mtt elo 2010

Chasing the carbon footprint

Page 7Osmo Rauhala

– farmer and artist

4Closing the loop of P

Page 17

MTT at the cutting edge of genome mapping

Page 4

2010

PR magazine

2 MTT ELO PR magazine

Editorial

photo: VEIKKO SOMERPURO

Living Planet – but for how long?Humans are already consuming 50 percent more natural resourc-es than the earth can sustain, says the recently published 2010 Living Planet Report of the World Wildlife Fund. WWF reports on the state of global biodiversity and the ecological footprint of different countries every two years.

According to the latest report, global biodiversity is deteriorating at an accelerated pace and the effects of our ecological footprints are devastating: If humans continue to waste natural resources at the current rate, we will need twice the resources of the earth to satisfy our needs by 2030.

Dr Liisa Rohweder, Secretary General of WWF Finland, says: “The report sets a clear challenge: We must be able to satisfy the needs of the earth’s growing and increasingly prosperous population within the limits defined by the availability of natural resources. We all have to make better consumer choices and find more sensible ways of producing and using energy.”

The report also reminds us about the social importance and role of science. The research community must help the richer countries in particular to reduce their consumption and to also steer developing countries towards the same path. Energy ef-ficient innovations that make clever use of materials will become vital for everyone.

MTT’s researchers strive to find answers to current global issues. Thanks to our multidisciplinary research programmes, we are able to focus on the problems that need to be solved here and now. The eight programmes, which are implemented throughout our organisation, connect us to both national and EU-level research initiatives.

Our programmes are From Fossils to Renewables, Sustainable Use of Genetic Resources, Tomorrow’s Farm, Well-being through Food, Rural Future, Changing Climate and Agriculture, Responsible Food Economy, and Water-friendly Agriculture. Each programme is designed to find ways to create a better, more sustainable world.

This MTT ELO is the first issue of MTT’s customer magazine that has been translated into English. It delves into our most im-portant research themes: the effects of our food consumption on climate change and the reduction of phosphorus levels on fields as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Another important research

priority is the production of fuel from different types of biomass,

such as manure.MTT’s research initiatives ap-

proach bio-economy from a wider perspective, striving to find produc-tion methods that generate, use, and refine renewable resources. We have not forgotten the human element either: We participate in Green Care activities and development initiatives aimed at improving food safety in developing countries.

Ulla JauhiainenEditor-in-Chief

MTT ELO PR magazine 3

s.14

Index:

MTT ELOPR magazine of MTT Agrifood Research Finlandwww.mtt.fi/english/elo

Published by MTT, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, www.mtt.fi/englishe-mail: [email protected]

Editor-in-chief: Ulla Jauhiainen, MTTSub-editor: Minna Nurro, MTTTranslation: Semantix Lingua Nordica OyCover photo: Veikko SomerpuroLayout: ID BBN

photo: VEIKKO SOMERPURO

Edixion paper used in this publication has EU Flower certificate no. FI/11/1

2010

s.10

photo: TOMI LEPORINNE

Genomes open upTechnological development has

accelerated animal genome research.Page 4

Right from the pastureWireless sensor shows bovine health.

Page 6

Footprints left behind?Carbon footprint labels

being developed everywhere. Page 7

The world is changing Global megatrends impact

the Finnish dining table.Page 8

Rich aromasA short but sunny summer

makes Finnish apples tasty.Page 9

Milking timeChef Heikki Ahopelto’s Kyyttö

milk cheese is in demand.Page 10

Rye through the agesRye has been eaten in

Finland for millennia. Page 13

A source of inspiration Having a farm of his own is a part of

artist Osmo Rauhala’s identity.Page 14

Nutrientsto be retained

MTT is developing effective methods for reducing phosphorus emissions.

Page 17

Reducing climate emissions

Research going deeper into the sources of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Page 18

Health care and work in rural areas

A German organic farm employs and trains intellectually disabled persons.

Page 20

Genes in safekeeping Landrace plants are

a treasure trove for breeders.Page 22

A real power berryBlackcurrant is full of healthy compounds.

Page 23

Milk know-how to Kenya

MTT is improving the safety of the fodder-milk chain in Kenya.

Page 24

News Page 26

PR magazine


Genomes open up

text: MINNA NURRO photo: VEIKKO SOMERPURO

Spurred by new technologies, genomics has taken giant leaps forward in recent years. Professor Kevin Shingfield and researcher Anu Sironen study animal genome to find solutions for health and production problems.

Genomics continues to scour the ge-nome in search of solutions to ani-mal health and production problems. When MTT first began animal ge-netic mapping two decades ago, its prime objective was accelerated breed-ing. Today its researchers are delving deeper into the complex interaction between genes and the environment.

Delving deeper

Emerging out of the late 1980s with the development of DNA replica-tion techniques and technolo-

gies, genomics – the study of the genome structure of organisms – is a science still in its fledgling phase.

At that time MTT was quick to join the race in animal genome research. MTT’s pioneer in the field, Professor Johanna Vilkki, recalls how work began in the early 1990s with gene mapping and em-bryo research. MTT has been an active contributor on the international arena, collaborating on a number of projects,


Genomes open up

photo: YRJÖ TUUNANEN/MTT archives

including mapping of the cow, chicken and pig genomes.

“This work led to the production of genetic markers which breeders can use to eliminate undesirable traits or to improve product quality. We will also be able to predict the breeding value of production animals much faster in future”, says Vilkki.

Giant leaps

Spurred by new technologies, genomics has taken giant leaps forward in recent years. Whereas as recently as the 1990s genes were identified on the chromo-some using pretty rudimentary maps, we now have the use of SNP (single nucle-otide polymorphism) markers which can detect single base pair differences. The complete base sequence is now known for the most important livestock genomes.

“Hundreds of thousands of dense SNP markers now enable us to create more accurate gene maps and new, efficient sequencing tools are also enabling the investigation of different gene expression patterns in tissues”, says Vilkki.

Better quality, better health

In addition to genomic fine mapping, MTT has begun investigating the complex in-teractions between genes and the en-vironment. According to Vilkki, genome research is currently following a parallel path to system biology.

Genome researchers are interested in both the quality of animal products and the genomic mechanisms behind animal health. Bovine infertility and mastitis, and egg shell strength are the key focuses of MTT research in these target areas.

“These factors have a direct impact on livestock productivity and competitive-ness. The same problems are common throughout Europe, and international collaborative research is being closely carried out in these areas”, says Vilkki.

MTT has been a key contributor in the 6th EU Research Framework Programme’s SABRE project, which reached the end of its project period this autumn. The

giant-scale project involved 33 European research institutions working on ten dif-ferent project packages.

MTT’s researchers participated in three SABRE work packages in the fol-lowing focus areas: the identification of gene functions involved in conception in dairy cows; the gene-level effects of mastitis pathogen susceptibility; and the production of selection markers for egg shell strength enhancement.

On the molecular forefront

Nutrigenomics – the new forefront in ge-netic research – examines at the cellu-lar and molecular levels how nutrition af-fects gene expression in cells. According to MTT’s Professor Kevin Shing-field the range of potential applications is impressive:

“Nutrigenomics can be used to boost the efficiency and reduce the environ-mental impacts of production, to improve animal health and welfare, and also to raise product quality.”

Shingfield and his colleagues are stud-ying the effects of changes in cattle diet on milk fat synthesis. The objective of the research is to improve the quality of the milk fat and to analyse the mechanisms behind fertility problems in high-yielding dairy cows.

“So far we have completed one trial with a micronutrient and analysed its ef-fects on milk fat synthesis and fat composi-tion. The research can also help advance our understanding human fat metabolism, and we hope in future to extend the re-search also to other animal species”.

Despite new developments in technol-ogy, progress in genomics is inherently slow-paced, and years of dedicated work will be needed before the first conclusive results can be expected.

