Investment behavior of Canadian Egg Producers: Analyzing the Impacts of Risk Aversion and Variability of Prices and Costs of Production

Animal welfare is a major concern for consumers. This concern has not gone unnoticed by sector stakeholders, especially egg producers. One of the fundamental changes likely to affect egg producers regards modes of production, specifically changes in housing systems, ranging from conventional cages to free range. From farmers’ perspective, changing their mode of production generates a technological and economic/marketing risk. This study documents the level of risk in the Canadian egg sector (conventional and specialty eggs) using data from 2009 to 2011. Our results indicate multiple uncertainty sources (technological, cost of production, price of eggs) that vary according to the types of eggs. We use a quadratic programming approach applied to expected mean-variance models to analyze the impact of risk on decision to invest when the resources must be allocated to different types of production that have different risk levels. Overall our results show how, given risk aversion parameters, producers minimize their risk levels by devoting their resources to the least risky type of eggs. An important result of our study is that supply management, by reducing the perceived risk level, has favored the development of specialty eggs, for the benefit of consumers

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Investment Behavior of Canadian Egg Producers: Analyzing the Impacts of Risk Aversion and Variability of Prices and Costs of Production

Animal welfare is a major concern for consumers. This concern has not gone unnoticed by sector stakeholders, especially egg producers. One of the fundamental changes likely to affect egg producers regards modes of production, specifically changes in housing systems, ranging from conventional cages to free range. From farmers’ perspective, changing their mode of production generates a technological and economic/marketing risk. This study documents the level of risk in the Canadian egg sector (conventional and specialty eggs) using data from 2009 to 2011. Our results indicate multiple uncertainty sources (technological, cost of production, price of eggs) that vary according to the types of eggs. We use a quadratic programming approach applied to expected mean-variance models to analyze the impact of risk on decision to invest when the resources must be allocated to different types of production that have different risk levels. Overall our results show how, given risk aversion parameters, producers minimize their risk levels by devoting their resources to the least risky type of eggs. An important result of our study is that supply management, by reducing the perceived risk level, has favored the development of specialty eggs, for the benefit of consumers