Dataset Information

Vulnerability assessment of food imports-Conceptual framework and empirical application to the case of Switzerland.

ABSTRACT: The world's food supply is becoming increasingly vulnerable because of rising political and climatic crises. To identify food supply vulnerabilities at an early stage, this paper proposes a multifactorial and standardized import vulnerability index (IVI). The IVI encompasses (i) an exporter vulnerability index (EVI) consisting of four exporter-specific factors and (ii) a product vulnerability index (PVI) consisting of three product-specific factors. We applied a robust principal component analysis to derive weights to combine these individual factors into a standardized IVI. The IVI was applied to food import-dependent Switzerland from 2014 to 2019 as an empirical case study. The results showed that a large share of Swiss food imports mainly originated from neighboring countries, indicating a very low to moderate EVI. Regarding the PVI, only product groups that were imported from a small number of countries (e.g., oilseeds) or that showed a low self-sufficiency ratio (e.g., coffee) or high price volatility (e.g., meat) exhibited a high value. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that the IVI showed neither large fluctuations nor a decreasing or increasing trend. With regular updates, the proposed indicator can become a valuable monitoring tool for food supply security.

SUBMITTER: Ritzel C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10918195 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Vulnerability assessment of food imports-Conceptual framework and empirical application to the case of Switzerland.

Ritzel Christian C Möhring Anke A von Ow Albert A

Heliyon 20240224 5

The world's food supply is becoming increasingly vulnerable because of rising political and climatic crises. To identify food supply vulnerabilities at an early stage, this paper proposes a multifactorial and standardized import vulnerability index (IVI). The IVI encompasses (i) an exporter vulnerability index (EVI) consisting of four exporter-specific factors and (ii) a product vulnerability index (PVI) consisting of three product-specific factors. We applied a robust principal component analys ...[more]

PMID: 38455563

Similar Datasets

Project description:Acetamide (CAS 60-35-5) is detected in common foods including milk, eggs, beef, and roasted coffee beans. Chronic rodent bioassays using high doses (≥1000 mg/kg/day) suggest acetamide is a group 2B possible human carcinogen due to the induction of liver tumors. Weight-of-evidence indicates acetamide is not genotoxic, and therefore a threshold response is expected. We used a toxicogenomics approach in Wistar rats gavaged daily for 7 and 28 days to determine the benchmark dose (BMD), and investigate its mode of action from differential gene expression. Two exposure experiements were carried out in succsession. An initial dose range finding experiment used male Wistar rats gavaged daily for 7 days at 0, 30, 100, 300 and 1000 mg/kd/day. A second experiment used both male and female Wistar rats exposed for 7 and 28 days to 0, 300,500,750,1000 and 1500 mg/kg/day. No treatment related changes in terminal body weight, clinical chemistry, or histopathology were observed at doses of 30, 100, or 300 mkd. At 1000 mkd, the dose reported to elicit carcinogenesis, liver weights decreased 1.3-fold with the presence of single cell necrosis, hepatocyte vacuolization, and increased mitotic activity consistent with a 4.2 fold increase in the cell proliferation index. Accordingly, plasma ALT and AST were increased 2.0- and 2.2-fold, respectively. RNA-Seq analysis identified 1 differentially expressed gene at 300 mkd, and 2,685 at 1000 mkd (|fold-change| ≥ 1.5 and FDR ≤ 0.05). Down-regulated genes were associated with lipid metabolism while up-regulated genes included cell signaling, immune response, and cell cycle functions. Collectively, these results revealed a no-observable adverse effect level (NOAEL) and no-observed-transcriptional effect level (NOTEL) at 300 mkd, warranting further investigation at doses between 300 and 1000 mkd to identify the benchmark dose (BMD). Functional enrichment indicates perturbation of cell cycle and lipid metabolism, though a more refined dose-response evaluation will be needed to demonstrate dose-dependent effects related to the MOA of acetamide. Funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1142801).

Dataset Information

Vulnerability assessment of food imports-Conceptual framework and empirical application to the case of Switzerland.

Publications

Vulnerability assessment of food imports-Conceptual framework and empirical application to the case of Switzerland.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets