Spatial scale and social impacts of biofuel production

The prospect of biofuels going ‘mainstream’ has drawn more attention to the social impacts of the production and use of transport biofuels. Since 2007, many media stories have appeared about alleged negative impacts of biofuels, notably the price of food going up or land-grab by plantation developers. These stories stand in stark contrast with the rosy picture painted by some academics involved in the technical development of bioethanol or biodiesel. This paper explores the questions when and why negative social impacts are likely to occur and under what circumstances more positive impacts might be expected. These impacts are discussed for three geographically defined biofuel supply chains; north-north, south-north and south-south. These three systems differ in the spatial scale of production and consumption and with that comes a different distribution of environmental, social and economic impacts. In the case of domestic production and consumption in developed countries, the social impacts are relatively minor and can be mitigated by social policies. Large scale, export-oriented production systems in developing countries could theoretically yield positive social impacts, but this would require on the one hand the tailored design of ‘pro-poor’ social innovations and interventions on the ground and on the other hand a certification of the supply chain feeding into consumer demand for ‘ethical’ fuel. The latent existence of this demand might be significant but recent NGO campaigns have severely undermined the ethical credentials of biofuels. It would require a persistent and collaborative effort to restore the brand value of ‘green’ fuel, an effort which will require better legislation and radically improved monitoring and enforcement practices in countries where the very absence of these has led to, and is still causing, the large scale destruction of habitats that are carbon sinks of global importance. The significant levels of government funding for biofuels stand in strong contrast with the problematic environmental and social governance of international biofuels supply chains. Notwithstanding the ‘must tackle climate change’ rhetoric by policy makers and in policy documents, this suggests that biofuels policy may be primarily driven by other concerns, especially regarding energy security. We argue that policies that are designed for a rather narrowly defined purpose of ‘security of supply’, cannot be realistically expected to yield high social or environmental benefits, and certainly not abroad.     

A quantitative microbial risk assessment for meatborne Toxoplasma gondii infection in The Netherlands

Toxoplasma gondii is an important foodborne pathogen, and the cause of a high disease burden due to congenital toxoplasmosis in The Netherlands. The aim of this study was to quantify the relative contribution of sheep, beef and pork products to human T. gondii infections by Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA). Bradyzoite concentration and portion size data were used to estimate the bradyzoite number in infected unprocessed portions for human consumption. The reduction factors for salting, freezing and heating as estimated based on published experiments in mice, were subsequently used to estimate the bradyzoite number in processed portions. A dose-response relation for T. gondii infection in mice was used to estimate the human probability of infection due to consumption of these originally infected processed portions. By multiplying these probabilities with the prevalence of T. gondii per livestock species and the number of portions consumed per year, the number of infections per year was calculated for the susceptible Dutch population and the subpopulation of susceptible pregnant women. QMRA results predict high numbers of infections per year with beef as the most important source. Although many uncertainties were present in the data and the number of congenital infections predicted by the model was almost twenty times higher than the number estimated based on the incidence in newborns, the usefulness of the advice to thoroughly heat meat is confirmed by our results. Forty percent of all predicted infections is due to the consumption of unheated meat products, and sensitivity analysis indicates that heating temperature has the strongest influence on the predicted number of infections. The results also demonstrate that, even with a low prevalence of infection in cattle, consumption of beef remains an important source of infection. Developing this QMRA model has helped identify important gaps of knowledge and resulted in the following recommendations for future research: collect processing-effect data in line with consumer style processing and acquire product specific heating temperatures, investigate the presence and concentration of viable bradyzoites in cattle, determine the effect of mincing meat on bradyzoite concentrations using actual batch sizes, and obtain an estimate of the fraction of meat that has been frozen prior to purchase. With more accurate data this QMRA model will aid science-based decision-making on intervention strategies to reduce the disease burden from meatborne T. gondii infections in The Netherlands.     

An overview of analytical methods for determining the geographical origin of food products

There is an increasing interest by consumers for high quality food products with a clear geographical origin. These products are encouraged and suitable analytical techniques are needed for the quality control. This overview concerns an investigation of the current analytical techniques that are being used for the determination of the geographical origin of food products. The analytical approaches have been subdivided into four groups; mass spectrometry techniques, spectroscopic techniques, separation techniques, and other techniques. The principles of the techniques together with their advantages and drawbacks, and reported applications concerning geographical authenticity are discussed. A combination of methods analysing different types of food compounds seems to be the most promising approach to establish the geographical origin. Chemometric analysis of the data provided by the analytical instruments is needed for such a multifactorial approach.     

Geographical origin classification of olive oils by PTR-MS

The volatile compositions of 192 olive oil samples from five different European countries were investigated by PTR-MS sample headspace analysis. The mass spectra of all samples showed many masses with high abundances, indicating the complex VOC composition of olive oil. Three different PLS-DA models were fitted to the data to classify samples into ‘country’, ‘region’ and ‘district’ of origin, respectively. Correct classification rates were assessed by cross-validation. The first fitted model produced an 86% success rate in classifying the samples into their country of origin. The second model, which was fitted to the Italian oils only, also demonstrated satisfactory results, with 74% of samples successfully classified into region of origin. The third model, classifying the Italian samples into district of origin, yielded a success rate of only 52%. This lower success rate might be due to either the small class set, or to genuine similarities between olive oil VOC compositions on this tight scale.     

Targeting Inflammation after Myocardial Infarction: A Therapeutic Opportunity for Extracellular Vesicles?

After myocardial infarction (MI), a strong inflammatory response takes place in the heart to remove the dead tissue resulting from ischemic injury. A growing body of evidence suggests that timely resolution of this inflammatory process may aid in the prevention of adverse cardiac remodeling and heart failure post-MI. The present challenge is to find a way to stimulate this process without interfering with the reparative role of the immune system. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are natural membrane particles that are released by cells and carry different macromolecules, including proteins and non-coding RNAs. In recent years, EVs derived from various stem and progenitor cells have been demonstrated to possess regenerative properties. They can provide cardioprotection via several mechanisms of action, including immunomodulation. In this review, we summarize the role of the innate immune system in post-MI healing. We then discuss the mechanisms by which EVs modulate cardiac inflammation in preclinical models of myocardial injury through regulation of monocyte influx and macrophage function. Finally, we provide suggestions for further optimization of EV-based therapy to improve its potential for the treatment of MI.