1,516 research outputs found
Determining consumer expectations, attitudes and buying behaviour towards âlow inputâ and organic foods
This paper reviews the first results and achievements of the QLIF SP1 âDetermining consumer expectations and attitudes towards organic/low input food quality and safetyâ. The paper aims to illustrate the array of methodologies used and to discuss the ongoing research in light of the first results
Organic Action Plans. Development, implementation and evaluation. A resource manual for the organic food and farming sector
In 2004, the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming was launched. Many European countries have also developed national Organic Action Plans to promote and support organic agriculture.
As part of the EU funded ORGAP project (âEuropean Action Plan of Organic Food and Farming - Development of criteria and procedures for the evaluation of the EU Action Plan for Organic Agricultureâ) a toolbox to evaluate and monitor the implementation of national and European Action Plans has been developed.
In order to communicate the results of this project as widely as possible, a practical manual for initiating and evaluating Organic Action Plans has been produced.
This manual has been created to inspire the people, organisations and institutions involved, or with an interest, in the organic food and farming sector to engage in the initiation, review, revision and renewal of regional, national and European Organic Action Plans.
The objectives of the manual are to provide:
âą a tool for stakeholder involvement in future Action Plan development and implementation processes at EU, national and regional level
âą a guide to the use of the Organic Action Plan Evaluation Toolbox (ORGAPET) developed through the project
The manual summarises the key lessons learnt from more than 10 years experience of development, implementation and evaluation of Organic Action Plans throughout Europe.
The Organic Action Plan Evaluation Toolbox (ORGAPET), which includes comprehensive
information to support the Organic Action Plan development and evaluation process is included with the manual as a CD-ROM, and is also accessible on-line at www.orgap.org/orgapet.
The ORGAP website www.orgap.org provides a further information on the project
and the European and national organic action plans.
Published by: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Frick, Switzerland; IFOAM EU Group, Brussels
Table of contents
Foreword 1
1 Introduction 3
1.1 About this manual 3
1.2 Organic farming â origins, definition & principles 6
1.3 Development of organic food & farming in Europe 8
1.3.1 Organic food and farming regulation in Europe 10
1.3.2 Policy support for organic food and farming in Europe 11
2 Organic Action Plans â what are they about? 16
2.1 Why Organic Action Plans? 16
2.2 European Organic Action Plan 21
2.3 Overview of national and regional Organic Action Plans 23
3 Planning and implementing Organic Action Plans 28
3.1 Policy development 28
3.2 Defining organic sector development needs and potential 31
3.3 Defining policy goals and objectives 34
3.4 Involving stakeholders 40
3.4.1 The case for stakeholder involvement 40
3.4.2 Identifying relevant stakeholders 42
3.4.3 Participatory approaches for stakeholders involvement 44
3.5 Decision making: selecting, integrating and prioritising
relevant measures 46
3.5.1 Deciding on policy instruments and action points 47
3.5.2 Priorities for action â allocating resources 50
3.6 Implementing Organic Action Plans 52
3.7 Including monitoring and evaluation of Organic Action Plans
from outset 56
3.8 Managing communication 58
3.9 Development of Action Plans in countries that joined the
EU in 2004 and later 59
4 Evaluating Organic Action Plans 61
4.1 Principles of evaluation 61
4.2 Conducting an evaluation 64
4.3 Evaluating Action Plan design and implementation 70
4.3.1 Evaluating programme design and implementation processes 70
4.3.2 Evaluating programme coherence 72
4.3.3 Evaluating stakeholder involvement 74
4.4 Evaluating Action Plan effects 78
4.4.1 Developing and using indicators for evaluation 78
4.5 Overall evaluation of Organic Action Plans â judging success 85
4.6 Evaluating Action Plans in countries that joined the EU
in 2004 and later 89
5 Organic Action Plans â the Golden Rules 91
5.1 Key elements of Organic Action Plan development 91
5.2 The Golden rules for Organic Action Plan 93
References 96
Annex Detailed synopsis of ORGAPET 10
Levers and Obstacles of Effective Research and Innovation for Organic Food and Farming in Italy
The objectives of this paper are to present the dynamic of organic food and farming
