Strong EU regulations for organic trout farming

Trout farming and in particular organic trout farms are critically challenged by relatively high skin/gill infections caused by various pathogens, especially the parasite Costia (Ichthyobodo necator), which is ultimately lethal for fry/smaller fish. Due to new organic regulations requesting also fry to be 100% organic, this in turn compromises supply of organic fry as basic for future production of organic trout. In addition, a Rickettsiales-like bacterium causes Red Mark Syndrome (RMS) with large red patches in the skin, which results in downgrading/rejection of up to 30% of the fish at slaughter. Treatment by use of antibiotics/ auxiliary compounds is only possible to a limited extent in organic trout production. Hence, solutions to prevent and/or treat Costia and RMS are urgently needed, not only to secure production of organic rainbow trout in Denmark, but also enable a larger and more cost efficient production with high animal welfare and minimal environmental impact. ShelterFish will focus on solutions addressing the interactions between fish - pathogens – farming environment and water quality; including 1) Test of artificial shelters (shade) to enrich environmental conditions; 2) Test of biological herb extracts and a new bacterial surfactant to treat gill/skin parasite infections; 3) Test of induced immunity to fight Red Mark Syndrome (RMS) and 4) Test of tools to reduce organic matter load in organic trout farms and hereby improve water quality, fish health/welfare. Fish welfare has high focus in as well the common EU regulations for Organic aquaculture as the English Animal protection organisation RSPCA standard. RSPCA has primarily focus on fish wellfare. But are there differences between the two standards as regards fish wellfare

Quantitative risk analysis for road tunnels complying with EU regulations

Tunnels have improved the connection of regions within the European Commission (EC) and have been used lately as a catalyst for economic development of previously isolated regions. However, the increasing number of these important infrastructures is raising upfront an endogenous problem, which is the severity of accidents that may occur. These risks have much greater impact when heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) or dangerous goods (DGs) are involved in the accident. As a result, the EC launched the EC Directive 2004/54/EC. In order to achieve a minimum acceptable level of safety, the EC Directive 2004/54/EC suggests, apart from the measures imposed based on tunnel characteristics, the implementation of a risk analysis in cases such as the opening of the road tunnel to DGs. The most widely accepted method for such quantitative risk analysis (QRA) is the OECD/PIARC QRA Model. This research exploits the QRA Model to perform a QRA for five illustrative cases in order to explore the sufficiency of the minimum tunnel safety measures imposed by the Directive when transportation of HGVs and DGs is allowed through the tunnel. The research concludes that, at least for tunnels with marginal values of the EC Directive classes for length and traffic, the risk exposure (F/N curves) lays over the acceptable safety limits of ALARP (as low as reasonably practicable) models. Thus, the manager of the tunnel should take seriously into account the provision of the Directive for further risk analysis and consider more safety measures as well as take into account the risk associated with the alternative routes

Recommendations to the formulation of EU regulation 2092/91 on livestock production

Within the SAFO network, the workpackage on standard development has focussed on the topic, on how and to what degree the EU-Regulations con-tribute to the objective of a high status of anima health and food safety in organic livestock production. Results and conclusions from the discussions at 5 SAFO workshops are presented

Costs of compliance with EU regulations and competitiveness of the EU dairy sector

The introduction of cross-compliance mechanism in the European Union with its 2003 CAPreform might affect the costs of production and thus competitiveness of the EU. Little evidence is available to asses the costs of compliance with regulations and it implication for trade. In this study a farm level competitiveness analysis of the impacts of the Nitrate Directive and the Identification & registration Directive focuses on the dairy sector in Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands and UK (within EU), and the US and New Zealand (outside EU). The findings from this study are integrated into a trade analysis which assesses the impact of compliance costs on competitiveness of the various trading nations in global trade. Representative farm studies were used as a basis for the cost increase calculations. Best-estimates of compliance are used from the existing literature and expert judgements. The negative impact of these measures (for nitrates, and animal identification and registration) on EU imports and exports are less than 3 percent. If a smaller increase in compliance takes place, these already relatively small trade impacts will be further diminished. When the standards for nitrate pollution taken by the US and New Zealand are taken into account along with full compliance assumption in all countries analysed, this would only slightly improve the EU exports. The trade impacts obtained when no changes are assumed to happen in key competitor countries can thus be argued as providing the upper bound of the likely trade impacts

Better Regulation for EU Regions: A Reflection on the Impacts of EU Regulations on the Regions.

No abstract

Livestock, Locality and Landscape: EU Regulations and the New Geography of Welsh Farm Animals

Geographers and policy-makers alike have, until recently, ignored the importance of specific breeds of livestock in agricultural systems. However, the European Union has recently introduced a series of regulations aimed at protecting breeds of livestock with a local tradition. Some British rural agencies, notably the Countryside Council for Wales, have begun to consider how these measures can be included within rural development plans. Based on current thinking in ‘new animal geography’, this article highlights the conceptual and practical problems of defining and identifying breeds for inclusion in these policies. Through detailed mapping, it is demonstrated that Welsh livestock breeds tend to exhibit three distinct geographical patterns. These patterns have been reshaped by agricultural policy, increasingly to meet the goals of agri-environmental conservation. Through the case study of Wales, the paper concludes that applied geography can be used to increase the effectiveness of these policy measures, especially given their new emphases on breed and locality

A short analysis on the stricter European regulations on tropical hardwood imports and their side effects

This paper analyses the side effects of the stricter regulation on tropical hardwood or timber imports. It considers the place of Europe within the global timber market, where Europe accounts only for a very limited share. It also explains the high selectivity of European markets, with its consequences. While tropical wooden furniture and other secondary processed products are not considered as timber here, their question is also discussed. The number of empirical studies specifically dealing with the side effects of EU regulations is limited, but the results are converging, showing that these regulations have a general adverse effect, contrary to the initial aim of promoting the sustainability of tropical timbers. These side effects are essentially to divert the trade towards countries with lower standards, and to add a burden on most of the producing countries which have already a set of comparative disadvantages for the production of legal or sustainable timber. The effects are positive on a limited number of companies which markets are very dependent of Europe. The question is then analysed from a broader perspective, replacing the effects of the EU regulations as an incidental factor compared to the increasing consumption of tropical timber by the three developing giants: Brazil, India and China.timber trade, trade regulation, environmental regulation, Europe, tropical timber, tropical hardwwod, side effect, adverse effect