How can organic agriculture contribute to long-term climate goals?

The EU countries aim to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 80-95% by 2050 (European Commission, 2011). The food sector accounts today for 25% of Swedish greenhouse gas emissions, most of which arise in agricultural production, so there is a need for radical reduction of GHG emissions in this sector. For organic farming in Sweden, this implies that it is time to move beyond the discussion on whether organic products have a lower or higher life-cycle climate impact than conventional products (Cederberg et al 2011). Instead, the interesting question is: What can and should be done to drastically reduce the climate impact of organic agriculture? The science-based response to that question is relevant for Swedish agriculture as a whole. Development towards lower climate impact from organic agriculture requires further monitoring and technology development to reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide. But it also involves developing production systems that are more efficient in the use of nutrients, energy and land, as well as shifting focus from producing animal food towards more legume, grain, vegetable and fruit products

Low stress and safe handling of outdoor cattle - effective measures to improve work environment and avoid dangerous situations

Grazing cattle are needed to preserve 450 000 hectares of semi-natural grasslands of high biodiversity in Sweden. Keeping cattle outdoors promotes their health and possibili¬ties to conduct natural behaviors. Working with cattle on pasture however, can increase accident rates (Health and Safety Authority, 2011). During the last two years, five fatali¬ties and several accidents have occurred during handling of cattle in Sweden. A method, based on knowledge of the animals’ natural behavior, referred to as low stress stock han¬dling (LSS-method), has been introduced to Sweden for cattle handling (Atkinson, 2011). A handler who consistently uses this method prevents the use of hits, sticks, harsh voice or negative forceful handling techniques. A consistent predictable approach from the han¬dler creates consistent and predictable animal behavior in return. Cattle become more trusting with their handlers and consequently more cooperative. This positive interaction between human being and animal can lead to both a safer work situation and a better animal welfare. On two of five studied farms so far, the LSS-method was actually inter¬vened during the observations, resulted in a successful reversal of conflict behaviour. On farm1, a highly stressed heifer took over three hours in attempt to load into a transport. It was successfully loaded within an hour after the intervention. On another farm, five escaped cows that the farmer had attempted to capture unsuccessfully for three conse¬cutive weeks were successfully captured through using the LSS-method

Of austerity, human rights and international institutions

Austerity measures in many European countries have led to the violation of social rights and widespread socio-economic malaise. In the case of countries subjected to conditionality imposed by external institutions for the receipt of loans, the resultant harms have highlighted responsibility gaps across a range of international institutions. Two recent legal developments come together to expose these gaps: Greece’s argument in a series of cases under the European Social Charter that it was not responsible for the impact on the right to social security brought about by austerity measures since it was only giving effect to its other international obligations as agreed with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (the Troika), and the concern to emerge from the Pringle case before the European Court of Justice that European Union institutions could do outside of the EU that which they could not do within the EU – disregard the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the exercise of their tasks. That the Commission and ECB were in time answerable to international organisations set up to provide financial support adds an additional layer of responsibility to consider. Taking Greece as a case study and drawing on EU law, international human rights law, and the law on the international responsibility of states and of international organisations, this article looks to what we can expect in legal terms and as a matter of contemporary societal expectation when it comes to having international institutions respect human rights

Long read. Reconstituting the unequal global system after pandemic – a cautionary tale of international law

In this time of immense socio-economic upheaval, nationally and globally, much is made of how international law operates in dramatic circumstances. Margot E. Salomon (LSE) invites us to consider how practices that appear to suspend business as usual are better understood as a continuation of international law in sustaining our unequal world. Pointing to the regimes of international investment, sovereign debt, human rights and international cooperation, as well as international law’s partiality for fast violence, she argues that reconstituting the unequal global system after the pandemic requires that we first address disciplinary barriers to that essential project

Single-Molecule Imaging Reveals that Argonaute Re-Shapes the Properties of its Nucleic Acid Guides: A Dissertation

Small RNA silencing pathways regulate development, viral defense, and genomic integrity in all kingdoms of life. An Argonaute (Ago) protein, guided by a tightly bound, small RNA or DNA, lies at the core of these pathways. Argonaute uses its small RNA or DNA to find its target sequences, which it either cleaves or stably binds, acting as a binding scaffold for other proteins. We used Co-localization Single-Molecule Spectroscopy (CoSMoS) to analyze target binding and cleavage by Ago and its guide. We find that both eukaryotic and prokaryotic Argonaute proteins re-shape the fundamental properties of RNA:RNA, RNA:DNA, and DNA:DNA hybridization: a small RNA or DNA bound to Argonaute as a guide no longer follows the well-established rules by which oligonucleotides find, bind, and dissociate from complementary nucleic acid sequences. Counter to the rules of nucleic acid hybridization alone, we find that mouse AGO2 and its guide bind to microRNA targets 17,000 times tighter than the guide without Argonaute. Moreover, AGO2 can distinguish between microRNA-like targets that make seven base pairs with the guide and the products of cleavage, which bind via nine base pairs: AGO2 leaves the cleavage products faster, even though they pair more extensively. This thesis presents a detailed kinetic interrogation of microRNA and RNA interference pathways. We discovered sub-domains within the previously defined functional domains created by Argonaute and its bound DNA or RNA guide. These sub-domains have features that no longer conform to the well-established properties of unbound oligonucleotides. It is by re-writing the rules for nucleic acid hybridization that Argonautes allow oligonucleotides to serve as specificity determinants with thermodynamic and kinetic properties more typical of RNA-binding proteins than that of RNA or DNA. Taken altogether, these studies further our understanding about the biology of small RNA silencing pathways and may serve to guide future work related to all RNA-guided endonucleases