DESIGNING DIETARY INTERVENTIONS:A REAPPRAISAL OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF DIETARY CHOICE IN THE UK

The facilitation of healthier dietary choices by consumers is one of the key elements of the UK Government’s food strategy. Designing and targeting dietary interventions requires a clear understanding of the determinants of dietary choice. Conventional analysis of the determinants of dietary choice has focused on mean response functions which may mask significant differences in the dietary behaviour of different segments of the population. In this paper we use a quantile regression approach to investigate how food consumption behaviour varies amongst UK households in different segments of the population, especially in the upper and lower quantiles characterised by healthy or unhealthy consumption patterns. We find that the effect of demographic determinants of dietary choice on households that exhibit less healthy consumption patterns differs significantly from that on households that make healthier consumption choices. A more nuanced understanding of the differences in the behavioural responses of households making less-healthy eating choices provides useful insights for the design and targeting of measures to promote healthier diets.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

HEALTHIER EATING AND RISING OBESITY IN THE UK: EXPLAINING THE PARADOX

Promotion of healthier eating choices and adherence to recommended dietary norms are important elements of the UK Government’s food strategy to combat the rising incidence of obesity. This paper explores the paradox of rising incidence of obesity over the last two decades even as consumers have moved towards healthier dietary choices. We analyse data from the UK’s National Diet and Nutrition Surveys over this period using quantile regression and counterfactual decompositions to identify the main elements underlying this paradox. We find that adherence to individual dietary norms in isolation has only very modest impacts on the obesity profile of the population. Efforts to promote compliance with some of the norms may have the unintended consequence of increasing excessive calorie consumption, leading to increased obesity. The effects of improved adherence to dietary norms may be offset by the changes in the impact of adherence to norms on excessive energy intake. Our results suggest that nutrition and policy and interventions need to focus on the simultaneous compliance with a range of dietary norms to have a significant impact on the incidence of obesity.Obesity incidence, adherence to dietary guidelines, impact assessment, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

The International Trends in Plant Variety Protection

This paper examines international trends in plant variety protection, a form of intellectual property rights for plant varieties akin to patents. The TRIPs Agreement under the WTO has given a strong impetus for the universalisation of plant variety protection regimes with common standards of protection across countries. This paper argues that developed and developing countries are likely to adopt widely divergent approaches to the development of intellectual property rights for plant varieties. The special features of plant variety protection constrain the appropriability of economic returns from protected plant varieties. Consequently, in developed countries PVP is being seen as a relatively weak intellectual property right instrument. As stronger forms of protection for plant varieties become available, the importance of plant variety protection in developed countries may decline. Developing countries continue to debate the merits of extending intellectual property rights to agriculture, though they too are obliged under the TRIPs Agreement to protect plant varieties. Their concerns are focused on the “inequities†inherent in a system of plant breeders’ rights. Attempts by developing countries to incorporate farmers’ rights provisions in their PVP systems are likely to dilute the incentives for private investment in plant breeding.Intellectual Property Rights, Plant Variety Protection, Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,

ASSESSING ECONOMIC RETURNS FROM FARMERS' RIGHTS

Many developing countries are attempting to address the inequities of plant breeders' rights by incorporating farmers' rights provisions in their Plant Variety Protection legislations to reward the role of farmers' as conservers and enhancers of agro-biodiversity. Developing countries expect to generate substantial revenues for biodiversity conservation or for community reward schemes through the application of farmers' rights provisions. This paper applies a patent-renewal model to assess the economic returns appropriated by plant breeders from new (protected) varieties in developed countries. The estimates confirm a widely held view in the literature that plant variety protection is a relatively weak form of IPR protection which allows plant breeders to appropriate only limited returns from their innovations. Consequently, the application of farmers' rights provisions in a manner akin to breeders' rights is unlikely to be a source of significant revenue to developing countries.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Innovative approaches For enhancing the flow of funds into the Benefit Sharing Fund of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: an evaluation of options

This report assesses the implications and revenue-generating potential of options for reform of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in the context of the structure of the global seed industry and the emerging landscape of plant variety innovation for different crops. The implementation of these options would require modifications of Treaty and provisions of the Standard Material Transfer Agreements to alter the nature of payment obligations related to different categories of products, the payment rates under different options and the coverage of crops in Annex-I to the Treaty

An Assessment of the Potential Consumption Impacts of WHO Dietary Norms in OECD Countries

The member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) have recently endorsed its Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The strategy emphasizes the need to limit the consumption of saturated fats and trans fatty acids, salt and sugars, and to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables in order to combat the growing burden of non communicable diseases. Adherence to the norms recommended by the WHO would call for major changes in the consumption, production and trade of several key food products and several sectors of the food industry have expectedly raised serious concerns about the potential impact of these norms on their future growth prospects. This paper attempts a broad quantitative assessment of the consumption impacts of these norms in OECD countries using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence to the WHO norms would involve a significant decrease in the consumption of vegetable oils (30%), dairy products (28%), sugar (24%), animal fats (30%) and meat (pig meat, 13.5%, mutton and goat 14.5%) and a significant increase in the human consumption of cereals (31%), fruits (25%) and vegetables (21%). The paper also explains the apparent dilemma that some OECD countries face when simultaneously trying to liberalise agricultural markets and promote healthy diets.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Plant Variety Protection Legislation on Innovation and Transferability