Further information:[email protected],

tel. +358 40 186 2330 [email protected],tel. +358 40 177 9912

Tracking a jumping geneIn the 1990s, a hereditary sperm defect in Finnish Yorkshire boars, causing infertility in pigs, became rapidly widespread in Finland. Researcher Anu Sironen of MTT traced the cause of the “short-tail” sperm defect to a retroposon, or “jumping gene”, and devel-oped a test with which carriers of the gene de-fect have been successfully eliminated from the pig population.

Work did not stop there, though. The jump-ing gene had positioned itself on the large, complex Spef2 gene which occurs in all mam-mals –including humans. In addition to sperm tail, Spef2 also regulates the development of numerous other cilia, flagella and tissues.

Sironen is currently studying the proteins produced by the Spef2 gene and their function using a mouse model. The aim is to examine how gene silencing affects fertility and other mechanisms such as respiratory tract function.

“The Spef2 gene plays a vital role in repro-duction, and it can also help trace the cause of other illnesses. The Spef2 study may also shed new light regarding human health and fertility”, says Sironen.

Further information: [email protected], tel. +358 40 186 2411

Right from the pasture


Wireless news from the pasture

Is there anything that makes a cow nervous? Does a cow’s heart beat stead-ily for months on end? These are some of the questions that wireless sen-sor technology – being developed by MTT Agrifood Research Finland and its research partners – is attempting to answer.

At the start of the 2000s Tampere Univer-sity of Technology began to develop im-plant methods for measuring physiolog-ical changes in humans. At around the same time MTT was cutting new meth-ods for the long-term monitoring of ani-mal physiology and behaviour.

The two teams of researchers found each other and began to develop wireless health sensors for production animals. The outcome is the promise of reliable long-term data on the cow’s cardiac function, in other words intermediate frequency of pulse, body temperature and behaviour.

The University of Helsinki is also participating in the MTT-led Remowel research project. The three-year, half-million-euro project is part of MTT’s Tomorrow’s Farm research programme.

Bovine results will nevertheless be of no use to humans, as human research would demand several more years of work.

Even a health prognosis...

MTT’s Jutta Siivonen, Senior Re-search Scientist for the Remowel project, points to the need for new inspection methods arising from the increasing size of livestock and decreasing working time per animal available to those tending them.

“Livestock should long remain healthy and livestock tenders need to be able to manage”, she explains as background.

In addition to mapping bovine health it is also desirable to predict approaching oestrus or potential calving problems.

Sensors must be able to provide clear evidence of deviations from normal limits; this might indeed enable the livestock tender to reduce animal illnesses. At its most effective, long-term data would reveal underlying illness.

Soft spot discovered

The most reliable site for a sensor im-plant was found to be above the cow’s left foreleg, close to the heart.

“In the course of one year we have managed to establish the long-term func-tionality of the cow implant – around one month at present. In this we are world leaders”, says Siivonen, with some pride.

Equivalent technologies are of great interest to large-scale cattle-farming com-panies. Remowel research scientists have an abundance of colleagues, especially in Belgium, Holland, the United States and Canada.

Data throughout a cow’s life

The crowning achievement of the Remow-el Project will be the creation of a data bank of the cow’s life cycle. To this end

research scientists are using – a world first – combinations of variables meas-ured over the long-term.

“New technology enables a range of experiments, for example, on a cow’s stress level. At the end of the year we shall be conducting broad research into stress changes in cows at MTT’s Maaninka research station”, Jutta Sii-vonen explains.

Development of sensor compo-nents is so rapid, she adds, that the next-generation component cannot always be applied to technology already adopted. “Although we have occasion-ally encountered this kind of technical hold-up, the project is progressing ac-cording to plan”, says Siivonen, to bring us up to date.


tel. +358 400 594 465

text: HANNU KASKINEN photo: VEIKKO SOMERPURO

Wireless sensor technology aims at easier monitoring of health and physiological changes in cows.

Footprints left behind?

MTT ELO PR magazinei 7

16% of the total climate impact of food consumption is due to house-hold food products and meals. This figure tops 25% when other activities directly related to food consumption, such as domestic food preparation and food services, are included.

The carbon footprint of foods varies enor-mously – up to tenfold – between equiv-alent food products. This puts the con-sumer in a strong position to determine the climate impact of their eating habits through their food choices. Reliable prod-uct information is needed.

“There is a demand for environmental information and ecolabels”, says Sen-ior Research Scientist Juha-Matti Katajajuuri of MTT.

The carbon footprint of foods is calcu-lated and indicated in virtually countless different ways from country to country. Comparing all of this information is a headache for the researcher and nigh on impossible for the consumer.

MTT is working to develop food chain operations that are less harmful to the cli-mate and the environment and to produce footprint information for consumers. The mission of MTT’s Foodprint project is to develop a harmonised calculation method for the environmental impact of foods.

Varying approaches

Food companies worldwide are increas-ingly publicising the climate impacts of their products, for example by marking the carbon footprint on their product packag-es. In some cases this comes in the form of a climate label which is granted to the

text: JUHA HEIKKILÄ

Controlling the climate impacts of food consumption

producer for meeting key environmental criteria as defined by an external body.

For example, in the restaurants of the Swedish hamburger chain Max, the car-bon footprint of different hamburgers and servings can be compared on the menu. In some shops of the French E.Leclerc chain, the CO2 equivalent is shown on the price tag and the combined total carbon footprint of all purchases is printed on the cash receipt.

Harmonisation needed

Carbon footprint calculation standards are in fact currently being developed, but by a number of separate bodies. While this may go part way towards solving the problem, it is by no means an across-the-board solution.

“We carried out comparisons of the carbon footprint results of analyses con-ducted for the same product groups in different countries and found significant differences. The variation was not only due to the calculation method, but also to differences in production methods and conditions,” says Katajajuuri.


tel. +358 50 359 9772

Raisio shows the way

in Finland

In 2008, Finnish producer of plant-based food and feed Raisio Plc became the first company in Finland to introduce CO2 emissions labelling.

Raisio initially indicated the carbon di-oxide emissions generated by its products in grams. With nothing to compare this figure against, however, it was unclear to the consumer whether the figure stated was high or low. To resolve this problem, Raisio this year updated its climate label to include, in addition to the CO2 equivalent, also a colour scale indicating the degree of environmental load.

Several of Raisio’s oat and barley products currently carry the climate label. The company aims to label 30 of its food products by the end of 2010.

“Widespread introduction of carbon footprint labelling is being held back by the lack of international calculation standards and by the fact that not all actors in the production chain yet have the know-how needed to calculate footprint values”, explains Raisio’s Development Manager Mira Povelainen.


The world is changing

text: SARI TIIRO photo: VEIKKO SOMERPURO

Money talks?Professor Xavier Irz and his colleagues at MTT are examining what drives the eating habits of Finns and where the Finnish diet is heading in terms of health. Can dietary choices be steered by taxation?

Finland is about to reintroduce a sweet tax. If similar “sin taxes” are levied on fat and salt, what

changes can be expected on the Finnish dining table? Will Finns get healthier and slimmer? And what will happen throughout the food chain if energy prices escalate, or if more and more people choose organic, locally sourced foods?

These are some of the key questions being examined by Professor Xavier Irz and his team at MTT. Irz is co-ordinator of a research project investigating the effects of global megatrends on Finnish dietary choices and on the food chain as a whole. The project is part of MTT’s Well-being through Food research programme.

A broader perspective

Irz’s team are developing models to de-scribe how changes in the price of pro-duction inputs affect consumer food pric-

es and how, in turn, food price changes affect food demand.

“These questions have already been studied by MTT with respect to functional foods. We are now taking things further and examining the Finnish diet and food consumption as a whole”, says Irz.

According to Irz, broadening the ex-amination scope will provide valuable information for both food chain operators and the national health debate.

“Although the Finnish diet has changed considerably in just a few decades, and its nutritional quality has improved in many respects, we now have new health concerns in the form of overweight and type 2 diabetes. Our research is generat-ing reliable data on how prices influence Finns’ dietary choices.”

