Organic pig sector in the Netherlands

The Dutch organic pig sector has shown strong growth in recent years. Although a significant share of organic of organic pork is exported, domestic consumers are continuing to buy more organic pork. To facilitate organic pig farmers, Wageningen UR and Louis Bolk Institute carry out a variety of research aimed specifically at the sector. The report contains sector facts, sector aspirations, current affairs and research projects

THE COTTON PROGRAM UNDER THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ACT OF 1965

Public Economics,

Farrowing accommodation for organic pigs

Newborn piglets in organic farrowing pens have a lower survival rate than in conventional farrowing pens. This difference is mainly caused by housing the sow loose compared to crated and by climatic effects of the outdoor temperature. Organic lactating sows should have at least 7.5 m² indoor area with straw and a 2.5 m² outdoor run. The aim of the project was to increase piglet survival in order to improve animal welfare as well as the profitability of organic farms. In the experiment we compared survival and behaviour in 3 pen types: type 1 with outdoor run, type 2 with an indoor run and a higher proportion of solid floor and type 3 without run. Data was analysed with Analysis of Variance using parity and liveborn piglets as covariables. Results of 131 litters in total showed 9.6a, 10.8b and 9.4a (p=0.05) weaned piglets per litter for pen type 1, 2 and 3. Fouling scores indicating dunging behaviour in the indoor lying area showed 13a, 21b and 19b (p=0.04) for pen types 1, 2 and 3. We found a tendency that litters with high survival rates used the separate piglet nest sooner for lying than the litters with low survival rates. Climatic conditions seemed to be crucial for the vitality and survival of the newborn piglets. The better climatic conditions combined with the higher proportion of solid floor resulted in a higher survival rate of the piglets. These results are currently used in a second experiment focussing on extra heating around farrowing and solid floor proportion in a new farrowing accommodation

Query Modification in Object-oriented Database Federation

We discuss the modification of queries against an integrated view in a federation of object-oriented databases. We present a generalisation of existing algorithms for simple global query processing that works for arbitrarily defined integration classes. We then extend this algorithm to deal with object-oriented features such as queries involving path expressions and nesting. We show how properties of the OO-style of modelling relationships through object references can be exploited to reduce the number of subqueries necessary to evaluate such querie

Inequality amongst the wealthiest and its link with economic growth

In this paper we correlate the key features of the distribution of wealth of the 500 wealthiest individuals in the Netherlands with economic growth and stock market returns for 1998 to 2009. We show that each year the distribution obeys a power law and that the key parameter measures the degree of inequality. Our main finding is that more inequality amongst the wealthiest is associated with higher economic growth.economic growth;power law;wealth distribution