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CAWR Newsletter
March 2022
Our monthly newsletters are an easy way to keep up-to-date with new developments at our research centre. From successful project bids to upcoming events, our newsletter informs you on how we are 'driving innovative transdisciplinary research on resilient food and water systems.'
The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the contributors at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Coventry University.
Final stakeholder workshop for TOCASA project in South Africa
Dr James Bennett travelled to South Africa in early March as part of the final stakeholder workshop at the end of the ‘Trade-offs in Communal Areas of South Africa’ (TOCASA) project. The two-day workshop brought together 25 actors from local communities, NGOs, academia and local and national government to discuss the main outcomes from the three year project, and the implications for practice and policy in the management of communal rangelands to deliver the range of environmental and societal benefits required. The final report will be forthcoming and available on the project website.
“Agroecology and Food Sovereignty” at the Caribbean Studies Association
On February 19th, 2022, the Caribbean Studies Association hosted the online event “Young Scholars Dialogue,” where Ms Tka Pinnock (Yale University) spoke about “Development necropolitics in the Jamaican tourism sector,” alongside Dr Georges Félix (CAWR, Coventry University) who shared “Insights on Agroecology and Food Sovereignty in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Sint Maarten.”
Click here to watch the zoom recording.
Working to improve access to postgraduate research for Black Asian and ethnic minority communities: Data Verbalistion Workshop
On Monday 21st March, Geraldine Brown, CAWR welcomed Dr Martin Glynn to deliver a workshop exploring data verbalisation. The workshop is part of a project between Coventry University and the University of Warwick to improve access to postgraduate research for Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.
First in-person meeting for CAWR's new European project on diversity in food systems
Members of the FOOdIVERSE team met in person for the first time at Rauischholzhausen Castle near Marburg in Germany to discuss all aspects of diversity within food provisioning systems.
FOOdiVERSE is an ERA-NET and DEFRA funded international project that examines how increasing the diversity of farmed species and varieties can contribute to wider biodiversity and sustainability gains in the food and farming sectors.
What does feminism have to do with the food you eat?
AgroecologyNow in collaboration with CIDSE has launched a podcast miniseries entitled ‘A Journey through feminist agroecology’ to explore what food systems would look like if they were based on feminist values. See our blog to learn more. Our first episode ‘What does feminism have to do with the food you eat?’ was launched on International Women’s Day and is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcast in English and Spanish.
Peat phase-out: government consultation
parsley thriving in peat-free growing media
CAWR researchers working on the Organic-PLUS project have responded to the UK government consultation, ‘Ending the retail sale of peat in horticulture in England and Wales’. Together with colleagues at Coventry University’s Centre for Business in Society (CBiS), we set out why sales of bagged peat should end as soon as possible: viable alternatives are available; the industry has had ample notice to prepare for a ban and the climate and biodiversity crises make the preservation of remaining peatlands urgent. Peatland habitats are important, biodiverse sites which when degraded, release CO2 and may exacerbate flooding.
Check a Sweet Chestnut
CAWR and Royal Horticultural Society’s citizen science project about Sweet Chestnut tree health now has 103 registered citizen scientists who are recording sweet chestnut tree locations and checking for tree health and signs of Oriental Chestnut Gall Wasp. If you’d like to get involved and join in to help these trees in UK, you just need a tape measure, a mobile phone and your favourite sweet chestnut tree! To find out more and to get involved click here
If you would like some leaflets to share with your group please contact Samantha Green and Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz, CAWR, Ryton Organic Gardens, Coventry CV8 3LG.
Why I’m cutting my wardrobe down to ten items this month – The Conversation
Amber Martin-Woodhead has had an article published in the Conversation and The i newspaper that talks about her participation in Tearfund’s ‘Great Fashion Fast’ and sustainable fashion consumption.
The aim of the Fashion Fast is to fundraise and raise awareness of the environmental impacts of fast fashion and to promote reduced fashion consumption. Click here to find out more.
HopePunk Festival
A festival exploring hope is coming to Coventry at the beginning of April for one weekend only (9th & 10th).
Organised by local health and wellbeing social enterprise Hope For The Community CIC, HopePunk is a weekend festival celebrating the meaning of hope and showing just how important creativity is for health and wellbeing.
Lucy Aphramor from CAWR has been invited to compere Saturday’s spoken word session where people will read their own or other’s poetry on the topic of hope. You can also join Lucy on Sunday for a workshop exploring ‘why we eat what we eat’.
Click here to find out more.
Stronger than stone: what can proverbs tell us about dùthchas?
The Allt which flows from Druim Dìomhain to Gillean Burn in Achnacloich, Skye.
This month, an article by PhD student Ryan Dziadowiec was published in the West Highland Free Press. In it, Ryan wrote about what proverbs can tell us about dùthchas, the Gaelic concept which he is exploring through his thesis. The Gaelic language is very poetic and rich in proverbs, and Ryan found it refreshing to look into this well of folk knowledge for his research.
Click here to read more.
Call for Speakers for CAWR and CTPSR Summer School 5th – 7th July 2022
Collaboration: Strengthening connections with our peers, participants and the community
The Centre for Agroecology Water and Resilience (CAWR) and the Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR) will be holding a summer school this year
We would love to hear from people willing to run sessions at the summer school on the 5th and 6th of July.
We will cover your travel costs and accommodation (if required), for early PhD, early career and non-academic speakers we may also be able to offer a bursary of £100.
