New dimensions of market power and bargaining in the agri-food sector: organizations, policies and models This special issue collects selected papers presented at the seminar of the European Association of Agricultural Economics "New dimensions of market power and bargaining in the agri-food sector: organisations, policies and models" which was held in June 2016 in Italy (Gaeta).The seminar gathered 103 scholars from 23 countries worldwide

Eating fruit and vegetables (FV) offers important health benefits for children and adolescents, but their average intake is low. To explore if negative trends with age exist as children grow, this study modelled differences in FV consumption from childhood to young adulthood. A pseudo-panel was constructed using years 1-4 (combined) of the Rolling Programme of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) (2008/2009-2011/2012). Intake of FV in the NDNS was recorded using 4-d unweighted food diaries. The data consisted of 2131 observations of individuals aged 2-23 years. Age-year-cohort decomposition regression analyses were used to separate age effects from year and cohort effects in the data. Total energy intake was included to account for age differences in overall energy consumption. Fruit intake started to decrease from the age of 7 years for boys and girls, and reached its lowest level during adolescence. By 17 years, boys were consuming 0·93 (P=0·037) less fruit portions compared with the age of 2 years. By 15 years, girls were consuming 0·8 fruit portions less (P=0·053). Vegetable intake changed little during childhood and adolescence (P=0·0834 and P=0·843 for change between 7 and 12 years, boys and girls, respectively). There was unclear evidence of recovery of FV intakes in early adulthood. Efforts to improve FV intake should consider these trends, and focus attention on the factors influencing intake across childhood and adolescence in order to improve the nutritional quality of diets during these periods.

Affective processes and the role of automaticity are increasingly recognised as critical in determining food choice. This study investigated the association of affective attitude, self-identity and habit with fruit and vegetable (FV) intentions and intake in children. Previous studies have not fully explored their implications for children of different age groups and have not considered their independent contribution as part of a coherent model of behaviour that also controls for other psychosocial and environmental determinants of intake. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews with 362 children, 9-15 years old. Children were asked to report on measures of affective attitude, cognitive attitude, self-concept, social norms and facilitating factors following Triandis' Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour (TIB). Three stage least squares was used to estimate the independent association of affective attitude and self-concept with intentions and of intentions and habit with intake. Self-concept had the most prominent role in explaining intentions irrespective of age for both fruit and vegetables. The importance of affective attitude varied by age and with fruit and vegetables, with greater importance for vegetables and for children aged 11-13 years. Cognitive attitude was more relevant than affective attitude for 14 to 15 year-olds' fruit intentions. Intake was more strongly associated with habit than intentions, with stronger associations for 14 to 15 year-olds. The current findings support the importance of self-concept for FV motivations and provide further evidence on the importance of habit to FV intake in young and older children and adolescents. Results also support a targeted usefulness of affective attitude for fruit and vegetable intentions. The discussion considers potential ways in which these constructs can be incorporated into interventions to increase FV intake in children.

The continuous aging of the EU population challenges the sustainability of welfare states. Part of the solution is to ensure that people not only live longer but also better (i.e., that they can function independently while remaining free of disease/disability), which may be achieved through better nutrition and adoption of healthier lifestyles. We test that proposition with a behavioural model of diet quality choice and health determination. The simultaneous equations model, which accounts for the endogeneity of lifestyle choices and is applied to a sample of older Italians, allows for bi-directional causality between diet and health. The health production function confirms that good quality diets and other healthy lifestyles (e.g., physical activity, smoking and drinking) improve self-assessed health. In turn, the elderly respond to illness by improving their diets and exercising more. Supporting healthy aging may be achieved through targeted policies aimed at promoting healthy eating and other healthy lifestyles.

World Health Organization estimates that obesity accounts for 2-8% of health care costs in different parts of Europe, and highlights a key role for national policymaking in curbing the epidemic. A variety of healthy-eating policy instruments are available, ranging from more paternalistic policies to those less intrusive. Our aim is to measure and explain the level of public support for different types of healthy eating policy in Europe, based on data from a probabilistic sample of 3003 respondents in five European countries. We find that the main drivers of policy support are attitudinal factors, especially attribution of obesity to excessive availability of unhealthy foods, while socio-demographic characteristics and political preferences have little explanatory power. A high level of support for healthy eating policy does not translate into acceptance of higher taxes to fund them, however.

