| 1. |
- Sandin, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Technology neutrality and regulation of agricultural biotechnology
- 2018
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Ingår i: Professionals in food chains: ethics, rules and responsibility. EurSafe 2018, Vienna, Austria 13 – 16 June 2018 / edited by: Svenja Springer, Herwig Grimm. - Wageningen, Netherlands : Wageningen Academic Publishers. - 9789086863211
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Agricultural biotechnology, in particular genetically modified organisms (GMOs), is subject to regulation in many areas of the world, not least in the European Union (EU). A number of authors have argued that those regulatory processes are unfair, costly, and slow and that regulation therefore should move in the direction of increased ‘technology neutrality’. The issue is becoming more pressing, especially since new biotechnologies such as CRISPR increasingly blur the regulatory distinction between GMOs and non-GMOs. This paper offers a definition of technology neutrality, uses the EU GMO regulation as a starting point for exploring technology neutrality, and presents distinctions between variants of the call for technology neutral GMO regulation in the EU.
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| 2. |
- Englund, Oskar, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Meeting Sustainability Requirements for SRC Bioenergy: Usefulness of Existing Tools, Responsibilities of Involved Stakeholders, and Recommendations for Further Developments
- 2012
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Ingår i: Bioenergy Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1939-1234 .- 1939-1242. ; 5:3, s. 606-620
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Short rotation coppice (SRC) is considered an important biomass supply option for meeting the European renewable energy targets. This paper presents an overview of existing and prospective sustainability requirements, Member State reporting obligations and parts of the methodology for calculating GHG emissions savings within the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and shows how these RED-associated sustainability criteria may affect different stakeholders along SRC bioenergy supply chains. Existing and prospective tools are assessed on their usefulness in ensuring that SRC bioenergy is produced with sufficient consideration given to the RED-associated criteria. A sustainability framework is outlined that aims at (1) facilitating the development of SRC production systems that are attractive from the perspectives of all stakeholders, and (2) ensuring that the SRC production is RED eligible. Producer manuals, EIAs, and voluntary certification schemes can all be useful for ensuring RED eligibility. However, they are currently not sufficiently comprehensive, neither individually nor combined, and suggestions for how they can be more complementary are given. Geographical information systems offer opportunities for administrative authorities to provide stakeholders with maps or databases over areas/fields suitable for RED-eligible SRC cultivation. However, proper consideration of all relevant aspects requires that all stakeholders in the SRC supply chain become engaged in the development of SRC production systems and that a landscape perspective is used.
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| 3. |
- Sandin, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Technology Neutrality in European Regulation of GMOs
- 2022
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Ingår i: Ethics, Policy & Environment. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2155-0085 .- 2155-0093. ; 1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objections to the current EU regulatory system on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in terms of high cost and lack of consistency, speed and scientific underpinning have prompted proposals for a more technology-neutral system. We sketch the conceptual background of the notion of ‘technology neutrality’ and propose a refined definition of the term. The proposed definition implies that technology neutrality of a regulatory system is a gradual and multidimensional feature. We use the definition to analyze two regulatory reform proposals: One proposal from the Netherlands for improving the exemption mechanism for GMOs under Directive 2001/18/EC, and one from the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board, outlining a new stratified risk assessment procedure. While both proposals offer some degree of improved technology neutrality in some dimensions compared to current EU regulation, in some extents and dimensions, they do not. We conclude that proposals for more technology-neutral regulation of GMOs need, first, to make explicit to what extent and in what dimensions the proposal improves neutrality and, second, to present arguments supporting that these specific improvements constitute desirable policy change against the background of objections to current policy.
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| 4. |
- Eriksson, Mattias, et al.
(författare)
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Making food waste illegal in Sweden – Potential gains from enforcing best practice in the public catering sector
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sustainable Production and Consumption. - : Elsevier BV. - 2352-5509. ; 35, s. 229-237
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Food waste is an inefficiency problem that needs to be reduced significantly to achieve a sustainable food system. Best practices and knowledge are available on how to reduce waste but large volumes of food are still wasted every year, so policies that support or enforce broader implementation of best practices are needed. One policy that could be used to push implementation and successful use of best practices to reduce food waste is the Swedish Environmental Code, which states that all actors must consider every possibility to reduce the amount of waste generated in any facility, unless this is unreasonably expensive. However, there is no clear definition on the actual waste reduction needed to comply with this requirement, so it is not enforced in practice.This study explored the potential gains of applying the Environmental Code, potential benchmarking thresholds for illegal levels of food waste and best voluntary practices that can achieve low levels of food waste. The Environmental Code is applicable to most operator food handling systems, and was assessed here using the Swedish public catering sector as a case. All 290 Swedish municipalities were asked to provide raw data for the study and some agreed, resulting in a dataset covering 458 public catering units serving care homes, schools and preschools. The data were analysed to identify different permissible levels of food waste, while the best canteens provided information on their best practices to keep food waste low.The results showed that with best voluntary practice for each type of catering unit, overall food waste would be reduced by up to 76 %. Best voluntary practices used by the best-performing canteens were identified as: ‘reusing buffet leftovers’, ‘adjusting recipes based on previous consumption’, ‘advising guests to start with small tasting portions’, ‘setting goals for waste reduction’ and ‘serving smaller volumes in buffet containers and refilling more often’. All these actions can realistically be implemented as standard practices by public catering organisations. The present analysis could not confirm that all these actions have actually been implemented, or to what extent, but practical implementation of identified best voluntary practices meeting stated benchmarks is recommended.The Environmental Code is technology-neutral and goal-oriented and participating food business operators are not forced by law or official regulations to introduce resource-saving measures, but this study shows that some measures can lead to a large reduction in food waste. The study does not show whether harsh, i.e. costly, measures can be enforced on businesses, which can only be determined by case law (court practice). However, in the specific cases in this study, measures that could have been enforced based on the Environmental Code would have led to at least 76 % reduction in food waste. This would be a major step towards a sustainable food system.
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| 6. |
- Klingström, Tomas, et al.
(författare)
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Legal & ethical compliance when sharing biospecimen
- 2018
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Ingår i: Briefings in Functional Genomics & Proteomics. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 2041-2649 .- 2041-2657. ; 17:1, s. 1-7
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- When obtaining samples from biobanks, resolving ethical and legal concerns is a time-consuming task where researchers need to balance the needs of privacy, trust and scientific progress. The Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure-large Prospective Cohorts project has resolved numerous such issues through intense ommunication between involved researchers and experts in its mission to unite large rospective study sets in Europe. To facilitate efficient communication, it is useful for onexperts to have an at least basic understanding of the regulatory systemformanaging biological samples. Laws regulating research oversight are based on national law and normally share core principles founded on international charters. In interview studies among donors, chief concerns are privacy, efficient sample utilization and access to information generated fromtheir samples. Despite a lack of clear evidence regarding which concern takes precedence, scientific as well as public discourse has largely focused on privacy concerns and the right of donors to control the usage of their samples. It is therefore important to roactively deal with ethical and legal issues to avoid complications that delay or prevent samples from being accessed. To help biobank professionals avoid making unnecessary mistakes, we have developed this basic primer covering the relationship between ethics and law, the concept of informed consent and considerations for returning findings to donors.
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