CAWR Newsletter

July 2020

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.

News

Coventry University set to be UK base of European sustainable food and farming project

The Agroecology for Europe (AE4EU) scheme has just been awarded a €2m funding boost from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme.

"Now that the university legally owns the Ryton site it is also in a position to formally guarantee the delivery of this ‘UK knot’ of a European living lab network of Agroecology."

Read more from the press release by clicking here.

BOND Project Dissemination Initiative in Portugal

More than 50 farmers and leaders of peasant organisations attended an event hosted by Portugal’s National Confederation of Agriculture (CNA) ‘Family Farming and the impacts of COVID-19: Facing the crisis with strong collective action’ in Coimbra on the 4th of July 2020. Participants debated the situation of agriculture and the collective challenges thousands of Family Farmers face, particularly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a presentation of good practices identified at national level, participants discussed successful collective action practices. Policy recommendations that emerged from BOND's national workshops and regional policy roundtables were presented. The meeting resulted in several recommendations for the agricultural sector: measures that promote sustainable production and consumption models and the necessity to promote local fairs and markets. The implementation of the Family Agriculture Statute is required as it is an instrument for Family Farming development that could help solve many farmers’ problems.

CNA observed strict sanitation measures for the event, which took place within the scope of BOND, a Horizon 2020 project financed by the European Union and led by Coventry University. CNA is one of 17 partners in BOND’s consortium.

Click here to read more. 

TRUE Trials 

Trials for the TRUE project continue in the CAWR research polytunnel on an impressive scale! We are growing sweetcorn as a test crop to assess the performance of leguminous green manures previously grown in the same soil. Green manures/cover crops are generally under-utilised in protected cropping, so we hope to find ways of incorporating fast growing legumes into crop rotations. The sweetcorn is growing very well and at this relatively early stage, there do seem to be differences between the treatments. Once samples have been taken for analysis, the remaining crop will go into the weekly share of 5 Acre Farm, the Community Supported Agriculture scheme based at Ryton who we are working with closely on a number of trials.

What the transition to capitalism means in the Scottish Highlands - webinar now available on YouTube 

This month, Elise Wach presented a webinar on "What the transition to capitalism means in the Scottish Highlands" which can now be found on our YouTube channel if you missed it! Click here to view the video. 

Call for papers in Special Issue "Advanced Materials in Environmental Chemistry" of Molecules journal

For more information on the call for papers in Special Issue "Advanced Materials in Environmental Chemistry" of Molecules journal (ISSN 1420-3049) please click here. 

 Call for papers in Special Issue "Political Ecology, Agroecology, and Food Sovereignty’" of Sustainability journal

This Special Issue is concerned with linking the analysis of capitalism and its ecological contradictions to a political ecology of emancipatory praxis—in other words, how to confront and resolve these contradictions through social relational transformation that constructs noncapitalist political structures in alignment with ecological capacities. This praxis will focus on two approaches to the means of generating human sustenance that is socially egalitarian and ecologically sustainable—agroecology and food sovereignty. Thus, agroecology is an approach to farming that ecologically attempts to provide sustainable yields through the use of environmentally sound management technologies, while politically it pursues “forms of social action which redirect the course of co-evolution between nature and society in order to address the crisis of modernity”. Food sovereignty bases itself on agroecology, whilst emphasizing the political dimension which “implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social and economic classes and generations.” For more information please contact Mark Tilzey.

Alternatives to plastic mulch trial progress

In early July, Judith Conroy, project manager of the CAWR-led Organic-PLUS project visited blackcurrant grower Ben Coode Adams in Essex, to see how his trial of alternatives to plastic mulch was progressing. The trial is part of an Innovative Farmers field lab, a farmer-led scheme where both organic and non-organic growers/farmers come together to solve common problems with the input of researchers. Ben is assessing a range of alternatives to fossil-derived plastic including a biodegradable film but also more integrated systems solutions such as chipped wood produced on-farm; this is complementary to the work that the team are conducting at Ryton with a range of alternative materials. For further information, visit the Organic-PLUS website.

5 reasons why environmentalists should oppose Britain’s agriculture bill

Elise Wach wrote an article for The Conversation - 5 reasons why environmentalists should oppose Britain’s agriculture bill. Click here to read the article. 