To find out more please click here or email Nbuwak Peace Yashim at yashimn@uni.coventry.ac.uk if you have any questions
The Organic Growers Alliance annual general meeting
Francis Rayns recently attended the online annual general meeting of the Organic Growers Alliance. The OGA is community interest company that brings together growers from across the UK, organises regular events and produces a quarterly organic horticultural journal. CAWR is working with the OGA on several activities with the Organic-PLUS project.
Supporting rural resilience and redefining the peripheries
CAWR researcher Iain MacKinnon was among participants from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Denmark and the Scottish and Irish Gàidhealtachds who contributed to a workshop on ‘Redefining Peripherality’ held on 24 March by a Community Development Lens (CoDeL). CoDeL's work foregrounds the resilience and innovation that are found in rural areas sometimes written off as being in ‘terminal decline’. To learn more about CoDeL, click here
Project Launch: Creative Botanical Encounters at Bath
Dr Georges Félix (CAWR, Coventry University) participated in the Online Launch Event of the Botanical Encounters Creative Project, hosted by colleagues at the University of Bath, UK. The project seeks to engage with local communities to decolonise Bath’s picture-perfect green spaces by uncovering colonial links between the city and the Caribbean, where some of the wealth that made the city so attractive was generated through transatlantic slavery. Dr Félix will support this project through a series of talks and collective actions around Bath’s botanical garden, the Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, and at Fairfield House, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Bath and local Rastafari community members.
Click here to watch on YouTube.
Call For Papers: Agroecology and Organic Horticulture
Ulrich Schmutz is co-editing a special edition of the Agronomy journal on ‘Agroecology and Organic Horticulture’. He and his co-editor have made a call for papers for the special edition. Manuscripts should be submitted by 15 June 2022. Further details can be found here.
EURO-FRIEND
As part of the UNESCO IHP EURO-FRIEND project 3 on "Large Scale Variations in Hydrological Characteristics", we will be running a workshop/training series between April and December 2022.
Once a month, we will be proposing either a seminar or training on the use of new datasets, methodologies, or new results in the field. These seminars/training will be open to everyone and will be free of charge. We hope that this initiative can encourage more early-career scientists to join our initiative and enhance the collaboration between the FRIEND community across the world.
Our first seminar, entitled "What is needed to bridge the data knowledge gap in Hydrology", will be provided by Dr. Stefan Dietrich, Scientific officer at the International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change (UNESCO).
Register for this seminar here
About this seminar...
Global change is constantly raising the demands on available water resources. Satellite-based remote sensing of water-related parameters and operational data-assimilation services are becoming increasingly important to assess changes in the global water cycle as part of the essential climate variables (gcos.wmo.int). However, particularly over land or in the deep ocean where space-borne monitoring is not possible, in-situ data provide long-term records of changes in the various components of the hydrological cycle.
Global data centres often operating under the auspices of UN agencies, collect and harmonise water data worldwide and make the global data sets available to the public again. Most of these relevant Global Data Centres, inter alia the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) or the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) are members of the Global Terrestrial Network of Hydrology (GTN-H) that operates under auspices of WMO and the Terrestrial observation Panel of Climate (TOPC) of the Global Climate Observing System GCOS. GTN-H links existing networks and systems for integrated observations of the global water cycle.
The presentation aims to:
- demonstrate capabilities of global water data centres;
- provide information on the latest assessment of observations of the water cycle;
- and to discuss how to start a dialogue between the FRIEND-Water community and monitoring and database system managers on the needs and state of the art to promote research and improve data services.
The presentation will therefore cover the current state of the art in in-situ monitoring of global terrestrial water resources and paint a picture of a global water monitoring architecture.
Events
Catch up on our events and seminars from this month by visiting our YouTube channel
Using Kitchen Table Pedagogy for a Radical Rethink on ‘Healthy Eating’
Studentships
Scenario-building to optimise organic recycling for Anaerobic Digestion (AD) at local levels (supervised jointly by CBiS and CAWR) Application deadline: 30th April 2022
Chemical analysis and bioaccumulation of ‘forever chemicals’ in aquatic organisms - This opportunity will remain open until a suitable candidate is identified
Publications
MacKinnon, I. (2022) On Decolonising and Indigenising Scottish Gàidhlig Studies: A Rejoinder to Armstrong et al. Scottish Affairs, 31 (1): 109-121. https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/scot.2022.0401
Doernberg, A., Piorr, A., Zasada, I., Wascher, D. & Schmutz, U. (2022) Sustainability assessment of short food supply chains (SFSC): developing and testing a rapid assessment tool in one African and three European city regions. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-021-10288-w
Evans, M. (2022) Insecurity, informal trade and timber trafficking in the Gambia/Casamance borderlands. Journal of Borderlands Studies (published online). https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2022.2031253
Pimbert M. (2022) Reclaiming Diverse Seed Commons Through Food Sovereignty, Agroecology and Economies of Care. In: Nishikawa Y., Pimbert M. (eds) Seeds for Diversity and Inclusion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89405-4_2
Evans, M. (2021) Displacement in Casamance, Senegal: lessons (hopefully) learned, 2000–2019. Canadian Journal of African Studies 55 (3): 635–654. https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2020.1869571
MacKinnon, I. (2021) Recognising and Reconstituting Gàidheil Ethnicity. Scottish Affairs, 30 (2): 212-230. https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/scot.2021.0361
Mayer, A.M.B., Trenchard, L. and Rayns, F., 2021. Historical changes in the mineral content of fruit and vegetables in the UK from 1940 to 2019: a concern for human nutrition and agriculture. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, pp.1-12. Historical changes in the mineral content of fruit and vegetables in the UK from 1940 to 2019: a concern for human nutrition and agriculture — Coventry University
