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

Beyond equilibrium climate sensitivity

ISSN:1752-0908ISSN:1752-089

Mapping the Evidence on the Environmental Impacts of Land-Use Change for Non-food Biomass Production

International audienceThe environmental impact of land-use change for biomass production is controversial, and it is crucial to provide stakeholders with a reliable description of the existing evidence on this topic. In this paper, we use an emerging research synthesis method called “evidence mapping” to summarize the main characteristics of 241 studies in a graphical user-friendly format. Results showed that most of the reviewed studies were located in Northern and Southern Americas, especially in USA and Brazil. A majority of studies focused on 1G and 2G biofuel, and on electricity production. The impacts on greenhouse gas emission, soil carbon content, soil erosion, water consumption, and water eutrophication were frequently assessed in the selected group of studies. The evidence maps produced in this paper revealed that only few studies were conducted to analyse the environmental impact of land-use change for methane production, for wood production, and for the chemical industry. Only few studies assessed the impact on biodiversity, on air quality, on human health, and on waste induced by land-use changes for biomass production. Our results thus highlight major gaps of knowledge and future research needs on the land-use-mediated implications of the bioeconomy

Effectiveness of Bariatric Surgery in Reducing Weight and Body Mass Index Among Hispanic Adolescents

BACKGROUND: Ethnic minority adolescents and Hispanics in particular, are disproportionately affected by extreme obesity and its associated co-morbidities. Bariatric surgery is one of the few effective treatments for morbid obesity, yet little information about weight outcomes after surgery in this demographic are available. We determined the effectiveness of bariatric surgery in reducing weight and body mass index (BMI) in adolescents, a majority of whom were non-Mexican American Hispanic and originated from Central and/or South America and the Caribbean Basin region. METHODS: Adolescents (16-to-19 years old) who had undergone gastric bypass or adjustable gastric band surgery between 2001 and 2010 and who had complete follow up data available (91%) were included in the analysis. Mean weight and BMI before and 1-year after surgery were compared. RESULTS: Among 71 adolescents (80% Hispanic, 77% female), Mean BMI and weight, and z-scores and percentile transformations were all significantly lower after surgery for the entire sample (P<0.001). Gastric bypass surgery showed significantly better weight loss outcomes for all anthropometric measures versus adjustable gastric band surgery (P<0.05). The weight loss was similar among Hispanics and non-Hispanics. No perioperative complications were reported. Three patients who stopped taking supplements as prescribed experienced iron-deficiency anemia within the year following surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that bariatric surgery can markedly reduce weight among a predominantly Hispanic adolescent patient sample, and gastric bypass procedure in particular. These findings indicate that bariatric surgery has the potential to be safe and effective in substantially reducing weight in a group of adolescents who are at particularly high risk for obesity-related health consequences

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) gene polymorphism in Crohn's disease (CD): influence on disease behaviour?

Crohn's disease (CD) is a multifactorial disease with genetic heterogeneity. TNF-α plays a key role in the development of the mucosal lesions. The aim of our work was to study a single base pair polymorphism located in the promoter region of TNF gene, in a large population of CD patients with well defined phenotypes. One hundred and ninety-three patients with CD and 98 ethnically matched controls were studied. The −308 single base pair polymorphism of TNF gene was studied using an allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. Genotype and allelic frequencies were compared between patients and controls and between subgroups of patients defined by sex, age at diagnosis, familial history, location of disease, type of disease, extra-intestinal manifestations, and response to steroid treatment. In 29 patients a measure of TNF-α production by colonic biopsies was performed. The frequency of the allele TNF2 as well as the proportion of carriers of the allele TNF2 were slightly but not significantly lower in CD than in controls (11.9% versus 14.8% and 21.5% versus 27.6%, respectively). A more prominent difference in frequencies of allele TNF2 and in proportions of TNF2 carriers was found when comparing subgroups of patients. The frequency of allele TNF2 was significantly higher in steroid-dependent than in non-steroid-dependent disease (28.1% versus 10.3%; Δ = 17.8%, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 6.3–29.5%, P = 0.0027) and tended to be higher in colonic than in small bowel disease and in fistulizing than in stricturing disease. Furthermore, TNF2 carriers tended to be more frequent in patients with steroid-dependent than non-steroid-dependent disease (43.8% versus 19.3%; Δ = 24.5%, 95% CI = 3.6–45.4%, P = 0.022), in patients with fistulizing than stricturing disease (26.5% versus 9.6%; Δ = 16.9%, 95% CI = 1.1–32.6%, P = 0.036), and in patients with colonic than small bowel disease (26.5% versus 11.1%; Δ = 15.4%, 95% CI = −0.8–31.6%, P = 0.063). Finally, patients carrying at least one copy of allele 2 were found to produce slightly more TNF-α at the colonic level. The −308 TNF gene polymorphism may have a slight influence on the behaviour of CD. The carriage of allele 2 may favour steroid-dependent disease and to a lesser extent fistulizing and colonic disease, possibly secondary to a more intense TNF-α-driven inflammatory reaction at the mucosal level