(OFF) research and innovation, to outline challenges in deploying programs and accessing funding,
and to define key actions to foster the development of tailored quality research on organic farming
in Italy. The baseline starts from the main outcomes that emerged during the World Caf\ue9 held in
the frame of the Salone Internazionale del biologico e del naturale (SANA Expo) in 2018, where the
Italian OFF research community met to build a convergence on scope and modus operandi in the
research endeavor. These outcomes were examined in the light of the key features of the research
and innovation projects funded in Italy in the last 10 years, respectively by the Italian Ministry of
Agriculture and the regional administrations through the innovation support instruments in the
Rural Development Plan programming periods. In the period 2009\u20132018, 70 research projects for
a total funding of 21.081 million \ubf (<0.1% of the value of the sector) were launched, addressing
nine dierent topic areas. Over a similar period (2007\u20132019), 53 regional innovation projects
addressing organic farming were activated for a total budget of 14.299 million \ubf (<10% of the
entire available funding). The implementation of interventions in the research and the innovation
areas were often scattered in terms of the topics, disciplines, and types of supply chain/network
addressed. The relatively high share of multi/interdisciplinary research and innovation projects aswell as the acknowledgement of the multi-actor approach as a fundamental step toward co-research
and co-innovation were upshots that emerged from our analysis. The outcomes of this study can be
used by competent national and the regional authorities to design their future research and innovation
policies and interventions
INFLAMMATION AND VENTRICULAR-VASCULAR COUPLING IN HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS WITH METABOLIC SYNDROME
Abstract Background and aims Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is currently considered to raise the risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular events. It has been suggested that part of this risk excess may be due to a cluster of additional factors associated with MetS. We aimed to investigate the role of inflammation on the ventricular-vascular coupling in patients with MetS. Methods and results We enrolled a total of 227 hypertensive patients (106 with MetS and 121 without MetS) matched for age and gender. Aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV), intima-media thickness (IMT) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) increased according to the number of MetS components. Patients with MetS showed increased aPWV (11.5 ± 3.7 vs. 10.3 ± 2.5 m/s, P = 0.03) compared with controls. In a model adjusted for age, sex, heart rate and mean blood pressure, aPWV resulted increased in patients with CKD (beta 1.29 m/s, 95%CI 0.61â1.96 m/s, P P = 0.005). After additional adjustment for CRP and IMT, the slope of aPWV was respectively reduced by 16% and 62%, suggesting that inflammation and intima-media thickening could contribute to aortic stiffening in patients with MetS. In these patients, aPWV was also associated with left-ventricular mass index (beta 0.79 g/m 2.7 , 95%CI 0.05â1.52 g/m 2.7 , P = 0.05). Conclusion MetS is characterized by an inflammation-dependent acceleration in cardiovascular ageing. This pattern of pathophysiological abnormalities may contribute to amplify the burden of cardiovascular risk in patients with MetS
Plans dâaction pour lâagriculture biologique. DĂ©veloppement, mise en Ćuvre et Ă©valuation. Un manuel de ressources pour le secteur de lâalimentation et de lâagriculture biologiques
Avant-propos
La Commission europĂ©enne a publiĂ© en juin 2004 le Plan dâaction europĂ©en pour lâalimentation et lâagriculture biologiques. Avec ce plan, la Commission visait Ă Ă©valuer la situation de lâagriculture biologique et Ă fonder les bases de dĂ©veloppement de sa politique future. Au niveau national, de nombreux gouvernements ont Ă©galement dĂ©veloppĂ© des plans dâaction pour promouvoir lâagriculture biologique. Il est donc apparu nĂ©cessaire de considĂ©rer comment de tels plans dâaction pouvaient ĂȘtre Ă©valuĂ©s avec succĂšs.
Le plan dâaction europĂ©en a Ă©tĂ© la motivation principale pour la DG Recherche de la Commission europĂ©enne de financer un projet de soutien spĂ©cifique, lâORGAP, Projet No. CT-2005-006591 au sein du 6Ăšme programme-cadre de recherche. Ce projet, intitulĂ© âPlan dâaction europĂ©en pour lâalimentation et lâagriculture biologiques â dĂ©veloppement de critĂšres et de procĂ©dures dâĂ©valuation du Plan dâaction UE pour lâagriculture biologiqueâ, a dĂ©butĂ© en mai 2005 et sâest terminĂ© en avril 2008.
