Study of the market for organic vegetables

This project was led and conducted by HDRA, in collaboration with the Soil Association, Elm Farm Research Centre and The Institute of Rural Studies, Aberystwyth. Data was collected from UK packers and wholesalers of organic vegetables on the amounts, value and source of organic vegetables traded during the 2001/02 season. This was supplemented with crop area data from the organic certification bodies on the area of organic vegetable crops grown in the season. All data was cross-referenced with other published sources of information for the same season. Results and conclusions For a range of twenty-five organic vegetables, which can be grown commercially in the UK, levels of self-sufficiency, or market share, have risen from previous reported levels of 30-40% to an average of 57% for all vegetables. When considered on a crop by crop basis, however, there are large variations of UK market share, ranging from 96% for swedes to 33% for onions. For staple crops such as potatoes, carrots and cabbage the UK share is 65%. Within the main marketing season, for most staple crops, it is estimated that the UK is self sufficient for two-thirds of organic produce with the remainder being imported. Levels of imports rise during the time when UK produce is not in season. Packers and wholesalers estimate that on average there is potential to increase UK market share by 10-15%, although again there are variations on a crop by crop basis. If this were achieved this would put organic production at similar UK market share levels to that achieved in conventional production, namely 70%, which is the target set by the English government’s organic action plan. In order to increase supplies UK growers will have to compete with imports on quality, continuity of supply and in some cases on price. Much of the challenge for UK growers is to increase production at the beginning and end of the season, a time when there is greatest risk from pest, diseases, poor nutrient supply and variable economic returns. The need for organic growers to use organic seed, for which supplies are not always available, could in the short-term act as a constraint to UK growers expanding their production levels. In the EU, the largest markets for organic vegetables are in Germany, France and the UK, these three are major importers of organic vegetables. On the other hand Spain, Italy and the Netherlands are major exporters of organic vegetables. The UK has the lowest level of self-sufficiency in both vegetables and potatoes compared to other EU countries. Many EU countries have increased their levels of production to meet the growing UK market, and for some crops there is oversupply at the EU level. In the future the UK market is predicted to grow at a slower rate, 10-15% per annum. Future growth will be related to a wide range of factors such as the growth of the economy, and education of the consumer to the benefits of organic food. According to retail analysts 8% of the ‘committed’ organic shoppers buy 60% of the organic food. It is a challenge, firstly to encourage the committed consumers to buy more organic food and secondly to entice the other 71% of so called ‘dabblers’, who only currently buy organic food occasionally, to buy more regularly. Commitment to buying organic grows as consumers become more aware of the benefits of organic farming. Recommendations Farmers, policy-makers and other market actors must react swiftly to the changing conditions of the new environment that will evolve in coming years. But in order to do this, government must continue to give clear policy support to the sector. Growers and marketers need a clear picture of the market and knowledge about the supply levels of crops at different times of the year and precisely where there are opportunities for innovation, processing and expanding production. Hence there is an imperative for market information to be collected annually, so future projections could be more easily and accurately mapped. However conversion period time lags will inevitably act to slow the response of farmers to changes in market conditions or consumer behaviour. Growers should also be encouraged to innovate and differentiate their produce, to invest in suitable facilities for storage and processing of crops, such as washing carrots, and to increase their marketing awareness and marketing skills. Co-operation and communication must be fostered within the supply chain. Ideally the food chain should be short, fast, transparent, seamless and collaborative, with all partners in the chain taking equal responsibilities and sharing risks, too often the food chain is complex, price driven, confrontational, disjointed and opaque. An increased UK supply can only be successful if organic market actors join forces to realise the potential of the advantages arising from the economies of scale associated with growing supply. The easiest way to secure long-term growth in UK production is through long-term contracts between partners in the supply chain

Diverse characteristics of UK organic direct marketing chains

In the past few years, organic direct sales in the UK have grown rapidly. Direct sales are assumed to have short or distinct marketing chains from farm gate to consumer. This paper begins by outlining some current problems with the widely accepted defi nition of organic direct sales and charts some of their diverse characteristics. It goes on to argue that the mix of organic direct and multi-farm direct sales is so diverse that a greater clarification of terms is necessary in order to progress consumer, policy and research understanding

