NEWS | Chic >
Socio-economic and environmental impacts on the whole value chain
In CHIC we evaluate socio-economic and environmental impacts on the whole value chain of the new developed chicory crops. Therefore a socio-economic impact assessment and an environmental assessment of NPBTs and the whole value chain will be performed.
In addition to these quantitative assessments, a qualitative research on societal issues hindering or facilitating chicory innovation will be applied.
The first steps included collecting and screening information on the CHIC value chain and the current chicory cultivation and inulin, therefore a literature and database research was made. Information on current chicory cultivation, inulin production, terpenes and NPBTs was screened and summarized. Followed by the identification of socio-economic and environmental indicators.
Statistics on international trade of root chicory and inulin from the UN COMTRADE and statistics on land-use, chicory production and yield from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have been analyzed. Figure 1 below shows the gross production value of chicory roots (including intermediate uses like seeds and feed) in 1,000 international Dollars. The five biggest producers of chicory roots, according to the available data, are Belgium, France, Netherlands, Poland, and South Africa. However, the main producer of chicory roots by far is Belgium.
To identify environmental and socio-economic impacts of the new CHIC process and the resulting products (Figure 2) an environmental assessment using the methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and a socio-economic impact assessment using an input-output modelling will be applied. The whole value chain (e.g. breeding, cultivation, processing) will be included in the assessment.
The LCA will give information on e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, primary energy demand, water consumption, land use of the new value chain developed in CHIC. Within the socio-economic assessment, the impact of different NPBTs on economic and social indicators will be quantified such as GDP, production volume, growth, competitiveness, and employment as well as the distribution of wealth and income between different sectors and regions within the EU and the global economy. The results will be used to lead the development within the project in a sustainable direction.
More news about this project:
Assessing the intestinal permeability and anti-inflammatory potential of sesquiterpene lactones from chicory
Chicory is a main dietary source of sesquiterpene lactones (SLs), which have underexplored bioactive potential. It has recently gained popularity due to large quantities of health promoting compounds in its roots, including inulin and SLs.
XI International Agriculture Symposium – AGROSYM 2020
In the article “Metabolic Engineering in Chicory by CRISPR/Cas9 Editing”, presented at the XI International Agriculture Symposium “AGROSYM 2020”, held virtually on 8-9th of October 2020, a recently popular gene editing technique was used to alter chicory genes involved in the metabolism of bitter compounds that belong to the group of terpenoids.
What does young generation think about gene editing?
Since the CHIC project’s inception 30 months ago, several essential steps and first results continue to arise and become available for the general public. More plants are being evaluated, and a variety of methods for testing safety purposes are in development, in the belief that CHIC will bring healthy and safe products to consumers. Even at the onset of regulatory changes in genome-edited plants, the project is moving forward to achieve what the scientists set out to do.