A complex equation

Irz’s findings may come as a blow to fat

tax supporters. “A ten percent tax increase on fatty

and fat-containing sugary foods would reduce total fat consumption by only half a percent. Tax increases have to carry real weight to have a substantial impact on public health.”

Changes in food VAT also seem to have minimal impact on the quality of the Finnish diet.

“The health impact of a fat tax is not straightforward because the taxed prod-uct is related to other non-taxed foods through complex relations of substitution and complementarity. For instance, our simulations suggest that, surprisingly, a fat tax would also induce a decrease in the consumption of fruits and vegetables, which is not desirable from a nutritional stand point.”

“However, not all consumption chang-es are tied to prices, so we also aim to carry out a case study of demand for


Rich aromas

Xavier Irztext: MARJATTA SIHVONEN photo: YRJÖ TUUNANEN/MTT archives

The world’s northernmost apples

The MTT orchard in Piikkiö has been breeding the world’s northernmost ap-ples for 50 years.

Professional cultivation of apples is not practised anywhere else in the world at such northern latitudes. The delicious taste of the fruit and little use of pesticides make northern apples quite unique.

Finnish apples ripen during the brief northern summer. However, in terms of the total amount of solar radiation, they receive as much sunlight as their counterparts in Central Europe.

“In addition, here products are after-ripened in cold stores, which further en-riches the aromas,” says Professor Risto Tahvonen of MTT.

Brief summer aroma

The growth environment and a different storage method give Finnish apples a dis-tinct flavour when compared to imported apples. For the same reasons, they con-tain a lot of vitamin C. Indeed, Professor Tahvonen encourages people to eat plenty of Finnish apples – without peeling them.

“Eating apples with the peels is possible in Finland because Finnish apple orchards

require very little use of pesticides when compared to fruit cultivated in the south.”

Winter durability a challenge

Apple cultivation in Finland was dealt a harsh blow during the Second World War, when most apple trees in the country were killed by winter freezes. According to Tah-vonen, winter durability remains the big-gest challenge in apple breeding.

“In addition, we aim to improve the quality of apples – for example, their size, taste, resistance to bruise damage and cultivation properties. In the past decades, breeding has also focused on discovering scab-resistant cultivars in order to reduce the use of chemical pesticides.”

According to Tahvonen, in the future, apple breeding and cultivar selection must focus on climate change. The growing season will start earlier, and the dark, warm autumns will give trees more time to prepare for winter dormancy. Occasional freezing winters should be expected in Finland also in the future.


certain product groups that are perceived as being healthy”, adds Irz.


Background: • Originally from France, currently resides in Finland.

• Interested in biology and economic issues related to agriculture.

• Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (2000) investigating the contribution of agriculture to the process of economic growth in developing countries.

Career: • Senior Research Scientist at MTT taloustutkimus since April 2008, currently Professor in the economic analysis of food markets.

• Economic Adviser at the UK Food Standards Agency in London, UK

• Lecturer in food economics, University of Reading, UK

• Other international teaching and researcher posts, e.g., in France, the US and Tunisia.

Family: • Finnish wife, met in Minnesota; two children.

More:• Astounded at the amounts of pre-marinated meat, health claims and “light” products on Finnish shop shelves. “It’s getting hard to find foods, especially dairy products, that are “non-light”.”

Global megatrends include, for example,

rising energy and raw material prices, tech-

nological advances, global warming, and

increasing environmental and health aware-

ness among consumers.

These trends are reflected on the plate: food

ingredients are becoming increasingly ho-

mogenous and national differences are di-

minishing. The Finnish diet has improved

markedly, whereas southern Europeans have

moved away from what is generally considered

a healthy Mediterranean diet towards nutri-

tionally poorer choices.


Milking time

text: PÄIVI HAAVISTO photos: TOMI LEPORINNE

“Kyyttö milk is ideal for cheesemaking because it curdles easily. Products made from this indig-enous breed also have strong cultural-historical value”, says Master Chef Heikki Ahopelto.

Kyyttö milk –the stuff of gourmet cheese

Chef Heikki Ahopelto achieved his long-time dream this autumn by opening his own cheesery in Orivesi, Finland. His Armas range of cheeses are the result of a unique raw mate-rial and close-knit cooperation with small local producers. They are also playing a valuable role in the con-servation of Finland’s native cat-tle breeds.

The Armas family of cheeses developed by Ahopelto are made from the milk of the Eastern Finncattle, an indigenous Finnish cattle breed popularly known as “Kyyt-tö”. The family includes the crusty-rind-ed Armas, an alderwood smoked Armas, the soft-ripened Brie-type Juhana, and the solid, cheddary Eemeli. The range’s newcomer, Kaleva, is a soft cheese made from the milk of another indigenous breed, Northern Finncattle.

To the master chef, opening his own cheesery meant stepping from the role of commissioning cheeses and building cheese portfolios, into the inner circle of cheesemakers.

Ahopelto gives full credit to the spe-cialists behind his Armas cheeses: the Kyyttö milk is supplied mostly by Pentti Ukkonen’s farm in Ruovesi and the chees-es themselves are made by Peter Dörig at his Mouhijärvi cheese dairy and by Pirkko Heikkilä in Pälkäne – all based in the local Tampere area. Only the Northern Finncattle milk, supplied by Harri Toikka,

comes from a little further off in Hamina. “Pirkko is gradually retiring, so I’m

stepping into her shoes, so to speak. She is also lending her valuable expertise dur-ing these early stages”, says Ahopelto.

Hot demand

The speciality Armas cheeses have been in production for just over five years and are already big sellers – to meet current de-mand for his cheeses Ahopelto would have to expand production at least five-fold.

“Within two years or so I’ll be using all of the milk from Pentti’s farm, that’s 100,000 litres a year, twice what I cur-

rently use. The plan is to make a third of the cheeses myself, have Peter do a third, and have the rest made by someone else”, says Ahopelto.

“I’ve no intention of expanding any further than that. This is all about opti-misation, not maximisation.”

A good curdler

The milk of the Eastern Finncattle breed has unique properties which Finns in times past knew well.

“Kyyttö milk is ideal for cheesemak-ing because it curdles easily. It also gives good yield, where ten litres of milk normally gives a kilo of cheese, Kyyttö milk gives you that plus a hundred grams on top”, says Heikki Ahopelto.

In a recent comparative study by MTT, the raw milk of Eastern Finncattle was found to contain slightly higher fat, protein and lactose contents than raw milk of the Ayrshire cattle breed. In the curdling process Kyyttö milk curd was firmer, the whey clearer, and the coagulation time half as short – all highly sought-after characteristics for cheesemaking.

The comparative study also revealed Kyyttö milk products as having excellent visual structure and solid consistency, making Kyyttö milk ideal for yoghurt and curd milk production.

“Products made from this indigenous breed also have strong cultural-historical value. Kyyttö cattle have been with us


Milking time

photo: VEIKKO SOMERPURO/MTT archives

Finns through some difficult times; as Pentti Ukkonen put it: Kyyttö milk even got us through the war reparations years”, says Ahopelto in reference to the hard times of post-war Finland.

Ahopelto rates other breeds, too, when it comes to flavour. All raw milk is good: summer childhood memories of Ayrshire milk drunk fresh from the neighbouring farm, and of the delicious curd milk made from it, are flavours he will always treasure.

Why’s nobody milking them?

Ahopelto’s interest in the native Eastern Finncattle was spurred after talking with breeders of the cattle. Knowing of the unique curdling properties of the milk, he was astounded to find that the cattle, while being used widely in landscape manage-ment, were not being milked.

“I began asking around and looking for a farm where I could get hold of the milk, and I came across Pentti Ukkonen’s number. I gave him a call, and within two weeks we had a direct sale quota secured for him.”

Ukkonen’s farm currently has seven-teen Kyyttö cows. Half of their output is bought for the Armas cheeses. Part of the milk also comes from the teaching farm at the Ahlman vocational college in Tampere.

The first Kyyttö milk cheese – Juhana – was produced in 2005.