Introduction: This study investigates how Europeans seek information related to healthy eating, what determines their information seeking and whether any problems are encountered in doing so.Method: A survey was administered through computer-assisted on-line web-interviewing. Respondents were grouped by age and sex (n=3003, age 16) in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Poland, and the UK.Analysis: Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to analyse the influence of social, demographic, psychological and economic characteristics on the information seeking of the respondents. Results: Nearly half of those surveyed do not know where to look for information on healthy diets. Men, less well educated, poorer and sicker person know less about where to look for such information and are less likely to attempt finding it. Most of the respondents searching for information on the Internet use Google as a search tool.Conclusions: Individual and environmental factors affect information behaviour and should be taken into account in public campaigns aimed at changing eating habits of the population to increase their effectiveness. More emphasis should be placed on raising health information literacy of the information-poor, men, the uneducated, and the economically disadvantaged.

Technological change has made calorie consumption cheaper by lowering food costs while raising calorie expenditure 'costs' by making jobs more sedentary. Globalization has also contributed to unhealthy diets and increased obesity prevalence. This has imposed substantial direct (medical) and indirect (productivity loss) costs on economies. In many countries, indirect losses may be higher than direct costs. Improvement in diets is likely to impact particular sectors of the global food economy, for example, livestock products and feed cereals, with substantial broader implications for some developing economies. Of the dietary policy measures available, consumer education and information provision have been most commonly applied.

The Second International Conference on Nutrition, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, will take place in November 2014. In 1992, the First International Conference on Nutrition declared, "Hunger and malnutrition are unacceptable." Twenty-two years later, it is timely to revisit the state of global nutrition and examine the forces that have brought change to diets worldwide. Calorie availability has increased throughout the world, even in the least-developed countries, where per capita availability has grown by 10%. As a consequence, the proportion of undernourished people has fallen, yet obesity has emerged as a major public health concern, primarily in developed countries but also among the growing middle classes in middle- and low-income countries. Globally, the nutrition transition has been affected by increased intakes of livestock products, processed foods, and fast foods. These changes are most readily explained by economic growth, urbanization, and globalization. International trade and liberalization of investment have been the key policy drivers of dietary change.

Summary The EATWELL research project ( www.eatwellproject.eu ) ( I nterventions to P romote H ealthy E ating H abits: E valuation and R ecommendations) funded by the E uropean C ommission aimed to improve nutrition policy in E urope by providing scientifically sound evidence on the effectiveness of past healthy eating interventions. This interdisciplinary project involved academic partners from 5 European Union countries and 10 partners in all. As a first step, the project identified 121 large‐scale policy interventions in E uropean countries over the period 1990–2010 and any existing evidence on their evaluation. Of these policies, 82 were aimed at supporting informed choices, and the remaining 39 sought to change the market environment by enhancing the availability of healthier foods, restricting the availability of less healthy foods or nutrients, or changing relative food prices through food taxes or subsidies. Subsequently, advanced quantitative evaluation models were used to conduct a fresh analysis of a small selection of these policy case studies, based on secondary data. Based on these evaluations, together with garnered public and stakeholder opinion, the project put forward proposals for future healthy eating policies, improved evaluation methods and the collection of better data.

SummaryThere is much talk about the need for policies to be evidence‐based; an admirable objective but not easily achievable, as illustrated in this article with reference to policies to improve diets. The evidence base requires estimates of policy effectiveness (the impact of policy on diets), of the impact of dietary change on health, and an estimate of the cost‐effectiveness of the measure. Each is problematic. Randomised Control Trials are not suitable for estimating policy effectiveness in a market environment so alternative statistical approaches have used existing secondary data, but these approaches suffer from a lack of longitudinal data, the need to use data collected for other purposes, and the absence of harmonised data across Europe. Also, there are often insufficient observations to make meaningful assessments for relevant population sub‐groups such as the poor, elderly or ethnic minorities. Converting dietary change into health change requires data on dose‐response functions that are almost entirely absent, as are reliable estimates of the likely lags between poor diets and poor health outcomes. Cost effectiveness approaches differ between economists and public health professionals; each makes different (if implicit) assumptions about the behaviour of consumers that leads to poor diets and about the need to distinguish between private and social costs. Neither approach is unambiguously correct. Despite all the limitations, the need for policy action is urgent; fortunately the mounting evidence suggests most policies cause a small improvement in diets and that these are cost effective. They are also widely accepted by the public at large.

