Traditionally the evaluation of animal genetic traits has focused primarily on production traits and the construction of selection indices. Selection indices, however, fail to consider the effect of management practices and the environment on productivity. Non-production traits are either...

The work presented here was conducted as part of an EU-funded five year project investigating pathogens in the food chain, called "Control and prevention of emerging and future pathogens at cellular and molecular level throughout the food chain". Using a questionnaire, research was carried out...

The purpose of the paper is to present an agricultural supply model for Scotland used to estimate regional changes in agricultural outputs due to the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. Supply functions were estimated for several farm types based on generalised trans-logarithmic...

UK Government departments are required to undertake a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) when introducing any policy change that places a burden on businesses, charities, the voluntary sector or individuals. Part of this assessment involves the appraisal of the costs (and benefits) associated...

A basic right of both a consumer and a citizen is the right to be heard, and their voiced concerns have to be taken into account when developing policies and obtaining trust for government actions. Therefore this study focuses on consumers’ interests, opinions and expectations which are...

Data from each of 5 commercial, extensive sheep farms in Cumbria, UK were used as parameters in a linear program (LP) representing labour and grazing management in such farming systems. The LP maximised ewe enterprise gross margin subject to constraints dictated by the labour availability and...

The recent rise in food prices has increased concern about the choice of a healthy food basket, especially in the context of the current formulation of a National Food Policy for Scotland. This concern has revived interest in food price and expenditure demand systems as they provide information...

As human societies are beginning to feel the early effects of 21st Century climate change, adaptation is becoming an increasingly important area of enquiry across a range of human sectors and activities. This is particularly true for the health sectors of tropical developing countries, as many...

The relationship between unemployment and growth (i.e., the so-called Okun’s Law) has long standing in macroeconomics and regional economics. In this paper we estimate such a relationship for Scotland and at the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) level 3 regions using a...

The purpose of this study is to analyse the demand for fresh fruits in Scotland in order to provide evidence about their sensitivity to changes in prices and income. Six fresh fruit categories were studied using time series for the period 2006 to 2011: citrus, apples and pears, bananas, grapes...