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Current global challenges such as climate change, lack of resources, desertification, land degradation as well as loss of biodiversity can ultimately be due to human actions. Reasons are excessive production and consumption of goods and services, along with using and consuming natural resources, causing emissions and waste products. Demand in the form of consumption and supply in the form of production are closely intertwined.
The aim of this paper is to assess the objectives of farmers’ challenges in enhancing biodiversity. The so-called “trilemma” (WBGU 2021) of land use stems from the multiple demands made on land for the benefit of mitigating climate change, securing food and maintaining biodiversity. The agricultural sector is accused of maladministration: it is blamed for causing soil contamination, animal cruelty, bee mortality and climate change. That is why farmers are seen as key actors at all levels. They are, however, also key players when it comes to overcoming the problems of the future. Their supportive role is urgently needed, but farmers find themselves caught between a “rock” and a ”hard place”. Consumers are calling for sustainable, environmentally friendly production and inexpensive food products that do not contain pesticide residues, demanding enough food for all. Farmers are restricted by the wants and needs of consumers who are influenced by interest groups and are exposed to direct and indirect influencing factors and their interdependencies. They are also tasked with balancing the scrutiny of the critical public on the one hand, and the control exercised by eager authorities on the other.
As part of the DINA (Diversity of Insects in Nature protected Areas) project, a trans- and interdisciplinary research study, we collected and surveyed the data of farmers who are farming within or close to the 21 selected nature protected areas included in the DINA project. Data was collected as part of a mixed method approach using a semi-structured questionnaire. The methodological and strategic approach and interdependencies of issues demonstrate the complexity of today’s problems. To investigate this, we first used the data collection method using questionnaires with closed and open questions. The conflicts and obstacles farmers face were evaluated, and the results show farmers’ willingness and the importance of appreciation shown to farmers for implementation of biodiversity measures. The paper proposes some follow-up activities (quantitative study) to verify the objectives. The results will later lead to recommendations for policymakers and farmers in all German nature protected areas.
Hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier. When produced with renewable energy by water splitting, it is a carbon neutral alternative to fossil fuels. The industrialization process of this technology is currently dominated by electrolyzers powered by solar or wind energy. For small scale applications, however, more integrated device designs for water splitting using solar energy might optimize hydrogen production due to lower balance of system costs and a smarter thermal management. Such devices offer the opportunity to thermally couple the solar cell and the electrochemical compartment. In this way, heat losses in the absorber can be turned into an efficiency boost for the device via simultaneously enhancing the catalytic performance of the water splitting reactions, cooling the absorber, and decreasing the ohmic losses.[1,2] However,integrated devices (sometimes also referred to as “artificial leaves”), currently suffer from a lower technology readiness level (TRL) than the completely decoupled approach.
Large sections of the German society are able to buy and consume meat on a daily basis due to progress in the agri-food sector. However, the way meat is produced, traded and consumed increasingly has become an issue that is controversially discussed by the media, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), lobbyists, the industry itself and consumers – often with a negative connotation. The meat industry reacts to this. By creating information campaigns and animal welfare initiatives it aims to stress that it is going to take its corporate social responsibilities (CSR) for consumers and animal welfare seriously. But, the industry’s actions are still criticised as being not sufficient to improve animal welfare levels significantly. Much of this criticism can be observed in online news portals, where articles about the issue get published and commented by readers. This makes online portals a valuable source for information that is to be tapped in this study. It aims to better understand the multifaceted discussions concerning animal welfare initiatives in online portals. By applying qualitative content analysis and web mining techniques to a sample of documents taken from three major German news sites it can be shown that online discussions refer to various aspects of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Findings also indicate that the discussions are framed by financial aspects.