Mapping and linking supply- and demand-side measures in climate-smart agriculture. A review

Climate change and food security are two of humanity’s greatest challenges and are highly interlinked. On the one hand, climate change puts pressure on food security. On the other hand, farming significantly contributes to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This calls for climate-smart agriculture—agriculture that helps to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Climate-smart agriculture measures are diverse and include emission reductions, sink enhancements, and fossil fuel offsets for mitigation. Adaptation measures include technological advancements, adaptive farming practices, and financial management. Here, we review the potentials and trade-offs of climate-smart agricultural measures by producers and consumers. Our two main findings are as follows: (1) The benefits of measures are often site-dependent and differ according to agricultural practices (e.g., fertilizer use), environmental conditions (e.g., carbon sequestration potential), or the production and consumption of specific products (e.g., rice and meat). (2) Climate-smart agricultural measures on the supply side are likely to be insufficient or ineffective if not accompanied by changes in consumer behavior, as climate-smart agriculture will affect the supply of agricultural commodities and require changes on the demand side in response. Such linkages between demand and supply require simultaneous policy and market incentives. It, therefore, requires interdisciplinary cooperation to meet the twin challenge of climate change and food security. The link to consumer behavior is often neglected in research but regarded as an essential component of climate-smart agriculture. We argue for not solely focusing research and implementation on one-sided measures but designing good, site-specific combinations of both demand- and supply-side measures to use the potential of agriculture more effectively to mitigate and adapt to climate change

Estimating Trends in Quartz Exposure in Swedish Iron Foundries-Predicting Past and Present Exposures

Swedish foundries have a long tradition of legally required surveys in the workplace that, from the late 1960s onwards, included measurements of quartz. The availability of exposure data spanning almost 40 years presents a unique opportunity to study trends over that time and to evaluate the validity of exposure models based on data from shorter time spans. The aims of this study were (i) to investigate long-term trends in quartz exposure over time, (ii) using routinely collected quartz exposure measurements to develop a mathematical model that could predict both historical and current exposure patterns, and (iii) to validate this exposure model with up-to-date measurements from a targeted survey of the industry. Eleven foundries, representative of the Swedish iron foundry industry, were divided into three groups based on the size of the companies, i.e. the number of employees. A database containing 2333 quartz exposure measurements for 11 different job descriptions was used to create three models that covered time periods which reflected different work conditions and production processes: a historical model (1968-1989), a development model (1990-2004), and a validation model (2005-2006). A linear mixed A large reduction in exposure (51%) was seen between 1968 and 1974 and between 1975 and 1979 (28%). In later periods, quartz exposure was reduced by 8% per 5 years at best. In the first period, employees at smaller companies experienced similar to 50% higher exposure levels than those at large companies, but these differences became much smaller in later years. The furnace and ladle repair job were associated with the highest exposure, with 3.9-8.0 times the average exposure compared to the lowe To investigate long-term trends in quartz exposure over time, overall linear trends can be determined by using mixed model analysis. To create individual exposure measures to predict historical exposures, it is necessary to consider factors such as the time period, type of job, type of company, and company size. The mixed model analysis showed systematic changes in concentration levels, implying that extrapolation of exposure estimates outside the range of years covered by measurements may resu

The phytosterol content of some cereal foods commonly consumed in Sweden and in the Netherlands

The aim of this report was to quantify five specific dietary phytosterols and phytostanols (campesterol, β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, β-sitostanol, and campestanol) in cereal foods and to study the effect of boiling on sterol content. A capillary column gas liquid chromatography procedure was used to analyse 76 cereal food items of Swedish and Dutch origin: 19 various flours, grains and germs, 31 processed cereals, including bran, flakes, cereal grains and pasta, nine breads, and 17 biscuits, cakes, crackers, cookies and sweet breads. The median total phytosterol concentration was 49 (range 4.1-344) mg/100g edible portion (e.p.). Flours, grains and germs had a median concentration of 52 (17-344) mg/100g e.p., which was similar to breads, 54 (29-89) mg/100g e.p., and different types of miscellaneous cakes and cookies, 52 (27-112) mg/100g e.p. Processed cereal products had slightly lower concentrations with a median value of 39 (4.1-200) mg/100 g e.p. In general, β-sitosterol was the dominant phytosterol (62% of the total concentration), followed by campesterol (21%), while there were only small amounts of stigmasterol (4%), β-sitostanol (4%) and campestanol (2%). Boiling of cereal products only influenced the phytosterol concentration through change of water content. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right reserved