The Economic and Welfare Effects of Food Waste Reduction on a Food-Production-Driven Rural Region

Food waste is economically and ecologically unsustainable; the benefits of food waste reduction are indisputable. Yet knowledge of the economic trade-offs and knock-on effects of such reduction is deficient. This study examines the economic effects of food waste reduction in a rural region that is a nationally important producer of agricultural and food products in Finland. We built a detailed social accounting matrix to trace the transactions among the economic agents. Five different simulations of food waste reduction were run by applying a computable general equilibrium model. In the simulations, households and food services halved their food waste. The results indicated that food waste reduction is economically worthwhile in terms of regional investments and gross domestic product at market prices. However, the reduction induced economic trade-offs and welfare redistribution. The value added to the agriculture and food industries and the welfare of agricultural households decreased, albeit that the simulated compensations alleviated the effects. In the long run, falling agricultural wages and factor incomes entail closedowns and, finally, decrease local food production. This aspect is worth considering in terms of policy planning under the principle of just transition of the European Green Deal.Peer reviewe

The Economic and Welfare Effects of Food Waste Reduction on a Food-Production-Driven Rural Region

Food waste is economically and ecologically unsustainable; the benefits of food waste reduction are indisputable. Yet knowledge of the economic trade-offs and knock-on effects of such reduction is deficient. This study examines the economic effects of food waste reduction in a rural region that is a nationally important producer of agricultural and food products in Finland. We built a detailed social accounting matrix to trace the transactions among the economic agents. Five different simulations of food waste reduction were run by applying a computable general equilibrium model. In the simulations, households and food services halved their food waste. The results indicated that food waste reduction is economically worthwhile in terms of regional investments and gross domestic product at market prices. However, the reduction induced economic trade-offs and welfare redistribution. The value added to the agriculture and food industries and the welfare of agricultural households decreased, albeit that the simulated compensations alleviated the effects. In the long run, falling agricultural wages and factor incomes entail closedowns and, finally, decrease local food production. This aspect is worth considering in terms of policy planning under the principle of just transition of the European Green Deal.Peer reviewe

Maternal and fetal genetic effects on birth weight and their relevance to cardio-metabolic risk factors.

Birth weight variation is influenced by fetal and maternal genetic and non-genetic factors, and has been reproducibly associated with future cardio-metabolic health outcomes. In expanded genome-wide association analyses of own birth weight (n = 321,223) and offspring birth weight (n = 230,069 mothers), we identified 190 independent association signals (129 of which are novel). We used structural equation modeling to decompose the contributions of direct fetal and indirect maternal genetic effects, then applied Mendelian randomization to illuminate causal pathways. For example, both indirect maternal and direct fetal genetic effects drive the observational relationship between lower birth weight and higher later blood pressure: maternal blood pressure-raising alleles reduce offspring birth weight, but only direct fetal effects of these alleles, once inherited, increase later offspring blood pressure. Using maternal birth weight-lowering genotypes to proxy for an adverse intrauterine environment provided no evidence that it causally raises offspring blood pressure, indicating that the inverse birth weight-blood pressure association is attributable to genetic effects, and not to intrauterine programming.The Fenland Study is funded by the Medical Research Council (MC_U106179471) and Wellcome Trust

The economic effects of food loss and food waste reduction on the regional economy of South Ostrobothnia : A General Equilibrium Approach

