Building Valorisation Strategies for Biodiverse Products - Case Studies

The market valorisation of ‘diverse food products’ is crucial to promote agrobiodiversity. Despite the differences due to the specific contexts, valorisation strategies show relevant common features

Building valoristaion strategies for biodiverse products - the approach

The market valorisation of ‘diverse food products’ is crucial to increase diversity in farming systems. It involves multiple actors, from the field to the table, and requires an integrated approach to take into account several dimensions involved

Strategies to valorise agrobiodiversity

The current food value chain is characterised by a highly standardised offer produced in an increasingly monotonous agricultural system. In parallel, there is a growing interest among consumers for traditional or regional crop varieties. The conservation of these crops is often done by civil society organisations like Arche Noah, Pro Specie Rara, Rete Semi Rurali, Réseau Semence Paysanne or Red Andaluza de Semillas. Some networks sell their food products in local niche markets, specialised stores and supermarkets. To increase their visibility, some producer groups in the networks are interested in developing or improving a label to valorise agrobiodiversity to the consumer. Based on a representative consumer survey in four European countries, we show that consumer awareness with respect to traditional, old varieties is low but the interest in "Diversifood", defined as more diverse, locally adapted, healthy and tasty produce, is substantial. Therefore, we state, that the availability of a label to valorise agrobiodiversity would respond to consumer needs and increase the visibility of the work done by the networks – but only if it is embedded in an appropriate communication strategy aimed at raising consumer awareness about agrobiodiversity

Consumers and Food

The majority of consumers in Italy, Spain, France and Switzerland buy food in supermarkets. They like the concept of farmers’ varieties and are willing to pay a price premium for foods from farmers’ varieties

Marktchancen für unternutzte Getreidearten in Bio-Bäckereien: Das Beispiel von Emmer, Einkorn und Dinkel

Weizen dominiert die Getreideanbauflächen in Europa. Roggen, Hafer, Dinkel, Emmer und Einkorn werden deutlich weniger angebaut. Diese Getreidesorten haben jedoch Eigenschaften, die sie heute für den ökologischen Anbau und den Konsum interessant machen: Sie sind gut verträglich, haben einen eigenen Geschmack, wachsen auch in extensiven Anbausystemen gut und sind an verschiedene Klimabedingungen angepasst. Im Rahmen einer Untersuchung von 11 Bäckereien mit Bio-Sortiment in Deutschland und der Schweiz konnte ein Marktpotenzial diese Getreidesorten in Bäckereien festgestellt werden. Ein Teil der Bäckereien sieht die Marktchancen eher positiv während andere Betriebe darauf hinwiesen, dass die Verarbeitung dieser alten Sorten schwierig und aufwändig sei und die Marktchancen daher gering. Die Bio-Bäcker gehen davon aus, dass die Getreide in einem Nischenmarkt bleiben und Weizen nicht ersetzen werden. Wichtig scheint auch die Einbindung von Mühlen und Landwirten sowie eine geeignete Kommunikation bei den Konsumenten. Die befragten Bäckereien bewerben ihre Produkte eher mit Geschmack und Gesundheit als mit Biodiversität, Nachhaltigkeit und Regionalität. Gerade für Bio-Bäckereien könnte die Verbindung von Umweltargumenten, regionaler Herkunft und traditioneller Verarbeitung jedoch eine Marktchance bedeuten. Um den Marktanteil der alten Getreidesorten zu erhöhen scheint es unverzichtbar, auch die Mühlen vom Mehrwert dieser Produkte zu überzeugen. Müssen die Getreide weite Strecken zu einer Mühle transportiert werden, ist die Argumentation hinsichtlich Regionalität in den Bäckereien nicht glaubwürdig. Bäckereien sind jedoch geeignete Orte, um den Mehrwert der Produkte zu kommunizieren. Die Arbeit konnte im Rahmen des EU Projekt HealthyMinorCereals durchgeführt werden

Evaluation matrix for products from underutilized crops

We developed a matrix to evaluate valorisation strategies for products from underutilized crops. It shall help networks involved in agrobiodiversity conservation and breeding to find and improve their valorisation strategies, such as a label

Cultivating diversity and food quality. Proceedings of Diversifood EU Forum, Brussels, 11 April 2018

To tackle this issue, Diversifood team organised a forum with policy makers and stakeholders on the 11th of April 2018, in Brussels. Diversifood’s aim is to share results and key lessons including new approaches for the management of cultivated biodiversity, for plant breeding for sustainable farming systems, and new relationships among actors of food systems. In the afternoon, there was time for discussion, knowledge sharing, collecting feedback and extending current policies to include cultivating diversity and food quality (for FP9, CAP 2020, The outputs of this workshop will feed Diversifood’s final recommendations. The forum was kindly hosted by the European Committee of the Regions (Rue Belliard/Belliardstraat 101, 1040 Brussels)

IL-2 receptor γ chain cytokines differentially regulate human CD8+CD127+ and CD8+CD127− T cell division and susceptibility to apoptosis

Expression of IL-7 receptor α (CD127) is associated with naive and memory (i.e. non-effector) CD8+ T cell phenotypes. Effector CD8+ T cells are predominantly CD127− and most die by apoptosis. Therefore, CD127 appears to be a marker for CD8+ T cell differentiation, yet its role in CD8+ T cell survival and memory development is unclear. To address this, we investigated the cell death and cell division of isolated CD8+CD127+ and CD8+CD127− T cells in response to common IL-2 receptor γ chain (γC) cytokines other than IL-7. We show here that (i) memory cells (CD127+CD45RA−) divide frequently in response to either IL-2, -4 or -15; (ii) IL-2 and -15 enhance cell division in effector–memory-like cells (CD127−CD45RA+) while IL-4 enhances the cell division of effector cells (CD127−CD45RA−); (iii) CD8+CD127+ T cells are more sensitive to the anti-apoptotic effects of IL-2 or IL-15 than CD8+CD127− T cells and (iv) CD8+CD127+ T cell produce more Bcl-2 in response to IL-2 or IL-15 compared with CD8+CD127− T cells. Therefore, CD8+CD127+ and CD8+CD127− T cells differ in their responsiveness to cell division and anti-apoptotic signals from IL-2, -4 and -15. This suggests a role for γC cytokines in the pathogenesis of diseases in which CD127 expression is altered on CD8+ T cells such as in progressive viral infections and cancer

Killing of Targets by CD8+ T Cells in the Mouse Spleen Follows the Law of Mass Action

It has been difficult to correlate the quality of CD8 T cell responses with protection against viral infections. To investigate the relationship between efficacy and magnitude of T cell responses, we quantify the rate at which individual CD8 effector and memory T cells kill target cells in the mouse spleen. Using mathematical modeling, we analyze recent data on the loss of target cells pulsed with three different peptides from the mouse lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) in mouse spleens with varying numbers of epitope-specific CD8 T cells. We find that the killing of targets follows the law of mass-action, i.e., the death rate of individual target cells remains proportional to the frequency (or the total number) of specific CD8 T cells in the spleen despite the fact that effector cell densities and effector to target ratios vary about a 1000-fold. The killing rate of LCMV-specific CD8 T cells is largely independent of T cell specificity and differentiation stage. Our results thus allow one to calculate the critical T cell concentration at which growth of a virus with a given replication rate can be prevented from the start of infection by memory CD8 T cell response