PhD Success 

Jordon Lazell successfully defended his thesis on "The Problem of Food Waste at the Consumer level: Exploring the social-spatial-temporal conditioning of practices in everyday life." Congratulations Jordon!

How can the right to food address the needs of marginalised and underrepresented groups?

Jasber Singh wrote an article for the Mayors office in London by discussing ways to tackle food insecurity and champion children's right to food. Click here to read the article. 

Environmental effectiveness of organic management options

The final report of a Defra funded desk study has just been published online: What evidence is there that organic farming has environmental benefits and how best can we monitor future impacts? This project was led by Peter Carey of Bodsey Ecology with Mary Dimambro (Cambridge Eco) and Francis Rayns (CAWR) as partners. The aim was to assess the environmental value of the Organic Options within the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and to explore the options for developing a monitoring system that would not be disproportionately expensive to carry out. You can find the report here. 

PhD studentships available

Coventry University have launched a suite of fully-funded PhD studentships on themes related to COVID-19 and the post pandemic future. We are proud to be accepting applications for 3 funded PhD projects starting in January 2021. 

Portable Hand-washing Facility using Bio-based Materials for Sustainable Water Treatment: Increase Pandemic Preparedness

Application deadline: Friday 14th August 2020

To find out more about the project please click here or contact Anna Bogush.

COVID-19 and food insecurity in the UK: looking beyond emergency responses to strengthening community food resilience

Application deadline: Friday 14th August 2020

To find out more about the project please click here or contact Lopa Saxena.

Moving beyond food waste-based solidarity kitchens in time of crisis: the role of agroecology-based community kitchens in building community resourcefulness

Application deadline: 15th October 2020

To find out more about the project, please click here or contact Chiara Tornaghi.

Publications 

Adam-Bradford, A., El-Kahlout, G., Byrne, R., Wright, J., & Rahman, M. (2020). Stabilisation Agriculture: Reviewing an Emerging Concept with Case Studies from Afghanistan and Iraq. CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 15, [042]. 

Dimambro, M., Rayns, F., Steiner, J. and Carey, P. (2018). Countryside Stewardship organic management and conversion options: A scoping study to establish a monitoring protocol. Literature review. Published online by Defra

Bogush A., Maadawi Z.E., Uğural B.K., Nudi L.B., Hassan J.M., Erden S., Jones A., Greenfield D. Inspiring the Young Generation with Circular Economy: EduKid-CE transnational project as a case study. Online Symposium on Circular Economy and Sustainability, INFER2020, Alexandroupolis, Greece, 1-3 July, 2020, oral presentation (Bogush A.).

Carey, P., Dimambro, M. and Rayns, F. (2020) Countryside Stewardship organic management and conversion options: A scoping study to establish a monitoring protocol: Methods, power analysis and costing. Published online by Defra

Dimambro, M., Rayns, F., Steiner, J. and Carey, P. (2018). Countryside Stewardship organic management and conversion options: A scoping study to establish a monitoring protocol. Literature review. Published online by Defra

Jactel, H., Desprez-Loustau, M.L., Battisti, A., Brockerhoff, E., Santini, A., Stenlid, J., Bjorkman, C., Branco, M., Dehnen-Schmutz, K., Douma, J.C., Drakulic, J., Drizou, F., Eschen, R., Franco, J.C., Gossner, M.M., Green, S., Kenis, M., Klapwijk, M.J., Liebhold, A.M., Orazio, C., Prospero, S., Robinet, C., Schroeder, M., Slippers, B., Stoev, P., Sun, J., van den Dool, R., Wingfield, M.J., Zalucki, M.P. (2020) Pathologists and entomologists must join forces against forest pest and pathogen invasions. NeoBiota 58: 107-127. 

Maclaren, C. A., Storkey, J., Menegat, A., Metcalfe, H., & Dehnen-Schmutz, K. (2020). An ecological future for weed science to sustain crop production and the environment. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 40, [24]

Mehmood A., Viza E., Bogush A. (2020) Drivers and Barriers Towards Circular Economy in Agri Food Supply Chain. Online Symposium on Circular Economy and Sustainability, INFER2020, Alexandroupolis, Greece, 1-3 July, 2020, oral presentation (Mehmood A.).

Tilzey, M. (2020) From Neoliberalism to National Developmentalism? Contested Agrarian Imaginaries of a Post-Neoliberal Future for Food and Farming.Journal of Agrarian Change