Tässä maisterintutkielmassa analysoin ruokahävikin vähentämisen taloudellisia vaikutuksia Etelä-Pohjanmaan alueella. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, mitkä ovat ruokahävikin vähentämisen taloudelliset vaikutukset, kun elintarviketeollisuus ja ruokapalvelut vähentävät niiden olemassa olevaa ruokahävikkiä. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys perustuu yleisen tasapainon teoriaan. Tutkimuksen analyysi on toteutettu yleisen tasapainon mallia käyttäen. Analyysi sisältää kolme simulaatiota, joista ensimmäinen koskee vain elintarviketeollisuutta ja toinen vain ruokapalveluja. Kolmas simulaatio kattaa sekä elintarviketeollisuuden että ruokapalvelut. Simulaatiossa valitut toimialat pakotetaan puolittamaan niiden maataloustuotteiden ja elintarvikkeiden käyttö välituotteina. Elintarviketeollisuutta koskevat tulokset paljastavat toimialan tärkeyden Etelä-Pohjamaan taloudelle. Ruokahävikin vähentäminen elintarviketeollisuudessa olisi erittäin hyödyllistä etenkin toimialalle itselleen. Ruokahävikin vähentämisen myötä elintarviketeollisuus lisäisi kilpailukykyään ja pystyisi tuottamaan enemmän pienemmillä kustannuksilla. Elintarviketeollisuuden ruokahävikin vähentäminen olisi hyödyllistä myös maataloudelle, sillä maataloustuotteiden kysyntä kasvaisi. Muille keskeisille toimialoille, kuten esimerkiksi metalliteollisuudelle, vaikutus olisi negatiivinen. Vaikutus Etelä-Pohjanmaan bruttokansantuotteeseen (BKT) olisi tästä huolimatta positiivinen. Ruokapalveluja koskeva simulaatio tuottaa edellistä simulaatiota maltillisemmat tulokset, mutta makrotaloudellisten indikaattorien valossa esimerkiksi vaikutus BKT:hen olisi positiivisempi kuin elintarviketeollisuutta koskevassa simulaatiossa. Ruokahävikin vähentäminen ruokapalveluissa aiheuttaisi kuitenkin negatiivisen vaikutuksen elintarviketeollisuudelle ja maataloudelle. Tulokset vastaavat teorian oletuksia: ruokapalvelut edustavat maataloustuotteiden ja elintarvikkeiden loppukäyttäjiä, joten hävikin vähentäminen vähentäisi myös maataloustuotteiden ja elintarvikkeiden kysyntää. Kolmas, yhdistetty simulaatio toisi suurimmat hyödyt Etelä-Pohjamaan taloudelle. Tässä simulaatiossa sekä elintarviketeollisuus että ruokapalvelut puolittaisivat olemassa olevan ruokahävikkinsä samanaikaisesti. Vaikutukset esimerkiksi työllisyyteen, kotitalouksien tuloihin ja BKT:hen olisivat positiivisia. Saatujen tulosten valossa olisi tärkeää, että ruokahävikin vähentämistä koskevat politiikkatoimet asetettaisiin samanaikaisesti ruokaketjun kaikille toimijoille. Tältä osin sopivat politiikkatoimet tulisi sisältää sekä tavoitteita ruokahävikin vähentämiseksi että tavoitteita olemassa olevan hävikin hyödyntämiseksi uusiin tarkoituksiin. Jatkotutkimusten näkökulmasta lisätutkimusta tarvittaisiin etenkin ruokahävikin aluetaloudellisista vaikutuksista.This thesis analyses the economic effects of food loss and food waste reduction in South Ostrobothnia. The aim is to examine the economic effects when the food industry and food services are forced to reduce their existing food loss and food waste. The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on the General Equilibrium theory. The analysis is performed by using the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. The analysis includes three simulations; the first targeted solely on the food industry and the second solely on food services. The third simulation includes both the food industry and food services. In all simulations, the targeted activities are forced to halve their existing food loss or food waste by reducing the use of agricultural commodities and food products as intermediate inputs. In the first simulation, the results regarding food industry food loss reduction reveal the importance of the food industry to the economy of South Ostrobothnia. The results suggest that food industry food loss reduction would be very beneficial, especially for the industry itself. The food industry would now become more competitive and be able to produce more with fewer cost. This would also decrease the prices of food products. Agriculture would also benefit from food industry food loss reduction, as the demand for agricultural commodities would increase. As the CGE model deals with all markets simultaneously, food industry food loss reduction would have an effect on other activities in the region. For the metal industry, for example, the effect would be negative. The overall GDP effect would, nevertheless, be positive. The simulation targeted on food service would yield more modest effects on specific activities, but the economic effect in terms of GDP would be positive and more significant than in the first simulation. For agriculture and the food industry the effect would be negative. This is because food services represent the end users, and their decrease of food waste reduction would result in a lower demand for agricultural commodities and food products. The results of the combined requirement for the food industry and food services to reduce their existing food loss and waste simultaneously introduces a balance between the results of the first two simulations. The results indicate that reduction efforts targeted on both the food industry and food services would yield the largest gains. In the third simulation, the economic effect would be positive in terms of employment, household income and GDP, for example. From a policy point of view, the results suggest that it would be important to target policy measures at all agents of the food chain. In this regard, suitable policy measures should include policy targets to avoid food losses and food waste as such and also targets to find ways to utilize the already existing food waste and losses. For possible future research, further attention would be required to examine the economic effects of food loss and food waste reduction, in particular, at regional level

Maternal and fetal genetic effects on birth weight and their relevance to cardio-metabolic risk factors

Birth weight variation is influenced by fetal and maternal genetic and non-genetic factors, and has been reproducibly associated with future cardio-metabolic health outcomes. In expanded genome-wide association analyses of own birth weight (n = 321,223) and offspring birth weight (n = 230,069 mothers), we identified 190 independent association signals (129 of which are novel). We used structural equation modeling to decompose the contributions of direct fetal and indirect maternal genetic effects, then applied Mendelian randomization to illuminate causal pathways. For example, both indirect maternal and direct fetal genetic effects drive the observational relationship between lower birth weight and higher later blood pressure: maternal blood pressure-raising alleles reduce offspring birth weight, but only direct fetal effects of these alleles, once inherited, increase later offspring blood pressure. Using maternal birth weight-lowering genotypes to proxy for an adverse intrauterine environment provided no evidence that it causally raises offspring blood pressure, indicating that the inverse birth weight-blood pressure association is attributable to genetic effects, and not to intrauterine programming