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Abstract The carbon and land footprint of 26 certified food products – geographical indications and organic products and their conventional references are assessed. This assessment goes beyond existing literature by (1) designing a calculation method fit for the comparison between certified food and conventional production, (2) using the same calculation method and parameters for 52 products – 26 Food Quality Schemes and their reference products – to allow for a meaningful comparison, (3) transparently documenting this calculation method and opening access to the detailed results and the underlying data, and (4) providing the first assessment of the carbon and land footprint of geographical indications. The method used is Life Cycle Assessment, largely relying on the Cool Farm Tool for the impact assessment. The most common indicator of climate impact, the carbon footprint expressed per ton of product, is not significantly different between certified foods and their reference products. The only exception to this pattern are vegetal organic products, whose carbon footprint is 16% lower. This is because the decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from the absence of mineral fertilizers is never fully offset by the associated lower yield. The climate impact of certified food per hectare is however 26% than their reference and their land footprint is logically 24% higher. Technical specifications directly or indirectly inducing a lower use of mineral fertilizers are a key driver of this pattern. So is yield, which depends both on terroir and farming practices. Overall, this assessment reinforces the quality policy of the European Union: promoting certified food is not inconsistent with mitigating climate change.

International audience; AbstractHoneybee workers develop from fertilised eggs, but those reared in a queenless colony develop into ‘rebel’ workers, which are more queen-like than typical workers. Rebels develop after an old queen leaves with a swarm and before a new queen hatches. We hypothesised that larval food lacking queen mandibular pheromones trigger the rebel phenotype. Larvae reared under queenright or queenless conditions were additionally fed with water or a drop of macerated queen mandibular glands. After following development of the bees and subjecting them to dissection, we found that those reared with a queen or fed the macerated glands under queenless conditions developed into typical workers. Only those workers reared without a queen and without macerated glands added to their food developed into rebels; these rebels had more ovarioles, smaller hypopharyngeal glands, and larger mandibular and Dufour’s glands than did typical workers. This is the first evidence that larval perception of the presence or absence of queen pheromones causes an alternative development strategy.

International audience; PATHWAY-27 will evaluate the effectiveness of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) alone or in combination with two other bioactives, beta-glucan (BG) and anthocyanins (AC) in reducing some risk factors of Metabolic Syndrome MS. These compounds will be used as ingredients of bioactive-enriched foods (BEF), enriching 3 different widely-consumed food matrices (dairy-, bakery-, egg products) and not as pure compounds. This will allow a better understanding of possible synergisms and bioactive-matrix interactions. BEFs to be tested in clinical studies have been designed, selected and produced by different Pathway’ partners. The aim of this multi-centre, randomized, double- blind, parallel pilot study is to identify the BEF achieving the greatest effect on lipid parameters (reduction in serum triglycerides or increase in HDL-C). The selected BEF will then be tested in a subsequent, larger interventional study. Three different matrices containing DHA, BG and AC given alone or of DHA associated with BG or AC will be tested. 300 men and women at risk for MS will be investigated (either one or two of the following criteria should be met: elevated waist circumference, elevated fasting trigycerides, reduced fasting HDL-C, elevated blood pressure or hypotensive treatment or elevated fasting glucose). MRI, ULE, CRNH will investigate BEFs based on either bakery, dairy or egg products, representing a different food matrix. Each pilot study will be conducted on 100 volunteers for a period of 4 weeks. Participants will be divided in 5 groups receiving BEF enriched with DHA, BG, or AC alone or DHA+BG, or DHA+AC. At baseline and after 4 weeks of intervention, fasting blood samples will be collected for further analysis. Additionally, blood pressure and anthropometric data will be determined. The 3 most effective BEF (one for each matrix) having the most significant impact on end-points selected for this study will be used in a larger randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The aim will be to understand the mechanisms underlying the effects observed on primary and secondary endpoints related to the consumption of BEF. Omics approaches will be used to examine metabolic changes and potentially identify new markers of effects.

International audience; Genomic prediction utilizes single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip data to predict animal genetic merit. It has the advantage of potentially capturing the effects of the majority of loci that contribute to genetic variation in a trait, even when the effects of the individual loci are very small. To implement genomic prediction, marker effects are estimated with a training set, including individuals with marker genotypes and trait phenotypes; subsequently, genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) for any genotyped individual in the population can be calculated using the estimated marker effects. In this study, we aimed to: (i) evaluate the potential of genomic prediction to predict GEBV for nematode resistance traits and BW in sheep, within and across populations; (ii) evaluate the accuracy of these predictions through within-population cross-validation; and (iii) explore the impact of population structure on the accuracy of prediction. Four data sets comprising 752 lambs from a Scottish Blackface population, 2371 from a Sarda×Lacaune backcross population, 1000 from a Martinik Black-Belly×Romane backcross population and 64 from a British Texel population were used in this study. Traits available for the analysis were faecal egg count for Nematodirus and Strongyles and BW at different ages or as average effect, depending on the population. Moreover, immunoglobulin A was also available for the Scottish Blackface population. Results show that GEBV had moderate to good within-population predictive accuracy, whereas across-population predictions had accuracies close to zero. This can be explained by our finding that in most cases the accuracy estimates were mostly because of additive genetic relatedness between animals, rather than linkage disequilibrium between SNP and quantitative trait loci. Therefore, our results suggest that genomic prediction for nematode resistance and BW may be of value in closely related animals, but that with the current SNP chip genomic predictions are unlikely to work across breeds.

Targets and limits for long-term management are used in fisheries advice to operationalize the way management reflects societal priorities on ecological, economic, social and institutional aspects. This study reflects on the available published literature as well as new research presented at the international ICES/Myfish symposium on targets and limits for long term fisheries management. We examine the inclusion of ecological, economic, social and institutional objectives in fisheries management, with the aim of progressing towards including all four objectives when setting management targets or limits, or both, for multispecies fisheries. The topics covered include ecological, economic, social and governance objectives in fisheries management, consistent approaches to management, uncertainty and variability, and fisheries governance. We end by identifying ten ways to more effectively include multiple objectives in setting targets and limits in ecosystem based fisheries management. Peer-reviewed. This is a open access article accepted for publication in ICES Journal of Marine Science following peer review. Rindorf, A., Dichmont, C. M., Thorson, J., Charles, A., Clausen, L. W., Degnbol, P., …Reid, D. G. ... Voss, R. (2017). Inclusion of ecological, economic, social, and institutional considerations when setting targets and limits for multispecies fisheries. ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal Du Conseil. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsw226 is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/74/2/453/2962394 doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsw226

International audience; A model and data toolbox is presented to assess risks from combined exposure to multiple chemicals using probabilistic methods. The Monte Carlo Risk Assessment (MCRA) toolbox, also known as the EuroMix toolbox, has more than 40 modules addressing all areas of risk assessment, and includes a data repository with data collected in the EuroMix project. This paper gives an introduction to the toolbox and illustrates its use with examples from the EuroMix project. The toolbox can be used for hazard identification, hazard characterisation, exposure assessment and risk characterisation. Examples for hazard identification are selection of substances relevant for a specific adverse outcome based on adverse outcome pathways and QSAR models. Examples for hazard characterisation are calculation of benchmark doses and relative potency factors with uncertainty from dose response data, and use of kinetic models to perform in vitro to in vivo extrapolation. Examples for exposure assessment are assessing cumulative exposure at external or internal level, where the latter option is needed when dietary and non-dietary routes have to be aggregated. Finally, risk characterisation is illustrated by calculation and display of the margin of exposure for single substances and for the cumulation, including uncertainties derived from exposure and hazard characterisation estimates.