High fidelity one-qubit operations under random telegraph noise

We address the problem of implementing high fidelity one-qubit operations subject to time dependent noise in the qubit energy splitting. We show with explicit numerical results that high fidelity bit flips and one-qubit NOT gates may be generated by imposing bounded control fields. For noise correlation times shorter than the time for a pi-pulse, the time optimal pi-pulse yields the highest fidelity. For very long correlation times, fidelity loss is approximately due to systematic error, which is efficiently tackled by compensation for off-resonance with a pulse sequence (CORPSE). For intermediate ranges of the noise correlation time we find that short CORPSE, which is less accurate than CORPSE in correcting systematic errors, yields higher fidelities. Numerical optimization of the pulse sequences using gradient ascent pulse engineering results in noticeable improvement of the fidelities for the bit flip and marginal improvement for the NOT gate.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Targeting Low-arsenic Groundwater with Mobile-phone Technology in Araihazar, Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation and Water Supply Program (BAMWSP) has compiled field-kit measurements of the arsenic content of groundwater for nearly five million wells. By comparing the spatial distribution of arsenic inferred from these field-kit measurements with geo-referenced laboratory data in a portion of Araihazar upazila, it is shown here that the BAMWSP data could be used for targeting safe aquifers for the installation of community wells in many villages of Bangladesh. Recent experiences with mobile-phone technology to access and update the BAMWSP data in the field are also described. It is shown that the technology, without guaranteeing success, could optimize interventions by guiding the choice of the drilling method that is likely to reach a safe aquifer and identifying those villages where exploratory drilling is needed

Impact on arsenic exposure of a growing proportion of untested wells in Bangladesh

In many areas of Bangladesh, it has been more than six years since a national campaign to test tubewells for arsenic (As) was conducted. Many households therefore draw their water for drinking and cooking from untested wells. A household drinking water survey of 6646 households was conducted in Singair upazilla of Bangladesh. A subset of 795 untested wells used by 1000 randomly selected households was tested in the field by trained village workers with the Hach EZ kit, using an extended reaction time of 40 min, and in the laboratory by high-resolution inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HR ICP-MS). The household survey shows that more than 80% of the wells installed since the national testing campaign in this area were untested. Less than 13% of the households with untested wells knew where a low-As well was located near their home. Village workers using the Hach EZ kit underestimated the As content of only 4 out of 795 wells relative to the Bangladesh standard. However, the As content of 168 wells was overestimated relative to the same threshold. There is a growing need for testing tubewells in areas of Bangladesh where As concentrations in groundwater are elevated. This could be achieved by village workers trained to use a reliable field kit. Such an effort would result in a considerable drop in As exposure as it increases the opportunities for well switching by households

Chronic Arsenic Exposure and Blood Glutathione and Glutathione Disulfide Concentrations in Bangladeshi Adults

Background: In vitro and rodent studies have shown that arsenic (As) exposure can deplete glutathione (GSH) and induce oxidative stress. GSH is the primary intracellular antioxidant; it donates an electron to reactive oxygen species, thus producing glutathione disulfide (GSSG). Cysteine (Cys) and cystine (CySS) are the predominant thiol/disulfide redox couple found in human plasma. Arsenic, GSH, and Cys are linked in several ways: a) GSH is synthesized via the transsulfuration pathway, and Cys is the rate-limiting substrate; b) intermediates of the methionine cycle regulate both the transsulfuration pathway and As methylation; c) GSH serves as the electron donor for reduction of arsenate to arsenite; and d) As has a high affinity for sulfhydryl groups and therefore binds to GSH and Cys. Objectives: We tested the hypothesis that As exposure is associated with decreases in GSH and Cys and increases in GSSG and CySS (i.e., a more oxidized environment). Methods: For this cross-sectional study, the Folate and Oxidative Stress Study, we recruited a total of 378 participants from each of five water As concentration categories: & 10 (n = 76), 10–100 (n = 104), 101–200 (n = 86), 201–300 (n = 67), and < 300 µg/L (n = 45). Concentrations of GSH, GSSG, Cys, and CySS were measured using HPLC. Results: An interquartile range (IQR) increase in water As was negatively associated with blood GSH (mean change, –25.4 µmol/L; 95% CI: –45.3, –5.31) and plasma CySS (mean change, –3.00 µmol/L; 95% CI: –4.61, –1.40). We observed similar associations with urine and blood As. There were no significant associations between As exposure and blood GSSG or plasma Cys. Conclusions: The observed associations are consistent with the hypothesis that As may influence concentrations of GSH and other nonprotein sulfhydryls through binding and irreversible loss in bile and/or possibly in urine