Under the TRIPs Agreement, all member-countries of the World Trade Organization are required to provide an "effective" system of plant variety protection within a specific time frame. In many developing countries this has led to a divisive debate about the fundamental desirability of extending intellectual property rights to agriculture. But empirical studies on the economic impacts of PVP, especially its ability to generate large private sector investments in plant breeding and facilitate the transfer of technology, have been very limited. This paper examines two aspects of the international experience of PVP legislation thus far (i) The relationship between legislation, R&D expenditures and PVP grants, i.e., the innovation effect, and (ii) The role of PVP in facilitating the flow of varieties across countries, i.e., the transferability effect.Plant variety protection, biotechnology, technology transfer, Crop Production/Industries,

Survival analysis of cereal crop variety innovations in the UK

This paper explores the changing survival patterns of cereal crop variety innovations in the UK since the introduction of plant breeders’ rights in the mid-1960s. Using non-parametric, semi-parametric and parametric approaches, we examine the determinants of the survival of wheat variety innovations, focusing on the impacts of changes to Plant Variety Protection (PVP) regime over the last four decades. We find that the period since the introduction of the PVP regime has been characterised by the accelerated development of new varieties and increased private sector participation in the breeding of cereal crop varieties. However, the increased flow of varieties has been accompanied by a sharp decline in the longevity of innovations. These trends may have contributed to a reduction in the returns appropriated by plant breeders from protected variety innovations and may explain the decline of conventional plant breeding in the UK. It may also explain the persistent demand from the seed industry for stronger protection. The strengthening of the PVP regime in conformity with the UPOV Convention of 1991, the introduction of EU-wide protection through the Community Plant Variety Office and the introduction of royalties on farm-saved seed have had a positive effect on the longevity of protected variety innovations, but have not been adequate to offset the long term decline in survival durations

Modelling Economic Returns to Plant Variety Protection in the UK

This paper attempts an empirical assessment of the incentive effects of plant variety protection regimes in the generation of crop variety innovations. A duration model of plant variety protection certificates is used to infer the private appropriability of returns from agricultural crop variety innovations in the UK over the period 1965-2000. The results suggest that plant variety protection provides only modest appropriability of returns to innovators of agricultural crop varieties. The val- ue distribution of plant variety protection certificates is highly skewed with a large proportion of innovations providing virtually no returns to innovators. Increasing competition from newer varieties appears to have accelerated the turnover of varie- ties reducing appropriability further. Plant variety protection emerges as a relatively weak instrument of protection

Rural-urban disparities in child nutrition in Bangladesh and Nepal

Background The persistence of rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes in developing countries alongside rapid urbanisation and increasing incidence of child malnutrition in urban areas raises an important health policy question - whether fundamentally different nutrition policies and interventions are required in rural and urban areas. Addressing this question requires an enhanced understanding of the main drivers of rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes especially for the vulnerable segments of the population. This study applies recently developed statistical methods to quantify the contribution of different socio-economic determinants to rural-urban differences in child nutrition outcomes in two South Asian countries – Bangladesh and Nepal. Methods Using DHS data sets for Bangladesh and Nepal, we apply quantile regression-based counterfactual decomposition methods to quantify the contribution of (1) the differences in levels of socio-economic determinants (covariate effects) and (2) the differences in the strength of association between socio-economic determinants and child nutrition outcomes (co-efficient effects) to the observed rural-urban disparities in child HAZ scores. The methodology employed in the study allows the covariate and coefficient effects to vary across entire distribution of child nutrition outcomes. This is particularly useful in providing specific insights into factors influencing rural-urban disparities at the lower tails of child HAZ score distributions. It also helps assess the importance of individual determinants and how they vary across the distribution of HAZ scores. Results There are no fundamental differences in the characteristics that determine child nutrition outcomes in urban and rural areas. Differences in the levels of a limited number of socio-economic characteristics – maternal education, spouse’s education and the wealth index (incorporating household asset ownership and access to drinking water and sanitation) contribute a major share of rural-urban disparities in the lowest quantiles of child nutrition outcomes. Differences in the strength of association between socio-economic characteristics and child nutrition outcomes account for less than a quarter of rural-urban disparities at the lower end of the HAZ score distribution. Conclusions Public health interventions aimed at overcoming rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes need to focus principally on bridging gaps in socio-economic endowments of rural and urban households and improving the quality of rural infrastructure. Improving child nutrition outcomes in developing countries does not call for fundamentally different approaches to public health interventions in rural and urban areas