“I asked Peter Dörig of the Mouhijärvi cheese dairy whether he could make me a speciality cheese. The answer was yes, as long I’m happy with a soft-ripened cheese and as long as I provide at least 300 litres of milk. So I hired a whopping 15,000 litre milk tanker from the local dairy co-op and sent him the 300 litres in that!”

The Armas range has since grown gradually in range and volume, with around

50,000 litres of milk now going into pro-duction each year. The Armas trademark is owned by Ahopelto’s own company which he founded in 2007.

Recognition for local food

Ahopelto is a recognised pioneer of local-ly sourced foods. Landing fresh out cu-linary school in the mid 1990s as Head Chef of Tampere’s renowned Näsinneula restaurant, Ahopelto was handed every chef’s dream – complete freedom to cre-ate his own menu.

“I started out in my career, rather oddly, straight in at the top. Having a complete novice as head chef must have been a bit baffling for some I suppose. On top of that, the whole local foods thing was still an oddity for most, even towards the end of the 90s. But the "localness" concept really began taking off as I grew as a chef. It was an amazing time!”

Chef Ahopelto’s guiding principle is that the menu should reflect the place and the season. Ahopelto’s interest in locally grown and produced foods traces back to long before his career in cuisine:

“I was always fascinated by food that had been grown in somebody’s back yard or got from a neighbour.”

Local food gradually became an es-sential way of thinking at Näsinneula. The availability and quality of local foods increased, and a healthy trust relation-ship between buyers and producers grew and developed in which ideas could be freely discussed. In 2005 Näsinneula was awarded the International Euro-Toques Award.

“Suddenly we were on show every-where. People were telling us what a great thing we were doing. We just thought, what’s all the fuss about, this is what we’ve always been doing!”

A vigorous, healthy breedThe Eastern Finncattle, or Kyyttö, is among Finland’s oldest native breeds of cat-tle. Agility, healthiness and hardiness are among its hallmark traits.

Despite these credentials, the breed was brought to the brink of extinction in the 1980s through displacement by the high-milking Ayrshire and Holstein breeds, with numbers plummeting to a precarious 40.

Today, Eastern Finncattle number over 500 head. The breed was brought to recov-ery at the Sukeva Prison farm in Sonkajärvi, Northern Finland. The conservation herd has since been divided between the Kainuu Vocational College in Kajaani, Northern Finland, and the Ahlman vocational col-lege in Tampere in the south, following the closure of the prison farm.

MTT has also played an important role in the conservation of the Kyyttö breed, for example by preserving embryos of Eastern Finncattle and other indigenous cattle breeds in a cryo-bank. In its latest project, financed by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, MTT is investigating oppor-tunities to create productive new uses for Finland’s indigenous cattle through productisation.

Eastern Finncattle are also unique among other indigenous cattle breeds:

“In a comparative study of 35 Nordic, Baltic and Polish cattle breeds, East-ern Finncattle were identified as having the highest genetic conservation value. Its extinction would narrow the genetic variation of Northern European cattle more than the loss of any other breed”, says Principal Research Scientist Juha Kantanen, MTT.

Further information: [email protected],

tel. + 358 40 350 9633


Rye through the ages

text: MARIA LATOKARTANO

picture: JII ROIKONEN

Barely any other grain tastes as Finnish to a Finn as rye. No wonder, as the first signs of rye in Finland go back thousands of years.

When Finns bite into a slice of rye bread, they will experience the same taste in their mouths as their ancestors had already learned to savour in the long-distant past.

Hard to believe? True nonetheless, as Research Scientist Hannu Ahokas, from MTT Agrifood Research Finland, is at pains to point out. He maintains that Finns discovered rye as much as 4,000 years ago.

So, let’s step back in time: 2,000 years before the Common Era, to the Asbestos-Ceramic age in Finland. Utensils are still being made from wood, birch bark and clay, much in the same way as the previous two thousand years. The stone-ground hammer hatchet represents the peak of material culture.

It is here that agriculture ventures its first step alongside the traditional hunting, nomadic and gathering modes of subsistence. Somewhere, on some slash-and-burned Finnish ridge, the first grains of rye are planted.

Hunter’s snack

Prehistoric farmers employed fire cultiva-tion – slash-and-burn and kytö burning – on their fields to improve their nutritional value. Fire cultivation, little by little, de-stroyed the seeds of weedy rye. By the dawn of the 18th century the weedy form of rye had all but disappeared.

Rye capable of withstanding northern conditions also spread to Scandinavia, but for one reason or another only Finns took to the taste. Indeed, as far back as 1555 Swedish historian Olaus Magnus, in his “History of the Northern Peoples”, was able to state that “of the northern peoples only the Finns eat rye bread”.

“The prototype of crisp bread was an entirely Finnish invention. From the begin-ning, the dry, thin pieces of rye bread were baked to fit the bottom of a kontti. Light

Finnish to the roots

Kontti = Finnish name for a type of bag made out of birch bark

Kytö = Finnish name for the successive annu-al burning of the surface soil of fields

Pettu = Finnish name for the inner layer of pine bark used as a food source

Shook = a domed structure made from grain sheaves for the purpose of outdoor grain storage

Sheaf = a tied bundle of grain stalks

Riihi = Finnish name for a drying barn in which grain underwent oven-heated drying

Slash-and-burn = the conversion of forest to field by slashing and burning trees

Stack = a mound made out of root vegeta-bles or grain sheaves for the purpose of out-door storage

in weight and long remaining fresh, they were handy for taking on an expedition”, says Ahokas.

Significant export product

As late as the 18th century, fire-cultivated and riihi-dried seed rye constituted a sig-nificant Finnish export product, with mil-lions of kilos bound for Russia, Sweden and other parts of Europe in the years that produced a good harvest.

“Swedish scientist Ulrik Rudenschöld, travelling in Päijät-Häme, commented that peasants there only ate pure rye on festive days. At other times they ate grain mixed with ground straw and pettu, so that as much of the seed could be sold as possible”, says Ahokas.

According to Ahokas, not all of the sheaves were necessarily threshed in the autumn. Instead, sheaves dried in shooks were preserved over the winter in stacks erected in the open fields. “Stored in shooks, rye is said to be capable of retaining its germinating potential for anything up to 15 years.”

Further information:[email protected],tel. +358 3 4188 2512


A source of inspiration

A desire to understand

text: MINNA NURRO photos: VEIKKO SOMERPURO

Artist Osmo Rauhala’s works are high-ly crystallised and analytical obser-vations of the world, communicated with great passion. It is easy to notice the same marriage of intelligence and passion when the artist speaks about his other life’s work, organic farming.

Osmo Rauhala is one of Finland’s most internationally successful artists. His paintings often depict

animals and various natural phenomena, and only rarely humans.

In addition, the artist uses microscope and satellite images as material, and plays with DNA molecules and hypothetical wormholes in his works. The paintings reflect the desire to understand and re-spect nature.

The same subjects are visible in Rau-hala’s latest major work, the altar paintings of St. Olaf’s Church in Tyrvää. Rauhala worked on the altar paintings of the me-dieval stone church in the summers of 2006–2009. The original paintings and the wooden interior of the church were destroyed in an arson attack in 1997.

In Rauhala’s altar paintings describing the Biblical stories of creation and the Fall, even Adam and Eve are depicted as animals – elephants. The reason for this is that in the wild, the female elephant attracts the male into mating by offering fruits.

Chaos theory paving the way

Rauhala has been expressing himself through images ever since he was a school-boy – he made his first paintings at the age of 12 using his father’s old paints and won a regional drawing competition at the age of 14. Nevertheless, after fin-ishing upper secondary school, Rauhala went to study history and economics at the University of Turku. Only after com-pleting his degree, Rauhala went to study fine arts in Helsinki.