Des outils ont Ă©tĂ© dĂ©veloppĂ©s au sein du projet pour Ă©valuer et surveiller la mise en Ćuvre du Plan dâaction europĂ©en dans les domaines suivants : information, formation et pĂ©dagogie, recherche, production, traitement, dĂ©veloppement du marchĂ©, certification et dĂ©penses publiques. Ces outils ont Ă©tĂ© testĂ©s sur un Ă©chantillon de Plans dâaction nationaux existants, et pour partie aussi sur le Plan dâaction europĂ©en, en plaçant principalement lâaccent sur les processus de mise en Ćuvre. En outre, des recommandations politiques de la Commission europĂ©enne, des autoritĂ©s nationales et autres acteurs ont Ă©tĂ© Ă©mises.
Afin de communiquer les recommandations relatives Ă ce projet aussi largement que possible, ce manuel pratique dâinitiation et dâĂ©valuation des plans dâaction a Ă©tĂ© crĂ©Ă©. La fonction de ce manuel est double :
a) Outil de participation des acteurs dans le dĂ©veloppement de futurs plans et mise en Ćuvre au niveau UE, national et rĂ©gional ;
b) Guide dâutilisation dâORGAPET, des outils dâĂ©valuation du projet ORGAP (fourni sur CD-ROM avec le manuel et disponible en ligne sur le site www.orgap.org).
Le manuel, crĂ©Ă© dans le cadre du projet ORGAP, est largement basĂ© sur les documents inclus dans lâOrganic Action Plan Ăvaluation Toolbox (Outils dâĂ©valuation du plan dâaction biologique) (ORGAPET).
Les institutions suivantes ont contribuĂ© au dĂ©veloppement dâORGAPET et du manuel :
- Université de Hohenheim (UHO), Stuttgart (Prof. Stephan Dabbert, Christian Eichert) ;
- Aberystwyth University (UWA), Pays de Galles, Grande-Bretagne (Dr. Nic Lampkin, Ian Jeffreys) ;
- Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona (UNIVPM), Italie (Prof. Raffaele Zanoli, Dr. Daniela Vairo) ;
- University of Southern Denmark (USD), Danemark (Dr. Johannes Michelsen)
The Swedish Spine Register: development, design and utility
The Swedish Spine Register enables monitoring of surgical activities focusing on changes in trends over time, techniques utilized and outcome, when implemented in general clinical practice. Basic requirements for a prosperous register are unity within the profession, mainly patient-based documentation and a well functioning support system. This presentation focuses on the development and design of the register protocol, problems encountered and solutions found underway. Various examples on how the results can be presented and utilized are given as well as validation. Register data demonstrate significant gender differences in lumbar disc herniation surgery with females having more pain, lower quality of life and more pronounced disability preoperatively while improvement after surgery is similar between genders. Quality of life after surgery for degenerative disorders is significantly improved for disc herniation, stenosis, spondylolisthesis and disc degenerative disorders. Over the last 10 years, surgical treatment for spinal stenosis has increased gradually while disc herniation surgery decreases regarding yearly number of procedures. An added function to the register enables more complex prospective clinical studies to include register data together with data suitable for the individual study. A common core set of demographic, surgical and outcome parameters would enable comparisons of clinical studies within and between nations
Preliminary examination of the efficacy and safety of a standardized chamomile extract for chronic primary insomnia: A randomized placebo-controlled pilot study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite being the most commonly used herbal for sleep disorders, chamomile's (<it>Matricaria recutita</it>) efficacy and safety for treating chronic primary insomnia is unknown. We examined the preliminary efficacy and safety of chamomile for improving subjective sleep and daytime symptoms in patients with chronic insomnia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial in 34 patients aged 18-65 years with DSM-IV primary insomnia for ℠6-months. Patients were randomized to 270 mg of chamomile twice daily or placebo for 28-days. The primary outcomes were sleep diary measures. Secondary outcomes included daytime symptoms, safety assessments, and effect size of these measures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were no significant differences between groups in changes in sleep diary measures, including total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency, sleep latency, wake after sleep onset (WASO), sleep quality, and number of awakenings. Chamomile did show modest advantage on daytime functioning, although these did not reach statistical significance. Effect sizes were generally small to moderate (Cohen's <it>d </it>†0.20 to < 0.60) with sleep latency, night time awakenings, and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), having moderate effect sizes in favor of chamomile. However, TST demonstrated a moderate effect size in favor of placebo. There were no differences in adverse events reported by the chamomile group compared to placebo.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Chamomile could provide modest benefits of daytime functioning and mixed benefits on sleep diary measures relative to placebo in adults with chronic primary insomnia. However, further studies in select insomnia patients would be needed to investigate these conclusions.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01286324">NCT01286324</a></p
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