Public policies and organic farming

When markets fail, there may be justification for some market regulations by governments. There are at least four recognised causes of market failures that may call for government intervention in agriculture: negative and positive externalities (notably environmental externalities), public goods, insufficient information and market power (a few buyers or sellers are able to exert power on prices). This reading key of public economics is here used to analyse to what extent government intervention in organic farming is justified. We then examine various corrective steps that governments may take on the example of the French plan in favour of organic farming

EU agriculture and innovation: what role for the cap?

One of the current European public debates concerns the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the most integrated European policy created over the last 60 years. Given the challenges of sustainable food and nutrition security, innovation should be an important aspect of that debate. Our organisations, Wageningen University & Research (Wageningen UR) and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), believe that a broad dissemination of results from our research contributes to creating benefit. This benefit is created not only through novel applications of technologies but also by working on societal challenges through dialogue with society and contributing to government policy and legislation. We are both concerned and thrilled about the future of the CAP. Concerned because of the need to take the right science-based decisions to ensure the long-term future of European agriculture as one of the most innovative, socially responsible and sustainable sectors in the world. And thrilled, because contributing to this promising long-term future provides our institutions with great challenges for partnerships with governments, farmers, consumers, private business, NGOs and scientific peers. The authors of this policy brief, experts in European research and innovation policy as well as in agricultural policy, have tried to take a critical look at the current CAP and more specifically how it supports innovation for European agriculture, food and rural areas. They have come up with suggestions to take on board in the public debate on the future CAP. Even it is not easy to have à clear picture of the total amount of regional, national and European public funds made available for innovation in agriculture, food and rural areas, we think that the share of the CAP budget specifically devoted to innovation (today, at best a few percentage points of Pillar II expenditure) is too limited. It should at least be doubled in the next CAP. The authors want to thank policy officers in the Dutch and French Ministries, as well as in the European Commission, for stimulating discussions. They very warmly thank Professor Alan Matthews for his very careful review of an earlier draft of the paper and his very useful remarks and suggestions. The Dutch authors thank the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality for financing part of this study and their travel expenses. We look forward to the responses in the public debate on the thoughts reflected in in the public debate on the thoughts reflected in this policy brief

Potential of global croplands and bioenergy crops for climate change mitigation through deployment for enhanced weathering.

Conventional row crop agriculture for both food and fuel is a source of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) to the atmosphere, and intensifying production on agricultural land increases the potential for soil C loss and soil acidification due to fertilizer use. Enhanced weathering (EW) in agricultural soils-applying crushed silicate rock as a soil amendment-is a method for combating global climate change while increasing nutrient availability to plants. EW uses land that is already producing food and fuel to sequester carbon (C), and reduces N2O loss through pH buffering. As biofuel use increases, EW in bioenergy crops offers the opportunity to sequester CO2 while reducing fossil fuel combustion. Uncertainties remain in the long-term effects and global implications of large-scale efforts to directly manipulate Earth's atmospheric CO2 composition, but EW in agricultural lands is an opportunity to employ these soils to sequester atmospheric C while benefitting crop production and the global climate

Identification of the master sex determining gene in Northern pike (Esox lucius) reveals restricted sex chromosome differentiation.

Teleost fishes, thanks to their rapid evolution of sex determination mechanisms, provide remarkable opportunities to study the formation of sex chromosomes and the mechanisms driving the birth of new master sex determining (MSD) genes. However, the evolutionary interplay between the sex chromosomes and the MSD genes they harbor is rather unexplored. We characterized a male-specific duplicate of the anti-Müllerian hormone (amh) as the MSD gene in Northern Pike (Esox lucius), using genomic and expression evidence as well as by loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments. Using RAD-Sequencing from a family panel, we identified Linkage Group (LG) 24 as the sex chromosome and positioned the sex locus in its sub-telomeric region. Furthermore, we demonstrated that this MSD originated from an ancient duplication of the autosomal amh gene, which was subsequently translocated to LG24. Using sex-specific pooled genome sequencing and a new male genome sequence assembled using Nanopore long reads, we also characterized the differentiation of the X and Y chromosomes, revealing a small male-specific insertion containing the MSD gene and a limited region with reduced recombination. Our study reveals an unexpectedly low level of differentiation between a pair of sex chromosomes harboring an old MSD gene in a wild teleost fish population, and highlights both the pivotal role of genes from the amh pathway in sex determination, as well as the importance of gene duplication as a mechanism driving the turnover of sex chromosomes in this clade

First principles electronic structure of spinel LiCr2O4: A possible half-metal?

We have employed first-principles electronic structure calculations to examine the hypothetical (but plausible) oxide spinel, LiCr2O4 with the d^{2.5} electronic configuration. The cell (cubic) and internal (oxygen position) structural parameters have been obtained for this compound through structural relaxation in the first-principles framework. Within the one-electron band picture, we find that LiCr2O4 is magnetic, and a candidate half-metal. The electronic structure is substantially different from the closely related and well known rutile half-metal CrO2. In particular, we find a smaller conduction band width in the spinel compound, perhaps as a result of the distinct topology of the spinel crystal structure, and the reduced oxidation state. The magnetism and half-metallicity of LiCr2O4 has been mapped in the parameter space of its cubic crystal structure. Comparisons with superconducting LiTi2O4 (d^{0.5}), heavy-fermion LiV2O4 (d^{1.5}) and charge-ordering LiMn2O4 (d^{3.5}) suggest the effectiveness of a nearly-rigid band picture involving simple shifts of the position of E_F in these very different materials. Comparisons are also made with the electronic structure of ZnV2O4 (d^{2}), a correlated insulator that undergoes a structural and antiferromagnetic phase transition.Comment: 9 pages, 7 Figures, version as published in PR

Engineered Electronic Contacts for Composite Electrodes in Li Batteries Using Thiophene-based Molecular Junctions

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy experiments indicate that molecular junctions can be achieved between non-carbon-coated LiFePO4 (LFP) and multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) using a thiophene-based conjugated system which was designed to selectively functionalize these two different types of surfaces. The strategy enables the architecturing of the cathode electrode of lithium batteries, leading to a vast improvement in the component intermixing, which results in the individual MWCNT being nanocontacted at the surface of LFP grains. This advancement leads to much higher specific capacity, especially at high charge/discharge rates, for undensified electrodes of 2 mA h cm–2, for which the electronic wiring of the electroactive material is a critical issue. Furthermore, thanks to molecular junctions, better capacity retention comparable to that of carbon-coated LiFePO4 electrodes could be achieved. These results are expected to trigger the development of novel electron transport engineering methods, of special interest for industry-relevant thick battery electrodes

The rise and fall of the ancient northern pike master sex determining gene

The understanding of the evolution of variable sex determination mechanisms across taxa requires comparative studies among closely related species. Following the fate of a known master sex-determining gene, we traced the evolution of sex determination in an entire teleost order (Esociformes). We discovered that the northern pike (Esox lucius) master sex-determining gene originated from a 65 to 90 million-year-old gene duplication event and that it remained sex-linked on undifferentiated sex chromosomes for at least 56 million years in multiple species. We identified several independent species- or population-specific sex determination transitions, including a recent loss of a Y-chromosome. These findings highlight the diversity of evolutionary fates of master sex-determining genes and the importance of population demographic history in sex determination studies. We hypothesize that occasional sex reversals and genetic bottlenecks provide a non-adaptive explanation for sex determination transitions