Sainsbury's (United Kingdom)

Organic mulches are a traditional method of groundcover management in temperate commercial orchards, now largely replaced by herbicides and synthetic fertilisers. As a potential contribution to improving orchard sustainability, we hypothesised that the addition of organic mulches would: (H1) improve soil fertility and lead to greater tree growth and yields; (H2) support a larger and more biologically active community of soil organisms, assessed as increased soil respiration and greater earthworm numbers and biomass; and (H3) increase leaf litter decomposition and burial, potentially reducing the risk of apple scab disease (Venturia inaequalis). Cuttings from two legume-based cover crop mixtures grown in the alleyway spaces between tree rows and two traditional mulch materials, straw and compost, were trialled alongside a bare soil business-as-usual control for two years, using a randomized complete block design in a conventionally managed commercial ‘Gala’ apple orchard in the UK.Compared to the control, the compost mulch significantly increased both soil carbon and nitrogen by over 50 %. The straw mulch effectively suppressed weeds by about 90 % and increased soil moisture by about 5 %. Cover crop cuttings increased moisture levels and increased earthworm numbers and mass by 1.7 and 1.8 times greater respectively in the double-rate ‘legume-grass’ cuttings treatment. Increasing the quantity of cover crop cuttings produced more positive effects; the cumulative addition of cuttings can benefit several soil-derived ecosystem services. This study took place in a commercial apple orchard, the findings may therefore be applicable to other orchard and row-grown perennial crops.

Abstract The British Nutrition Foundation held a 1‐day roundtable event to gather views from a wide range of stakeholders on the relevance and importance of the concept of nutrient density in supporting and motivating people to make healthier dietary choices. The opportunities and barriers associated with the use of this concept were also explored. The roundtable involved experts from research, public health nutrition, dietetics, retail and nutrition science communication, and this report describes the main themes emerging from the discussions. High obesity prevalence rates indicate that, on average, we are consuming too many calories relative to energy requirements; yet, the quality of our diets, with respect to certain vitamins and minerals and fibre, seems to be falling somewhat short of recommendations. Addressing this issue may require a more holistic approach than the current focus on restricting single nutrients prevalent in public health messaging internationally. Most members of the roundtable felt that communicating the concept of nutrient density may help in encouraging healthier food choices and dietary patterns that are higher in nutritional quality. However, while nutrient profiling has been used to guide front‐of‐pack labelling and in restricting the advertising of less healthy foods to children, there is a lack of consensus on the precise definition of a ‘nutrient dense’ food or which nutrients should be used as markers of the ‘healthiness’ of foods/drinks, and the term seems to be poorly understood by consumers and health professionals alike. Therefore, further work is required if tools around this concept are to be developed to try and successfully promote behaviour change.

Abstract We consider the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into the proposed merger of UK grocery and fuel retailers Sainsbury’s and Asda. The CMA prohibited the merger in April 2019, based on a finding of widespread competition concerns. In this article we examine in particular the CMA’s assessments of the proposed merger’s effects on the merging parties’ unilateral incentives to worsen their offering across their businesses—for example, by raising supermarket product prices nationwide. We note that the CMA’s concerns on a national basis arose exclusively from the aggregation of the competitive impacts in individual local areas. We consider to what extent this is likely to be the case in other mergers with somewhat similar features. We also consider under what circumstances an assessment of national-level concerns is necessary when the relevant geographic markets have been defined as local. We address the relationship between the CMA’s national-level analysis and its assessments of the merging parties’ incentives to worsen their offerings at specific stores. Finally, we discuss the ways in which the CMA’s national-level concerns affected its analysis of possible remedies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between quality of leadership and attitudes to work and a sense of wellbeing at work, and organizational performance. This is a longitudinal empirical investigation, using quantitative methods. The findings were fourfold: the leadership instrument used was demonstrated to have convergent, discriminant and predictive validity; differential relationships were found between three aspects of quality of leadership and attitudes to work and a sense of wellbeing at work; one leadership "engaging with others"--was shown to be a significant predictor of organizational performance; leadership quality as assessed by competencies or "capabilities" did not predict performance. The paper presents evidence of: the validity of a new leadership instrument; the differential relationship between leadership quality and staff attitudes to work and their sense of wellbeing at work; and a predictive relationship between leadership quality and organizational performance.

While the NHS faces a summer of industrial action over pay, the Mental Health Bill continues its own troubled progress in Parliament.

The relationship between the Department of Health and the NHS has always been fraught. Often the difficulties managers experience in gaining the confidence of clinicians and the public results from their awkward position between the two.

Managing the NHS is a difficult business. We know this from the reaction in this and other journals to Gerry Robinson's BBC2 / OU television series attempting to ‘turn around’ Rotherham Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

One of the pleasant surprises of the 2005 NHS Confederation Conference was an outspoken speech from the Confed's chief executive Dame Gill Morgan.