Reply to Taheripour, Delgado and Tyner (2020)

The present letter is aimed at providing a step-by-step comment on the criticisms raised by Taheripour, Delgado and Tyner, authors of the Response to Santeramo and Searle (2019). The paper by Santeramo and Searle (2019) analyses the responsiveness of the US soy and palm oil markets to price changes. The authors find positive cross-price elasticities of palm oil import with respect to soy oil price, and vice versa. Hereafter we will refer to the paper by Taheripour, Delgado and Tyner as TDT (2020) and to the paper by Santeramo and Searle as SS (2019)

On the environmental impacts of voluntary animal-based policies in the EU: Technical and political considerations

The livestock sector has a large influence on direct and indirect (via land use change) greenhouse gas emissions, with potential negative impacts on climate change. We quantify the environmental impacts related to the introduction of a voluntary animal-based policy supported by the European Union (EU), the Measure 14 of Rural Development Programmes 2014–2020 on animal welfare. In particular, we focus on methane and nitrous oxide emissions (direct impacts), and on carbon-based and nitrous oxide emissions from land use change (indirect impacts). Our case study is the dairy sector of the EU Member States. We found that the animal-based measures have (on average) limited environmental impacts, although marked differences exist across Member States

Computing at SuperB

Domenico Del Prete*, Fabrizio Bianchi, Vania Boccia, Vincenzo Ciaschini, Marco Corvo, Guglielmo De Nardo, Andrea Di Simone, Giacinto Donvito, Armando Fella, Paolo Franchini, Francesco Giacomini, Alberto Gianoli, Giuliano Laccetti, Stefano Longo, Steffen Luitz, Eleonora Luppi, Matteo Manzali, Leonardo Merola, Silvio Pardi, Alejandro Perez, Matteo Rama, Guido Russo, Bruno Santeramo, Roberto Stroili, Luca Tommasett

Circular and green economy: the state-of-the-art

Circular and green economy are relevant issues in the agricultural sector, and animate the academic and policy debates: they contribute to identify and address the environmental and social problems raised by the economic development of the global economy. This study aims at reviewing the literature on circular and green economy, with a particular emphasis on the agri-food systems and their supply chains. It includes a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis, based on 1,061 documents that are indexed in the Scopus database. The bibliometric analysis identifies dominant thematic research areas, such as “Circular Economy”, “Green Economy”, “Food Waste”, and “Environmental Impacts”. The analysis of publication patterns and emerging topics suggests that future research should focus on the nexus “food waste and environmental impacts”, and emphasizes the need to adopt a multidiscipinary approach to investigate the complex nexus between the food waste and the environment

Food loss–food waste–food security: A new research agenda

The food loss and waste (FLW)–food security nexus is a relevant issue in the societal debate, in that it contributes to understanding the challenges posed by a continuous and unsustainable development of agri-food systems and supply chains. An overview on the state-of-the-art academic research on the implications of FLW on food security is provided. The aim is to identify publication patterns and inform on key topics emerging from the literature on the FLW–food security nexus. Based on a systematic and a bibliometric approach, the analysis concludes that “Water-Energy-Food Security nexus” and “Reduction of FLW” are the dominant thematic areas within the literature on the nexus between FLW and food security. Future research should explore the FLW–food security nexus through evidence-based and scenario analyses, informing stakeholders about nexus interactions and highlighting synergies between different resource uses in a circular and green economy perspective

Environmental implications of crop insurance subsidies in Southern Italy

The changing environment affects agriculture introducing sources of uncertainty. On the other hand, policies to cope with risks may have strong impacts on the environment. We evaluate the effects of public risk management programmes, such as subsidised crop insurance, fertilizer use and land allocation to crops. We implement a mathematical programming model of a representative wheat-tomato farm in Puglia, a southern Italy region. The results show that under the current crop insurance programmes, tomato productions are expected to expand and to require larger amount of fertilizer, whereas the opposite is true for wheat productions. Policy and environmental implications are discussed

Crop insurance subsidies and environmental externalities: Evidence from Southern Italy

Rapid environmental changes can affect agriculture by introducing additional sources of uncertainty. Conversely, policy interventions to help farmers cope with risks can induce strong impacts on the environment. In this paper, the authors evaluate the effects of public risk management programmes, particularly subsidies on crop insurance, on fertilizer use and land allocation. They implement a mathematical programming model based on data collected from 1,092 farms in the Puglia region of southern Italy. The results show that, under the current crop insurance programmes, input use is expected to increase, while the effect on production is likely to be crop-specific. The policy and environmental implications of subsidies on crop insurance are discussed

Environmental implications of crop insurance subsidies in Southern Italy

none3siPublished online: 18 Aug 2014The changing environment affects agriculture introducing sources of uncertainty. On the other hand, policies to cope with risks may have strong impacts on the environment. We evaluate the effects of public risk management programmes, such as subsidised crop insurance, fertilizer use and land allocation to crops. We implement a mathematical programming model of a representative wheat-tomato farm in Puglia, a southern Italy region. The results show that under the current crop insurance programmes, tomato productions are expected to expand and to require larger amount of fertilizer, whereas the opposite is true for wheat productions. Policy and environmental implications are discussed.mixedF. Capitanio, F. Adinolfi, F.G.SanteramoF. Capitanio, F. Adinolfi, F.G.Santeram