitrogen surpluses mainly affect livestock production due to higher surplus figures. In terms of crop production, oilseeds will be reduced in favour of cereals and set-aside. Low intensity variants of crops increase whereas high intensity crop variants are reduced. The reduction of direct payments by 50 % induces negative income effects. Farm Net Value Added decreases, especially in crop farms by 23 %, in other cattle farms by 25 % and in mixed farms by 26 %. Crop production is reduced in favour of set aside. Positive income effects are induced by higher product price levels; however the environmental performance will become lower. Effects are the reverse for low product prices

Comparing Sustainable Value Approach, Data Envelopment Analysis and indicator approaches - An application on German dairy farms

Objective of this paper is to compare different measurement concepts for sustainability at farm level in Germany: a) Sustainable Value Approach (SV), b) Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and c) indicator approaches close to KUL (Criteria for an Ecologically Compatible Land Management). The mathematical programming model FARMIS is extended wrt the underlying subject and applied for quantitative analysis. Indicators based on physical inputs are calculated based on monetary data of national FADN data. The methods are applied to a sample of about 4000 representative dairy farms. Results of SV are given in both absolute values and return-to-cost ratios which take farm size into account. Considering relationships between methods we found out that correlation between DEA and SV results are higher than 0.75. The indicator methods show correlations with the other approaches of more than 0.5 for economic indicators but a rather low correlation for ecological indicators. Further we identified characteristics of farms with high efficiency and sustainable performance. In order to show differences of used methods results are given by regions, size classes and orientation of production. Results indicate that bigger farms generate higher Sustainable Value. Farms in less favourable areas show a lower performance with regard to Sustainable Value and efficiency than farms located in other areas

Review of concepts for the evaluation of sustainable agriculture in Germany and comparison of measurement schemes for farm sustainability

Summary : Within the EU research project SVAPPAS, a method of sustainability measurement based on principles of financial markets, will be tested wrt sustainability issues in agriculture, and further developed. This analysis is oriented to farm level approach based on FADN data. The study goes in two directions; first, measurement concepts available in German are reviewed, and second, the different methods are applied to a sample of dairy farms selected from the national FADN. The results of DEA, Sustainable Value and economic indicators lead to similar conclusions in most assessments. In contrast to the high correlation between Sustainable Value and DEA, a rather low correlation with the ecological indicators can be observed. Moreover, results of SV and economic indicators are generally contrary to ecological indicators. In each case it seems to be reasonable to use more than one approach for the assessment, to get a more detailed and comprehensive picture of the individual dimensions and issues of sustainability. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zusammenfassung: Im Rahmen des EU-Forschungsprojekts SVAPPAS wird die Anwendung einer Methode für Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung, basierend auf Prinzipien von Finanzmärkten (Sustainable Value (SV)), im Bereich der Landwirtschaft getestet und weiter entwickelt. Für die vorliegende Analyse werden Daten aus dem deutschen Testbetriebsnetz verwendet. Sie zielt darauf ab, verschiedene in Deutschland verfügbare und im Rahmen des Projektes weiter entwickelte Bewertungskonzepte am Beispiel von Milchvieh haltenden Betrieben anzuwenden und zu testen. Die Ergebnisse der Data Envelopment Analyse (DEA) und des SV-Ansatzes führen zu ähnlichen Bewertungen. Im Gegensatz zur hohen Korrelation zwischen SV und DEA kann eine ziemlich niedrige Korrelation mit den ökologischen Indikatoren beobachtet werden; zudem sind Ergebnisse von SV und ökologischen Indikatoren entgegengesetzt. Deshalb scheint es notwendig, mehrere Bewertungskonzepte zu verwenden, um ein umfassenderes Bild der einzelnen Dimensionen der Nachhaltigkeit zu bekommen