“I wanted to find out how reality works,



Osmo Rauhala

Born: 1957

Lives in:Siuro, Nokia, and New York

Family:Wife Minttu Loukola and children Onni and Liisa

Art studies: Free Art School, Helsinki, 1981–1982Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, 1982–1987School of Visual Arts, New York, 1988–1990New York University, School of Education, 1998–

Recent exhibitions:Osmo Rauhala and Kuutti Lavonen: Sketches for Paintings in St. Olaf’s Church, National Museum of Finland, Helsinki, Finland, 2010 The Origin of Understanding, Museum Arte Moderne, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2009Nature Interrupted, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA; and The Birth of Consciousness, Karsh Masson Gallery, Ottawa, Canada, 2008Before the Horizon was Broken, Groninger Museum, the Netherlands, 2007

Coming exhibitions:Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland, 2012, and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts, 2012.

Osmo Rauhala: Matter–Antimatter, 2004.

outside the scope of positivism. Within a few months, I realised that this was the work I wanted to do,” Rauhala explaines.

Animals have appeared in Osmo Rau- hala’s works since his school days. He finally discovered his own style and im-agery when studying in New York in the late 1980s.

“A big change happened when a teach-er assigned James Gleick’s recently pub-lished book on chaos theory as required reading. The book had a strong influence on me,” says Rauhala.

Wake-up in New York

Another important aspect of Osmo Rau-hala’s life and identity is farming. He has been working his family farm in Siuro, Nokia, since he was 17 – before ever be-coming an artist.

“There are many similarities between farming and art: the nature of the work is cyclical and independent, and the results of the work are clearly visible. In addition, they are both more or less dependent on light and the weather.”

However, Rauhala got interested in organic farming far away from home. “While I was studying in New York, these little grocery shops selling organic food began to appear in our neighbourhood. And there were always queues in those shops. Those little shops have now grown into a chain of hundreds of department stores. The law of supply and demand directed the sales of organic food there.”

Rauhala converted his fields into or-ganic farming a couple of decades ago. In an area of about one hundred hectares, Rauhala is now cultivating organic crops

and blackcurrant, as well as organic grass for a flock of sheep. At the turn of the millennium, his farm took part in an MTT study of the nitrogen dynamics and nutri-ent emissions of organic fields.

Troubling legacy

Another reason for Rauhala’s interest in organic farming was his concern for the environment and his working conditions. “Everyone should have some kind of vi-sion about the sustainability of one’s work. Land should be cultivated in such a way that it yields a crop even after centuries from now,” Rauhala states.

The chemicals used in agriculture and their impact on the nature and people troubled Rauhala already in his youth. He points out that on a historical scale, chemicals have only been used in food production for a short while, and we have no data on their epigenetic effects.

Epigenetic factors refer to regula-tion mechanisms inherited from one cell generation to the next that do not affect the underlying DNA sequence and are not inherited in the “traditional” manner. These factors nevertheless affect the function-ing of a succeeding generation of genes.

“The same uncertainty applies to geneti-cally modified organisms. I don’t oppose GMO technology as such, but I remain unconvinced about the management of its consequences. This is why I believe GMO research should remain inside labo-ratories.”

Attitudes are changing

Organic farming covers about seven per



Rauhala’s identity is built on farming and art. “There are many similarities: the cyclical and independent nature of work, as well as dependence on light,” he says.

In the altar paintings of St. Olaf’s Church in Tyrvää, Rauhala has depicted Adam and Eve as elephants. A plant with the eyes of a snake represents evil.

cent of the arable land in Finland, and the share of organic products in retail trade is slightly over one per cent. Organic pro-duction has been growing slowly in Fin-land, but it has been growing nonethe-less. The biggest change has probably occurred in the attitudes of producers.

Rauhala believes that there are many reasons for the slow growth of organic production in Finland.

“Farmers are used to receiving orders and instructions from the authorities, instead of actively thinking about their op-portunities. The chemical and mechanical industries have major financial interests at stake in agriculture. In addition, the Finnish food industry and trade are highly centralised, which makes real competition nonexistent.”

More emphasis on organic

According to Rauhala, organic produc-tion would offer the Finnish food industry a good opportunity to increase its role in

the economy. His vision is based on the idea that there is plenty of demand for or-ganic products in the world.

“The growth of organic production would have a positive impact on the economy in two ways: a decrease in the use of imported chemicals and energy would create savings in import invest-ments, and growth in the export of organic products would increase export revenues. Focusing on organic production would also be more profitable for the industry than continuing to export bulk products to Russia.”

Furthermore, Rauhala sees other quan-tifiable advantages in increasing the share of organic production: it would improve, for example, the condition of the Baltic Sea and lakes, Finland’s security of supply, and the occupational safety and health and profitability of farms.


Nutrients to be retained

MTT’s active water treatment system turns heads at the international COST 869 meeting in Jokioinen, Finland in summer 2010.

text: MARJATTA SIHVONEN photo: TAPIO TUOMELA

ACTIVE WATER TREATMENT

Professor Eila Turtola surveys MTT’s pilot fields with high expectations. Her team’s laboratory research into active water purification methods have giv-en promising results, and help in the form of practical field applications is on the horizon for Finland’s worst phosphorus-threatened water systems.

“We are now ready to trial our active wa-ter treatment system in the field. The sys-tem’s iron and calcium containing granules effectively bind water-dissolved phos-phorus in the laboratory, but it must also work in the varying natural conditions of the field, in winter and in flash floods”, says Turtola.

The active water treatment system could improve the state of water systems in areas of high topsoil phosphorus content and in the vicinity of point sources such as horse enclosures.

In addition to soluble phosphorus, MTT is also studying means of reducing the transfer of phosphorus to watersheds through field erosion. Erosion has been significantly controlled, for example, by spreading gypsum on fields to bind the sur-face soil. Both projects form part of MTT’s Water-friendly Agriculture programme.

Demand for new methods

In Finland, phosphorus losses from agri-cultural land cause eutrophication, par-ticularly of the waters in the Finnish Ar-chipelago and of rivers and lakes in the intensively cultivated regions of South-ern Finland. There is healthy demand also elsewhere in Europe for effective meth-ods of reducing nutrient losses.

While Turtola is pleased with the tech-nological step forward achieved here, she also looks ahead to a future where agriculture is based predominantly on recycled nutrients. “Nutrient cycles need to be much better controlled than at

for phosphorus

present because higher crop yields will have to be achievable with smaller inputs in the future.”

An overweight nutrient cycle

Intensified agriculture has caused Fin-land’s plant and livestock production to be geographically separated. Chemical fertilisers are used on arable land while manure is left to accumulate in excess at livestock holdings.

Additionally, according to Turtola, Finland’s phosphorus fertilization recom-mendations have been fairly excessive.

“This distorted, overweight nutrient cycle accumulates in the soil, from which phosphorus pollutes our water systems. We would actually be seeing a lot more problems than at present if it were not for the fact that soil can hold vast amounts of nutrients and also withstand other stresses surprisingly well”, says Turtola.

Healthy soil, good returns

Turtola stresses that to improve the state of our water systems, new treatment tech-nologies as well as long-term changes in cultivation methods are both needed. The condition of arable soils is reflected di-rectly both in the environment and in crop yield. The benefits of improving the soil are therefore twofold: reduced load on the environment and ample food production.

The journey from nutrient loss and compacted soils to sustainable nutrient cycles and well-structured soils is long, but changes for the better are already being seen. “The practical changes needed to improve the state of the environment will be taken in due course, if we have the will to do so”, concludes Turtola.


tel. +358 40 595 5405



text: RAILA AALTONEN photo: JAAKKO SUVALA/Rodeo

Turn itdown, but how?Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions must be brought down substantial-ly by the year 2020. Finland’s target is a 13% reduction on 2005 levels. Researchers are searching the cow-house, field and forest for ways to turn down the dial on emissions.

MTT is working on a joint project to produce future emission scenarios. The project esti-

mates how changes in agricultural produc-tion and forest use will effect emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), namely methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, over the next few decades.

“We are drawing up four future sce-narios for agriculture, each of which nev-ertheless includes a range of uncertainty factors. Even in the basic scenario of how emissions will develop with zero changes to existing production methods, emissions can still be affected, for example, by price development and support policies, which can alter the scope of production and its climate impact”, explains Principal Research Scientist Kristiina Re-gina of MTT.

