Welfare and sustainability effects of dietary recommendations

The paper develops a framework combining a model of rational behaviour under dietary constraints, an epidemiological model of diet-related mortality, and a life-cycle-analysis model of environmental impact, which permits the ex-ante assessment of dietary recommendations in multiple sustainability dimensions (i.e., taste cost, welfare effect, deaths avoided, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and acidification). It is applied to compare in a French context the relative effects and efficiency of six popular sustainable diet recommendations. The results confirm the synergies between the health and environmental dimensions: healthy-eating recommendations usually have a positive effect on the environment, although some exceptions exist. Most of the sustainable diet recommendations appear highly cost-effective, but those most commonly promoted on health grounds (e.g., targeting consumption of salt, fruits and vegetables and saturated fat) rank highest in terms of overall efficiency. Moreover, the valuation of benefits indicates that in most cases health benefits are significantly larger than environmental benefits. Overall, the analysis reveals some under-investment in the promotion of sustainable diet recommendations in France. The general lack of enthusiasm in policy circles for informational measures promoting behavioural change may reflect unrealistic expectations about the speed and magnitude of dietary change rather than an objective assessment of the efficiency of those measures

Economic assessment of nutritional recommendations

The effect of consumers’ compliance with nutritional recommendations is uncertain because of potentially complex substitutions. To lift this uncertainty, we adapt a model of consumer behaviour under rationing to the case of linear nutritional constraints. Dietary adjustments are thus derived from information on consumer preferences, consumption levels, and nutritional contents of foods. A calibration exercise simula tes, for different incomegroups, how the French diet would respond to various nutrition recommendations, and those behavioural adjustments are translated into health outcomes through the DIETRON epidemiological model. This allows for the ex-ante comparison of the efficiency, equity and health effects of ten nutritional recommendations. Although most recommendations impose significant taste costs on consumers,they are highly cost-effective, with the recommen dations targeting salt, saturated fat, and fruits and vegetables (F&V) ranking highest in terms of efficiency. A five percent change in consumption of any of those nutrients or food would reduce premature mortality in excess of 2100 lives annually. By contrast, urging consumers to modify their consumption of fibers, sugar-fat products and dietary cholesterol is unlikely to be socially desirable, often due to large unintended adjustments in some dimensions of dietary quality. Most recommendations are economically progressive, with the exception of that targeting F&

Semen quality of stress negative Piétrain and Duroc boars in the tropics: the case of Vietnam

This study was carried out in Dong Hiep pig farm, North of Vietnam in order to evaluate the semen quality of stress negative Piétrain and Duroc boars. A total of 722 ejaculates from 13 homozygous (CC), 7 heterozygous (CT) stress negative Piétrain and 10 Duroc CC boars was collected between 2008 and 2012. The sperm quality was assessed on each ejaculate using ejaculate volume (VOL), spermatozoa motility (MO), sperm concentration (CO) and total number of spermatozoids (NT). Genetic type of boars, season, year and (season x year) as well as (genetic type x year) interactions were included in the model as fixed factors. The results show that the semen quality was influenced by all studied effects (p<0.05) except VOL for season (p=0.45) and season x year (p=0.55), and CO for genetic type (p=0.93). VOL and NT (291.74ml and 103.37×109spz) of Piétrain CC were higher than those (241.40ml and 84.58×109spz) of Piétrain CT and (228.05ml and 77.15×109spz) of Duroc (p<0.001) although the values of the 3 genetic groups are in the range of normal semen. MO, CO and NT tend to be higher in cold than in hot season (p<0.001). These results suggest that semen from Piétrain and Duroc boars could be used in tropical climatic conditions (particularly Piétrain CC) and that the semen quality could be improved through reduction of heat stress

Welfare and sustainability effects of dietary recommendations

The paper develops a framework combining a model of rational behaviour under dietary constraints, an epidemiological model of diet-related mortality, and a life-cycle-analysis model of environmental impact, which permits the ex-ante assessment of dietary recommendations in multiple sustainability dimensions (i.e., taste cost, welfare effect, deaths avoided, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and acidification). It is applied to compare in a French context the relative effects and efficiency of six popular sustainable diet recommendations. The results confirm the synergies between the health and environmental dimensions: healthy-eating recommendations usually have a positive effect on the environment, although some exceptions exist. Most of the sustainable diet recommendations appear highly cost-effective, but those most commonly promoted on health grounds (e.g., targeting consumption of salt, fruits and vegetables and saturated fat) rank highest in terms of overall efficiency. Moreover, the valuation of benefits indicates that in most cases health benefits are significantly larger than environmental benefits. Overall, the analysis reveals some under-investment in the promotion of sustainable diet recommendations in France. The general lack of enthusiasm in policy circles for informational measures promoting behavioural change may reflect unrealistic expectations about the speed and magnitude of dietary change rather than an objective assessment of the efficiency of those measures