Organic and conventional public food procurement for youth in Denmark – a national overview

This report is a mapping of the activities within public procurement of organic food for youth in Denmark, with a special focus on school meals. In Denmark, it is voluntary whether local municipalities or schools arrange school meals or not. Over time, more and more schools or municipalities choose to establish school meal systems, but these vary extensively in the way they are organized, what kind of food is served, and how they are financed. This report includes an overall mapping of the different ways of organizing school meals and their dissemination. Organic food has also been increasingly debated in relation to public procurement for children and youth. Whether the subject of organic food is discussed and implemented depends on the local values, goals, resources and politics. Hence there are municipalities and institutions with no organic food at all, while others have an organic share of more than 90 %. This is particularly in the municipalities situated in the Greater Copenhagen area, and the Green cities cooperation. These cases are briefly described in the report, along with a short mapping of other municipalities using organic food in meals for daycare institutions or schools. The report was produced in the iPOPY project, “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth”. Similar reports have been produced for the other iPOPY countries; Norway, Finland and Italy

Organic and conventional public food procurement for youth in Denmark

This report is the first mapping of the activities and state-of-the-art on public organic food procurement for youth. The report, on the Danish activities, comes together with similar reports from Finland, Italy and Norway. These four reports will inform a comparative analysis conducted by DTU in workpackage 2 of the iPOPY project. The major focus of the reports is school meals and the use of and potentials for organic products in this setting. But also other important settings than schools are included. The perspectives of the reports are on the policies and the policy processes influencing the extension of organic school meals. The report is produced within the project “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth”, iPOPY, and will be updated and revised during the project period (2007-2010)

mRNA expression of genes involved in inflammation and haemostasis in equine fibroblast-like synoviocytes following exposure to lipopolysaccharide, fibrinogen and thrombin

BACKGROUND: Studies in humans have shown that haemostatic and inflammatory pathways both play important roles in the pathogenesis of joint disease. The aim of this study was to assess mRNA expression of haemostatic and inflammatory factors in cultured equine fibroblast-like synoviocytes exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), fibrinogen and thrombin. Synovial membranes were collected from metacarpo-phalangeal joints of 6 skeletally mature horses euthanized for non-orthopaedic reasons. Passage 4 fibroblast-like synoviocytes were left non-treated or treated with either 0.1 μg/ml LPS, 5 mg/ml fibrinogen or 5 U/ml thrombin and harvested at time points 0, 6, 24 and 48 h. mRNA expression of serum amyloid A (SAA), interleukin-6 (IL-6), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1), tissue factor (TF), plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and protease activator receptor 1 (PAR-1) was assessed using quantitative real time reverse transcriptase PCR. RESULTS: LPS caused a significant increase in mRNA expression of SAA, IL-6, MCP-1 and uPA, and a decrease in TF, PAI-1 and PAR-1 when compared to non-treated cells. Treatment with thrombin resulted in increased mRNA expression of SAA, IL-6, MCP-1 and PAI-1, and a decreased PAR-1 expression compared to non-treated cells. The fibrinogen-treated synoviocytes showed significantly increased mRNA expression of IL-6, MCP-1, TF and PAI-1, and decreased PAR-1 expression compared to non-treated cells. CONCLUSION: LPS, fibrinogen and thrombin induced an increased gene expression of inflammatory markers in isolated equine fibroblast-like synoviocytes. LPS caused changes in gene expression promoting increased fibrinolysis, while fibrinogen and thrombin changed the gene expression resulting potentially in reduced fibrinolysis. Overall, it appeared that both inflammatory and haemostatic stimuli affected expression of genes involved in inflammatory and haemostatic pathways, supporting their importance in equine joint diseases