There is much talk about the need for policies to be evidence-based; an admirable objective but not easily achievable, as illustrated in this article with reference to policies to improve diets. The evidence base requires estimates of policy effectiveness (the impact of policy on diets), of the impact of dietary change on health, and an estimate of the cost-effectiveness of the measure. Each is problematic. Randomised Control Trials are not suitable for estimating policy effectiveness in a market environment so alternative statistical approaches have used existing secondary data, but these approaches suffer from a lack of longitudinal data, the need to use data collected for other purposes, and the absence of harmonised data across Europe. Also, there are often insufficient observations to make meaningful assessments for relevant population sub-groups such as the poor, elderly or ethnic minorities. Converting dietary change into health change requires data on dose-response functions that are almost entirely absent, as are reliable estimates of the likely lags between poor diets and poor health outcomes. Cost effectiveness approaches differ between economists and public health professionals; each makes different (if implicit) assumptions about the behaviour of consumers that leads to poor diets and about the need to distinguish between private and social costs. Neither approach is unambiguously correct. Despite all the limitations, the need for policy action is urgent; fortunately the mounting evidence suggests most policies cause a small improvement in diets and that these are cost effective. They are also widely accepted by the public at large.

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate the sociodemographic determinants of diet quality of the elderly in four EU countries.DesignCross-sectional study. For each country, a regression was performed of a multidimensional index of dietary qualityv. sociodemographic variables.SettingIn Finland, Finnish Household Budget Survey (1998 and 2006); in Sweden, SNAC-K (2001–2004); in the UK, Expenditure & Food Survey (2006–07); in Italy, Multi-purpose Survey of Daily Life (2009).SubjectsOne- and two-person households of over-50s (Finland,n2994; UK,n4749); over-50 s living alone or in two-person households (Italy,n7564); over-60 s (Sweden,n2023).ResultsDiet quality among the EU elderly is both low on average and heterogeneous across individuals. The regression models explained a small but significant part of the observed heterogeneity in diet quality. Resource availability was associated with diet quality either negatively (Finland and UK) or in a non-linear or non-statistically significant manner (Italy and Sweden), as was the preference for food parameter. Education, not living alone and female gender were characteristics positively associated with diet quality with consistency across the four countries, unlike socio-professional status, age and seasonality. Regional differences within countries persisted even after controlling for the other sociodemographic variables.ConclusionsPoor dietary choices among the EU elderly were not caused by insufficient resources and informational measures could be successful in promoting healthy eating for healthy ageing. On the other hand, food habits appeared largely set in the latter part of life, with age and retirement having little influence on the healthiness of dietary choices.

Unhealthy diets lead to a range of serious conditions such as diabetes, cancers, cardio-vascular disease and stroke which, as well as individual pain and suffering and shortened life, create a burden for the state in the form of health care costs and lost economic production; diseases linked to overweight and obesity account for around 5% of total health care costs in Europe, and at least as much again in lost economic production. In this context it is no surprise that healthy eating has become a major public health concern, prompting many European Member States to take measures to improve their citizens’ diets. Neither is it a surprise that governments are at least paying lip-service to a desire that their interventions should be evidence-based, meaning there should be evidence that they are effective and cost effective. Probably, though less explicitly stated, politicians would like evidence that interventions will be acceptable to the public. These wishes are more complex than appears at first sight.

Objective. Poor eating habits are a key priority on the European public health agenda due to their large health and economic implications. Healthy eating interventions may be more effective if consumers perceive their eating habits as a more serious personal health risk This study investigates European consumers' perceived seriousness of their eating habits, its determinants and relative importance among other potential personal health risks including weight, stress and pollution.Method. A quantitative survey was conducted during Spring 2011 among samples representative forage, gender and region in five European countries (n = 3003).Results. Participants were neutral towards the seriousness of their eating habits for personal health. Eating habits were ranked third after stress and weight. Gender, age, country, health motive, body mass index, and subjective health status were important determinants of the perceived seriousness of their eating habits, whereas perceived financial condition, smoking and education were insignificant.Conclusion. Eating habits were perceived more seriously by women, Italians, obese, and younger individuals with stronger health motives and fair subjective health status. Nevertheless, other health risks were often considered more important than eating habits. More or specific efforts are required to increase Europeans' awareness of the seriousness of their eating habits for personal health. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.