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High-resolution harvester data for estimating rolling resistance and forest trafficability
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Small mammals as carriers of zoonotic bacteria on pig and cattle farms – Prevalence and risk of exposure in an integrative approach
Get PDFTo prevent foodborne infections from pigs and cattle, the whole food chain must act to minimize the contamination of products, including biosecurity measures which prevent infections via feed and the environment in production farms. Rodents and other small mammals can be reservoirs of and key vectors for transmitting zoonotic bacteria and viruses to farm animals, through direct contact but more often through environmental contamination. In line with One Health concept, we integrated results from a sampling study of small mammals in farm environments and data from a capture-recapture experiment into a probabilistic model which quantifies the degree of environmental exposure of zoonotic bacteria by small mammals to farm premises. We investigated more than 1200 small mammals trapped in and around 38 swine and cattle farm premises in Finland in 2017/2018. Regardless of the farm type, the most common species caught were the yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis), bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus), and house mouse (Mus musculus). Of 554 intestine samples (each pooled from 1 to 10 individuals), 33% were positive for Campylobacter jejuni. Yersinia enterocolitica was detected in 8% of the pooled samples, on 21/38 farm premises. Findings of Salmonella and the Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) were rare: the pathogens were detected in only single samples from four and six farm premises, respectively. The prevalence of Campylobacter, Salmonella, Yersinia and STEC in small mammal populations was estimated as 26%/13%, 1%/0%, 2%/3%, 1%/1%, respectively, in 2017/2018. The exposure probability within the experimental period of four weeks on farms was 17–60% for Campylobacter and 0–3% for Salmonella. The quantitative model is readily applicable to similar integrative studies. Our results indicate that small mammals increase the risk of exposure to zoonotic bacteria in animal production farms, thus increasing risks also for livestock and human health.202
Challenges and opportunities when moving food production and consumption toward sustainable diets in the Nordics: a scoping review for Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023
Get PDFThe terms ‘Nordic countries’ or ‘The Nordics’ include the five countries Denmark, Finland, Island, Norway, and Sweden. This review includes evaluation of the Nordic countries against Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)/World Health Organizations’ (WHO) guiding principles for healthy, sustainable diets with respect to environmental impact (principles #9 – #13) and sociocultural aspects (principles #14 – #16). A food systems perspective is taken to summarize and discuss the most important challenges and opportunities for achieving sustainable diets. Food system, food security, self-sufficiency, and resilience perspectives are applied. The information can underpin decisions when developing and implementing Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG) in the Nordics.
None of the Nordic countries are on track to reach the 2030 UN climate and biodiversity goals. We describe how food production, processing, and consumption contribute to these and other environmental challenges, and what kinds of dietary changes/transitions consistent with these goals are required.
A major challenge is the high production and consumption of meat and too low consumption of fish, vegetables, and fruits. Meat production is a major source of emissions and, together with farmed fish, heavily dependent on imported feed ingredients, leaving a large land-use and water footprint in exporting countries while domestic land resources are not used optimally. Dietary patterns have changed drastically over the past 50 years, and in large parts of the population, meat consumption has doubled since the 1970s, rendering historic food culture less useful as a basis for present-day recommendations. The Nordics have Europe’s lowest use of antibiotics in animal and fish production and have made some progress in reducing food waste along the food chain. A major opportunity is better alignment of food production and consumption based on local or regional production potentials, in conjunction with better and more constructive integration with the global food system while integrating novel technologies to reduce emissions and resource use.202
Extending the SUSI peatland simulator to include dissolved organic carbon formation, transport and biodegradation : Proper water management reduces lateral carbon fluxes and improves carbon balance