The project was launched during the autumn and is set to continue until the end of 2012. Other project members include the Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA), the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The project is part of MTT’s Changing Climate and Agriculture programme.

Spotlight on the cowhouse

30% of Finland’s agricultural gas emis-

sions are generated from ruminant di-gestion. These emissions can, however, be reduced to some extent by modifying feeding methods.

The first reduction scenario calculates how methane production and manure nitrogen levels could be reduced through modified feeding. At the same time, the scenario assesses how raising average cow age could reduce the methane load per kilogram of milk.

The calculation also assesses the effect of different manure treatment methods, such as biogasification, on the release of greenhouse gases.

Slow-changing soil carbon

A further 20% of Finland’s agricultural GHG emissions are caused by peatland cultivation. The second reduction scenar-io is based on an assessment of meas-ures related to soil carbon stocks and the use of peatland.

“Soil carbon levels are slow to change. The scenario calculations determine the degree to which direct sowing could increase soil carbon stocks in Finland”, says Regina.

The project is also assessing the ef-fects of raising the organic material content of soils. The carbon balance of soils could be improved by adding plant residues, manure or other organic materials or, for example, by cultivating deep-rooting reed canary grasses.

There are around 330,000 hectares of peatland – a soil type highly susceptible to carbon and nitrogen loss – under culti-vation in Finland. Emissions from organic

soils can be reduced by afforestation or by grass cultivation.

The fourth scenario combines the ef-fect of all of the assessed measures and estimates whether by combining different methods the 13% GHG emissions reduc-tion target could be achieved.

Forests as a carbon reservoir

The effectiveness of forests as a carbon sink depends on a complex range of var-iables. To investigate these, four forest management scenarios are being drawn up by the Finnish Forest Research In-stitute. According to Senior Researcher Risto Sievänen, the basic data for the study is already in place.

“We are estimating the effect of dif-ferent harvesting volumes and forest management methods on growing stock development using the MELA forest man-agement planning system. This gives us the forest data we need to make our GHG emission estimates. The calculations also show how the amount of carbon contained by trees and the soil carbon balance evolve in response to different forest management models.”

Focus on wood demand

In the basic forestry scenario, forest use and energy wood demand are based on the for-est policy goals of the current Finnish Na-tional Forest Programme. Energy wood and sawn timber demand are estimated based on general economic development to a high level of accuracy using a balance model de-veloped for the forest sector.



30% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions are generated by ruminant digestion.

Turn itdown, but how?

The first change scenario estimates the effects of increasing demand for forest energy on the amount of carbon seques-tered in trees and forest soil. Forest energy demand can be increased by measures aimed at promoting the use of bioenergy.

The second future model examines the effect of government policy on the promotion of carbon sequestration by forests. The scenario investigates the effects of measures such as the payment of “carbon rent” to forest owners to delay final felling, thus increasing forest carbon sequestration.

The third scenario model examines the combined effects of both increased forest energy demand and government carbon sequestration policy.

A basis for decision-making

The project teams are ready to update their scenario models as needed in pace with the continually evolving forest indus-try and energy policy. Sievänen does not, however, believe any dramatic changes are likely.

“No energy policy or solution is ever going to tip the balance enough to turn forests from carbon sinks into emission sources.”

The scenarios do not set out to pro-vide any recommendations. The task of the models is to assess the alternatives as accurately as possible and to offer a broad basis for decision-making.




text and photos: TUULA AINASOJA

A farm that offersa full life

Inge Karbe, Sales Assistant at the Kuhhorst organic farm, is showing the season’s vegetables to Executive Director Helmut Schattka. The farm shop is frequently visited by busloads of Berliners visiting the countryside.

The Kuhhorst organic farm in Germany trains and employs intellectually dis-abled Berliners. The staff of the social farm help them identify their strengths. Well-being and a quality of life are grown together from small shoots.

The Kuhhorst organic farm is located in the federal state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin. An association for intel-lectually disabled West Berliners founded a modest social organic farm when the lands of East German collective farms were being redistributed after the Ger-man unification in the early 1990s.

Today, the Kuhhorst farm trains and employs 75 intellectually disabled people.

“Basically, we want to offer our cus-tomers what we all want from life: a mean-ingful job and the opportunity to enjoy normal everyday life,” says Helmut Schattka, Executive Director of Kuh-horst farm.

Similar green care activities are be-coming increasingly common in Germany, but the combination of health care and agriculture is still quite rare. The Kuhhorst organic farm is a pioneer in the field, and its awarded model has attracted wide interest.

Wide variety of duties

With a broad range of large-scale pro-duction, Kuhhorst is able to offer duties appropriate for the capacity of each cus-tomer. The farm’s arable land totals 400 hectares and its cowshed has room for more than 200 cows. With more than a hundred pigs, the farm’s piggery offers plenty of work, too. There are about 1,400 ducks and geese in total on the farm.

In addition to a slaughterhouse, the farm runs a cheese factory that also pro-duces curd and yoghurt. The Kuhhorst farm shop sells meat and dairy products,



Sense of community is im-portant for the intellectually disabled people working at Kuhhorst. There is a strong team spirit also in the training kitchen team proudly presenting noodles prepared on the farm.

Kuhhorst is able to offer duties appropriate for the capacity of each customer.

garden produce as well as spelt noodles made of flour ground at the farm mill.

Focus on the quality of life

“Manual work on the farm is beneficial for many intellectually disabled people, and especially at the emotional level, many develop tremendously when they expe-rience the peaceful countryside after liv-ing in a crowded city,” says Schattka.

Usually the intellectually disabled Ber-liners work in workshops manufacturing small mechanical components for indus-trial applications. On the farm, it is easy for them to understand the production processes and the purpose and meaning of their work.

According to Schattka, the positive effect of animals and the rural environment on the well-being of customers is easy to notice, but the authorities remain difficult to convince about the benefits.

“We often feel like we have to beg for

subsidies and funding from the authori-ties, while in fact we provide services that allow the city to fulfil its legislative duty to provide social and health care services to intellectually disabled people.”

Economy in the background

A third of the customers of Kuhhorst live in housing on the farm, and the rest travel daily to the farm by bus from Berlin. The organic farm is located about 50 kilome-tres from downtown Berlin.

“The long distance from Berlin is a problem for many customers. We could have customers come from closer than Berlin, but the federal state of Branden-burg is unwilling to pay adequately for their care.”

The farm’s activities rely on customer-specific commitments made by the City of Berlin. Schattka points out that even a social farm has to operate on a solid financial basis.

Finland seeking a general policy

Green care is a model that has been adopt-ed in many countries in Europe. The mod-el is based on the idea of using the na-ture and rural environments as a source of well-being.

“There are many nature-assisted health care methods in use in Finland, but they should be gathered under a single umbrella term. This is why we have been introduc-ing the international green care concept in Finland,” says Katariina Soini, Principal Research Scientist, MTT.

Soini is heading a project studying the possibility of introducing green care activities widely in Finland. The project is a part of MTT’s Rural Future programme.

“We get a lot of inquiries, and there seems to be a big need for information and advice. We have launched projects aimed at developing green care activities, and the association Green Care Finland was founded in the summer of 2010.”

Well-being from farms

Green care in agriculture has become popular especially in the Netherlands and Belgium. According to international stud-ies, an agricultural environment provides wide opportunities for promoting the men-tal and physical well-being of various cus-tomer groups.

“On a farm, it is easy to assume re-sponsibility for animals and plants, and to learn social skills. In addition, it is important for many people to see the results of their work and to feel a sense of community.”

According to Soini, green care can provide a good additional source of in-come for farms, but the quality of activities must be kept high. A quality system for green care activities will be developed in a project scheduled to start at the begin-ning of 2011.


tel. +358 40 725 1891

Genes in safekeeping


Text: HANNU KASKINEN

Genetic diversityp r e s e r v e d i n l a n d r a c e s

The Lappish potato Puikula is an ex-ample of a successful Finnish landrace plant product. The next success story may be the citrus apple, or the pota-to onion.