Køkkenet som identitetsmarkør - Hvad fortæller dit køkken om dig

Køkkenet er i dag hjemmets omdrejningspunkt. Det er her, vi snakker, skændes, griner, laver mad, laver lektier og generelt bare bruger meget tid. Køkkenet skal udtrykke, hvem vi er, og hvem vi gerne vil være, og er blevet til en vigtig identitetsmarkør i hjemmet. Køkkenet er derfor også blevet et investeringsobjekt, og vi bruger mange penge på at skabe det helt rigtige køkken for os. Dette ved køkkenforhandlerne godt, og de fleste tilbyder derfor også skræddersyede køkkenløsninger, så det bliver tilpasset til det individuelle behov, og man kan få det lige, som man vil have det. Med udgangspunkt i tre forskellige køkkener fra BoBedre's hjemmeside vil denne opgave påvise, hvordan disse er med til at skabe tre forskellige identiteter. Denne opgaves undersøgelsesfelt handler om: Hvordan kan køkkener signalere identitet, og hvordan indbyder de til at blive brugt

Når det omsorgsfulde menneske spænder ben. Om paradokset i implementeringen af sund livsstil blandt udsatte borgere

Artiklen diskuterer spørgsmålet: Hvordan påvirker det sociale møde mellem kommunalt ansatte og borgere implementeringen af sundhed og fysisk aktivitet? Artiklen er baseret på et specialet: 'Det sympatiske paradoks i mødet mellem system og borger'. When the meeting between the social worker and the socially exposed citizen frames the process of implementing physical activity, it becomes obvious how this meeting is affected by opposite attitudes towards the steering which influences the social meeting. The knowledge of health promotion among the social workers is taken for granted by the management. Therefore no education on this subject is provided for the employees. Consequently unevenness occurs in the role allocation between the social workers and the citizens despite an effort to meet the citizen at his level. This has an inhibiting effect on the implementation of physical activity. It is forgotten that not only is the self-steering of the citizens important, but also the self-steering of the social workers. In the process of implementation the employees have been neglected. This affects the process of change among the socially exposed citizens

Organic and conventional public food procurement for youth in Denmark – a national overview

This report is a mapping of the activities within public procurement of organic food for youth in Denmark, with a special focus on school meals. In Denmark, it is voluntary whether local municipalities or schools arrange school meals or not. Until lately this was also the situation for meals in daycare institutions, but in 2008 a new legislation made it mandatory for the municipalities to offer a lunch meal in all daycare institutions, though this is still mainly financed by user charge. This change in legislation received much public attention, and has been heavily debated. School meals in Denmark were first introduced around 1900 as a social project for children in poverty, and have since been undergoing many changes. In the 1930‟s the warm meal was replaced by a cold lunch. During the 1970‟s free meals for malnourished children was gradually replaced by food stalls, selling milk, bread and fruit. Until the beginning of the 2000‟s such food stalls were widely spread, and in the 1980‟s and 1990‟s it was very common that pupils were responsible for running the stalls, receiving the profit for class excursions etc. In recent years a public and political debate about school meals has again aroused, mainly arguing that the food stalls is often offering a very unhealthy selection of food, and also pointing to the fact that many pupils bring unhealthy lunch from home or from nearby shops. Hence the argument that the public should help to ensure a healthy lunch for the pupils is again beginning to manifest, though there is no consensus on how this should be done and to what extent this should be funded by the public. Over time, more and more schools or municipalities choose to establish school meal systems, but these vary extensively in the way they are organized, what kind of food is served, and how they are financed. This report includes an overall mapping of the different ways of organizing school meals and their dissemination. Organic food has also been increasingly debated in relation to public procurement for children and youth, mainly in relation to meals in daycare institutions. Organic food is used in some school meal systems especially in municipalities inspired by Agenda 21, such as the municipalities in the Green Cities cooperation, but also other municipalities such as Esbjerg, Gladsaxe and Roskilde emphasize organic food. Whether the subject of organic food is discussed and implemented depends on the local values, goals, resources and politics. Hence there are municipalities and institutions with no organic food at all, while others have an organic share of more than 90 %. This is particularly in the municipalities situated in the Greater Copenhagen area. The municipalities in the Green cities cooperation have an average share of 59 % organic in all public procurement. The number is even higher when looking exclusively at public procurement for children and youth. These cases are briefly described in the report, along with a short mapping of other municipalities using organic food in meals for daycare institutions or schools. The report was produced in the iPOPY project, “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth”. Similar reports have been produced for the other iPOPY countries; Norway, Finland and Italy