Get PDFDrainage intensity and forest management in peatlands affect carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to the atmosphere and export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to water courses. The peatland carbon (C) balance results from a complex network of ecosystem processes from where lateral C fluxes have typically been ignored. Here, we present a new version of the SUSI Peatland simulator, the first advanced process-based ecosystem model that compiles a full C balance in drained forested peatland including DOC formation, transport and biodegradation. SUSI considers site, stand and terrain characteristics as well as the interactions and feedbacks between ecosystem processes and offers novel ways to evaluate and mitigate adverse environmental impacts with thorough management planning. Here, we extended SUSI by designing and parameterizing a mass-balance based decomposition module (ESOM) based on literature findings and tested the ESOM performance against an independent dataset measured in the laboratory using peat columns collected from Finland, Estonia, Sweden and Ireland. ESOM predicted the CO2 emissions and changes in DOC concentrations with a reasonable accuracy for the peat columns. We applied the new SUSI for drained peatland sites and found that reducing the depth to which ditches are cleaned by 0.3 m decreased the annual DOC export by 34 (17 %), 29 (19 %) and 7 (5 %) kg ha−1 in Finland, Estonia and Sweden, respectively, using typical ditch spacing for these countries. Correspondingly, site annual C sink increased by 305, 409 and 32 kg ha−1 in Finland, Estonia and Sweden, respectively. Our results also indicated that terrain slope can markedly alter the water residence time and consequently DOC biodegradation and export to ditches. We conclude that DOC export can be decreased and site C sink increased by reducing the depth to which ditches are cleaned or by increasing the ditch spacing.202
Unexplored microbial diversity from 2,500 food metagenomes and links with the human microbiome
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Baltic herring hydrolysates: Identification of peptides, in silico DPP-4 prediction, and their effects on an in vivo mice model of obesity
Get PDFBaltic herring is the main catch in the Baltic Sea; however, its usage could be improved due to the low processing rate. Previously we have shown that whole Baltic herring hydrolysates (BHH) and herring byproducts hydrolysates (BHBH) by commercial enzymes consisted of bioactive peptides and had moderate bioactivity in in vitro dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-4 assay. In this study, we identified the hydrolysate peptides by LC-MS/MS and predicted the potential bioactive DPP-4 inhibitory peptides using in silico tools. Based on abundance, peptide length and stability, 86 peptides from BHBH and 80 peptides from BHH were proposed to be novel DPP-4 inhibitory peptides. BHH was fed to a mice intervention of a high-fat, high-fructose diet to validate the bioactivity. The results of the glucose tolerance and insulin tolerance improved. Plasma DPP-4 activities, C-peptide levels, and HOMA-IR scores significantly decreased, while plasma glucagon-like peptide-1 content increased. In conclusion, BHH is an inexpensive and sustainable source of functional antidiabetic ingredients.202
Forest (landscape) restoration governance: Institutions, interests, ideas, and their interlinked logics
Get PDFTaking a critical social-constructivist perspective and highlighting the power of ideas in forest landscape restoration (FLR) governance, this historically informed contribution seeks to unpack the different rationales at play in global FLR governance. Drawing on three interlinked analytical dimensions—institutions, interests, and ideas (3Is)—the chapter elaborates on three (de)legitimizing narratives of FLR (win-win, implementation, critique) and on the underlying institutions and interests in which their discursive power rests. Based on the 3Is, we identify and critically discuss three key distinct logics that drive FLR policy and practice: (i) the global sustainability logic, (ii) the community logic, and (iii) the production logic. We conclude that if the inherent historical power structures in FLR design and implementation are not recognized and addressed, then the currently dominant FLR logics are likely to produce many “win-lose” or “lose-lose” projects.202
Life cycle assessment of reusable plastic food packaging
Get PDFThe present study focuses on the cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of a reusable takeaway food container. The system boundary includes the production, transport, use, and end of life (EoL) stages of container, considering recycling and incineration, including all the inputs (material and energy) and outputs (emissions). Scenarios (10, 30, and 100 uses of a reusable container with EoL) were proposed and compared with a single-use container. The primary data was collected from industry and secondary data was taken from the literature and the Ecoienven 3.9.1 database. The functional unit (FU) was “one use of a container”, and the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) method was used. The results showed that with a centralised collection and washing system, the global warming potential (GWP) for a single-use container (0.020 kg CO2 eq./FU) per FU had higher GWP than 10 uses (0.015 kg CO2 eq./FU), 30 uses and 100 uses (0.007 kg CO2 eq./FU) of the reusable container (EoL recycling). The GWP of a single-use container is 1.3 times higher than 10 uses of the container which results in a minimum six uses of the reusable container, providing a benefit over single-use container (EoL recycling). In EoL incineration, 10 uses scenario led to a decrease in the GWP of 46%, while 100 uses resulted in a significant reduction in the GWP of 83% compared to single-use per FU. It was found that the efficiency of the return system for empty containers significantly influenced the results. This study also quantified potential plastic waste for various scenarios.202