Landrace plants preserve the biological diversity. Their cultivation continues the adaptation of plant strain, also during cli-mate change. Landrace plants are thus im-portant for plant breeding and research.

Principal Research Scientist Merja Veteläinen of MTT Agrifood Research Finland explains that bred varieties began to displace landraces in cultivation at the start of the 20th century. Help came from the State when the resources of private individuals were no longer adequate for the transfer of landrace varieties to the next generation.

The national plant genetic resources programme became the responsibility of MTT in 2003. MTT had been working with the Nordic Gene Bank even before the official preservation programme. The NGB was set up in 1979, and preserves cereals, oil crops and leguminous plants, among others, in seed form.

Lappish potato Puikula and citrus apple are genuine Finnish landrace plants.

Preserved in cultivation

Almost all European countries have a pres-ervation programme for landrace plants. In cultivation, however, it is under northern conditions that landrace plants have been especially well preserved. Finnish landrace plants have also been favoured by long distances, which remained unbridged by the trade in seeds and seedlings.

Veteläinen assumes most of the local Finnish cultivated varieties to be cereals, of which the most important is rye, followed by barley and black seeded oat.

Old is ‘in’

Gardening magazines observe that the heritage perennials are now back in fash-ion. There is also a glut of native varieties of the apple tree.

“At an agricultural fair a few years ago some suppliers and top chefs enthused over the citrus apple. MTT preserved a few of these trees at its Piikkiö research station, and now a host are queueing to obtain the tree for their own plantations”, says Veteläinen.

The most important old potato strain is the Lappish potato Puikula. Professional cultivators in Lapland have turned the potato into a product brand.

“We also hope to achieve similar suc-cess with the unique potato onion. This has been cultivated predominantly in eastern and northern Finland.”

Mapping of prospects

MTT will be participating in a project to be launched next year under the EU 7th

Framework Programme. The project will map the plant landraces of Finland and It-aly along with their preservation prospects.

“Landraces in Finland are preserved by family farms, even to the extent of being the pride of the family.” Neverthe-less, Veteläinen points out, there are still varieties to be found that do not belong to the official conservation programme.

Veteläinen and her European research colleagues last year published a book on European on-farm conservation. The book is the first review in this field, and reveals that on-farm conservation in Europe is fragmented to the degree that many varie-ties are threatened with extinction.

“Subsistence farming is important in Eastern Europe, where food shortages are rife. There, landrace varieties have been maintained in cultivation, but are coming under threat as a result of EU subsidy policies.” Veteläinen draws comparison with Italy, where the locale is valued, along with the cultivation of landrace varieties.


tel. +358 400 666 836

Photos: SUOMEN SIEMENPERUNAKESKUS OY

and HILMA KINNANEN


A real power berry

Blackcurrants continue to give up their secrets. A Finnish study has now shown that blackcurrant seed oil pre-vents allergies in babies.

The study, conducted by the University of Turku, found that the children of moth-ers who took blackcurrant oil during preg-nancy and breastfeeding suffered mark-edly lower atopic eczema at 12 months of age than those of the control subjects.

According to coordinator of the study, Professor Raija Tahvonen of MTT Agrifood Research Finland, blackcurrant seed oil contains fatty acids omega-3 and -6 in ideal proportions and boosts the immune system.

Tahvonen’s previous nutritional studies have also indicated that blackcurrant seed oil lowers levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol. The oil must be pressed or extracted from the seed though, as the body is unable to digest the seeds.

Phenolic compounds

“Blackcurrant peel contains other super-nutrients such as plant-protecting phenolic compounds. They also prevent oxidative cell damage in humans”, says Tahvonen.

Red, blue and violet anthocyanin pig-ments comprise the biggest group of

phenolic compounds. Blackcurrant is a good source of anthocyanins, although MTT has identified differences between plant varieties.

The effects of phenolic compounds have been studied extensively on cell cultures. Polyphenols have been shown to resist cancer and inflammation and to prevent Helicobacter growth and attach-ment to the stomach lining.

Japanese studies have also shown that blackcurrant extract helps reduce visual fatigue symptoms resulting from computer eye strain, and a project by MTT and the University of Eastern Finland is currently looking into whether the berry’s phenolic compounds are able to slow the onset of memory illnesses.

Combined affects

Tahvonen emphasises that the beneficial effects of blackcurrant are not down to any single magic nutrient or compound.

“The flesh and peel of blackcurrants also contain plenty of vitamin C and E and minerals and micronutrients. They are also rich in fibre.”

The most effective health cocktails are achieved by combining several types of berry. Trials conducted in Finland in which subjects ate around 150 grams of

Finnish berries each day have shown that the berries lower blood pressure, raise good cholesterol, strengthen the immune system and reduce the risk of diabetes.

Freeze for best results

Around 1,700 hectares of blackcurrant are currently commercially cultivated in Finland, although this figure is in decline. According to MTT, blackcurrant can be competitively produced if the best bed-ding and watering methods and yielding varieties, as identified in its research, are introduced and if the cultivation area is at least 10 hectares.

New varieties bred by MTT also offer an alternative milder flavour to traditional blackcurrant.

Blackcurrant is used industrially to produce juices, jams, jellies, berry pow-der, purees, seed oil. Home growers can simply freeze them whole or dry them, for example as a muesli supplement. The best way to preserve the important health properties of blackcurrants and blackcurrant juice is freezing.


Your very good health!

Text: PÄIVI HAAVISTO

Photo: TAPIO TUOMELA/MTT archives



Finnish training adds

safety to Kenyanmilk production

text: ANNA-MARIA MÄKI-KUUTTI Photos: ERIC ISSELEE/Rodeo and HANNU KORHONEN

• Coordinator: Professor Hannu J. Korhonen, MTT

• Partners: Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, University of Nairobi, Egerton University, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute

• Project duration: 2010–2013

• Objective: To establish a modern reference laboratory at the University of Nairobi and investigate the presence of mycotoxin and antibiotic residues in the Kenyan milk production chain

• Budget: EUR 590,000

• Financed by: Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Building capacity to improve safetyin the feed-dairy chain in Kenya



A bovine animal kept in the rear court-yard of a block of flats is a common sight in Nairobi. A familiar sight for Hannu Korhonen, too, whose dream of bringing better monitoring and safety to Kenya’s dairy production al-so extends to these city cows.

Listening to Professor Hannu Korhonen, a certain, familiar phrase springs to mind: “You can leave Africa, but Africa never leaves you”.

Korhonen, who works at MTT Agrifood Research Finland, was last in Kenya on a decade-long assignment in the 1980s. There he witnessed the long arc of Kenya’s agricultural development work at first hand. This sizeable project was wound down at the start of the 2000s when Finland joined other Nordic nations in pulling out of Kenya in protest at the country’s undemocratic direction.

Kenya now has a multi-party system, although politically the situation remains troubled. Korhonen has returned to Kenya at the helm of a new development coop-eration project, with mixed feelings.

A major source of revenue

The new project aims at improving the safety and hygiene of the fodder-milk chain.

“The strong position of milk in the Kenyan diet and the regulations which secure unlimited production and market-ing conditions are positive developments. Nevertheless, the boom in production makes quality difficult to monitor”, says Korhonen.

Milk is a significant source of revenue both for small farmers in rural districts and for city-dwellers: it is not unusual to see city cows grazing in the rear courtyards of

blocks of flats, right in the heart of Nairobi. As many as four million Kenyans each

own a few milk cows. Close to 70 per cent of the milk produced is sold unpasteurised in unofficial markets direct from producer to consumer.

Lab under development

The milk production chain in Kenya is not systematically monitored, something that is evident in the amount of biological con-taminants. Approximately every tenth milk sample contains antibiotic residues, de-riving from uncontrolled veterinary medi-cation. The equivalent number in Finland is a thousand times smaller. Fungal tox-ins, or mycotoxins, occur in every third Kenyan milk sample and in over half of feed samples.