Bailing Out the Milky Way: Variation in the Properties of Massive Dwarfs Among Galaxy-Sized Systems

Recent kinematical constraints on the internal densities of the Milky Way's dwarf satellites have revealed a discrepancy with the subhalo populations of simulated Galaxy-scale halos in the standard CDM model of hierarchical structure formation. This has been dubbed the "too big to fail" problem, with reference to the improbability of large and invisible companions existing in the Galactic environment. In this paper, we argue that both the Milky Way observations and simulated subhalos are consistent with the predictions of the standard model for structure formation. Specifically, we show that there is significant variation in the properties of subhalos among distinct host halos of fixed mass and suggest that this can reasonably account for the deficit of dense satellites in the Milky Way. We exploit well-tested analytic techniques to predict the properties in a large sample of distinct host halos with a variety of masses spanning the range expected of the Galactic halo. The analytic model produces subhalo populations consistent with both Via Lactea II and Aquarius, and our results suggest that natural variation in subhalo properties suffices to explain the discrepancy between Milky Way satellite kinematics and these numerical simulations. At least ~10% of Milky Way-sized halos host subhalo populations for which there is no "too big to fail" problem, even when the host halo mass is as large as M_host = 10^12.2 h^-1 M_sun. Follow-up studies consisting of high-resolution simulations of a large number of Milky Way-sized hosts are necessary to confirm our predictions. In the absence of such efforts, the "too big to fail" problem does not appear to be a significant challenge to the standard model of hierarchical formation. [abridged]Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; accepted by JCAP. Replaced with published versio

Relationship between serum thyrotropin and urine albumin excretion in euthyroid subjects with diabetes

Background Microalbuminuria represents vascular and endothelial dysfunction. Thyroid hormones can influence urine albumin excretion as it exerts crucial effects on the kidney and on the vascular system. This study explores the relationship between serum thyrotropin and urine albumin excretion in euthyroid patients with diabetes. Methods A total of 433 patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes were included in this retrospective cross-sectional study. Data included anthropometric measurements and biochemical parameters from diabetes clinic. Males with urine albumin creatinine ratio >2.5 and female’s >3.5 mg/mmoL were considered to have microalbuminuria. Results 34.9% of the patients had microalbuminuria. Prevalence of microalbuminuria increased according to TSH quartiles (26.9, 34.6, 38.5 and 44.9%, P for trend = 0.02). In a fully adjusted logistic regression model, higher TSH concentrations were associated with high prevalence of microalbuminuria (adjusted odds ratio 2.06 [95% CI: 1.14–3.72]; P = 0.02), while comparing the highest with the lowest quartile of TSH. Multiple linear regression analysis showed an independent association between serum TSH and urine albumin creatinine ratio (β = 0.007, t = 2.03 and P = 0.04). The risk of having microalbuminuria was higher with rise in TSH concentration in patients with younger age (<65 years), raised body mass index (≥25 kg/m2), hypertension, type 2 diabetes and hyperlipidaemia and age was the most important determinant (P for interaction = 0.02). Conclusion Serum TSH even in the euthyroid range was positively associated with microalbuminuria in euthyroid patients with diabetes independent of traditional risk factors. This relationship was strongest in patients with components of the metabolic syndrome

Integrated Reconnaissance of the Physical and Biogeochemical Characteristics of Jamaica Bay

Researchers at The Earth Institute of Columbia University have carried out an integrated, coordinated pilot reconnaissance of the physical, chemical, geological, and biological systems within Jamaica Bay, entitled "Integrated Reconnaissance of the Physical and Biogeochemical Characteristics of Jamaica Bay." We believe that such an integrated approach is necessary to fully understand the complex inter-relationship of the wetland ecosystem. The program focused on obtaining a synergistic view of the varied elements of Jamaica Bay by carrying out coordinated research in four areas: submarine sediment morphology, sediment and soil sampling, circulation and mixing, and chemical analysis of the Bay waters