The project will improve the safety monitoring of the milk chain through the establishment of a modern research and monitoring laboratory at the University of Nairobi. “We have already delivered the stock of equipment and materials needed to set up the laboratory. Training of technical staff and research scientists has begun”, Korhonen explains.

In five years’ time, the facility aims at serving customers throughout East Africa. It is envisaged to operate as a reference laboratory, working according to EU standards, and issuing internation-ally approved certificates for the quality of certain food products.

Toxins and milk

Background information on the presence of mycotoxin and antibiotic residues in the milk production chain will also be col-lected from two project areas in Eastern and Western Kenya. Mycotoxin analysis will extend to the diet of rural inhabitants,

in addition to the hundreds of milk and thousands of feed samples. The map-ping will be used to assess the extent of health risks caused by these biological contaminants throughout the food chain.

“The data obtained will create a ba-sis for legislative and educational work. We will be generating information and endeavouring to use it to influence the authorities, farmers, feed mills, dairies and consumers.”

Biological contaminants in milk are the cause of serious health problems, such as poisoning and cancer. Finnish research scientists visiting the project area last spring were also able to participate in identifying the source of the problems:

“Feedstuffs become contaminated as there are no proper storage facilities. Toxins transfer to milk, and eventually to humans, through cows eating contami-nated feed.”

Towards a better future

Half of Kenya’a ethnically and culturally diverse population lives below the poverty line. Climate change is already hindering the practice of agriculture in East Africa, causing irregular rainfall, exacerbating droughts and facilitating the growth of moulds.

Improving safety in the milk produc-tion chain is just a small step towards improving living conditions, and more will need to be done.

The Kenya project is, in fact, part of a broader food safety programme in West and East Africa currently being prepared by MTT at the behest of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.


tel. +358 40 548 6960


News

Statistics from England and Wales sug-gest that a total of 3.6 million tonnes of perfectly edible food is thrown away every year. In Finland, considerable amount of food is wasted as well. The FOODSPILL survey of MTT Agrifood Research Finland studies the amount of food wasted and the reasons for the trend.

“Due to the amount of food waste, the environmental effects of many food items are much more severe than those of packaging and waste management, for example. However, consumers see food packaging as a bigger environmental issue than the amount of wasted food”, explains Juha-Matti Katajajuuri, Senior Research Scientists at MTT.

According to him, there are no previ-ous studies in Finland that cover the entire food chain, and individual surveys have only looked at small sample populations. International studies also show a lot of variation.

“Many of the earlier studies conducted around the world are marred by notable uncertainties, which is why we can only really work on estimates when it comes to the amount of waste. Comparing dif-ferent studies with each other has proven extremely difficult,” Katajajuuri explains.

This is why a lot of thought went into the methodology of the FOODSPILL survey before the project got under way.

photo: OLLI HÄKÄMIES/MTT archives

The food waste question

Plate waste under scrutiny

The FOODSPILL survey focuses on house-holds and restaurants, and more specifi-cally on the least known factor in that sec-tor: plate waste.

Research scientists are monitoring the amount of food wasted by more than 400 Finnish households by means of question-naires and food journals. The participating households will keep a detailed diary of the weights and types of food they throw away during a two-week period, as well as recording their reasons for discarding the food. The amount of food purchased is also monitored.

In addition to the information gained from these food journals, Finnish food companies have agreed to send the re-search team statistics on the amount of food that they discard.

“We are also looking into ways to con-siderably cut the amount of food waste. Our goal is to significantly reduce the amount of food binned at different stages of the food chain and by households”, Katajajuuri sums up.


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Baltic BatMan turns manure

into moneyCoordinated by MTT, the Baltic BatMan re-search project is developing renewable en-ergy and organic fertilizers from the manure of domestic animals. The objective of the project is to create new manure treatment methods and business opportunities for the productisation of manure.

The Baltic BatMan project involves a total of eighteen research and technology transfer organizations from eight countries in the Baltic Sea region. The project will disseminate in-formation on existing best practices in these countries as regards manure treatment tech-nologies. Special attention is being paid to the increased efficiency of phosphorus recycling.

There are around 36 million head of cat-tle, 67 million pigs and 190 million units of poultry in the countries participating in the research project.

From problem to commodity

Technology Research Director Markku Järvenpää from MTT says that ma-nure is the only agricultural product that is not yet commercially utilised. Up until now manure has mainly been considered an en-vironmental problem, but Baltic BatMan ex-amines it as one among many commodities.

“The intention is to create a forum bring-ing together the producers and users of new manure treatment technologies as well as research and political decision-making,” Järvenpää outlines.

A major challenge for the project is the fact that agriculture, technology, resources and administration are different in each coun-try. Järvenpää points out that this will make it necessary to find solutions for various structures and conditions.

Funded through EU Baltic Sea Region Programme, the total budget of the Baltic BatMan project is EUR 3.74 million. In addition to MTT, the participants from Finland are the Finnish Environment Institute, the University of Helsinki and Turku Science Park Ltd.


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News

kuva: Rodeo/JUHA TUOMI

Baltic Seain dire

straits?Survey results show that Finns are more concerned about the health of the Baltic Sea than the residents of other coastal states. A total of 9,000 people from dif-ferent countries bordering the Baltic Sea were interviewed to find out how the sea is used and how people feel about its protection.

According to Heini Ahtiainen, Research Scientist at MTT, Finns consider the health of the Baltic Sea relatively poor. “Most of the respondents also felt that the situation has deteriorated in recent years. According to the Finnish respondents, the biggest problems are the risks associated with oil shipments and blue-green algal blooms,”, says Ahtiainen.

The survey is linked to the PROPABS research project which MTT coordinates. The project is aimed at studying the costs and benefits of protecting the Baltic Sea and involves close cooperation with the international research community.

According to the survey, approximately 40% of Finns have donated money to-wards the protection of the Baltic Sea, and approximately one third would be willing to pay even more. In addition to the Finns, Polish and Danish respondents in particular were also willing to increase spending. The most popular solution to this was an emission charge.


photo: JUHA HEIKKILÄ

The production of protein has more than doubled in Europe during the past thir-ty years. However, the growth in demand has nearly matched this rate. The sourc-es of feed protein include oil crops and legumes: soya beans, rapeseed, turnip rape, peas and faba beans.

Only one third of all crop-based feed protein consumed in the EU is produced within the union’s borders. Finland’s self-sufficiency reaches this level in the best years of production. France is the most self-sufficient protein producer in the EU, whereas Spain, for example, imports four fifths of the feed protein it uses.

A research project at MTT Agrifood Research Finland is looking for ways to improve Finland’s self-sufficiency in feed protein. A large share of the results are applicable elsewhere in Europe.

“Our aim is to determine the bottle-necks in production. We want to establish Finland’s production potential and the

Towards a Europeself-sufficient in protein

reasons why we are not living up to that potential. Based on economic and climate forecasts as well as long-term data on plant production we try to estimate what production in Finland could be like in the world of the 2020s,” says Professor Pirjo Peltonen-Sainio from MTT.

Self-sufficiency in protein is already an issue of security of supply, and its importance will only increase with climate change. Natural disasters may have strong impacts on the availability and price of protein, while imported protein also in-volves the risk of salmonella.

“On the other hand, climate change may bring about major leaps in Finnish feed protein production, as it will make it possible to cultivate legumes and winter varieties of oil crops in Finland,” Peltonen-Sainio points out.


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Vitality throughscience

MTT, Finland’s leading research institute in the agriculture and food sector and in environmental research related to agriculture, cultivates innovations from renewable natural resources. Our areas of research are biology, technology and economics. We produce scientific research information and develop and transfer technology for the entire agriculture and food sector. MTT creates vitality through science.

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Research programs• Rural Future• Tomorrow’s Farm• Well-being through Food• Responsible Food Economy• From Fossils to Renewables• Changing Climate and Agriculture• Water-friendly Agriculture• Sustainable Use of Genetic Resources

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