CAWR Newsletter

November 2021

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.

Transforming climate finance to radically transform societies – an intervention at COP26

CAWR’s Nina Isabella Moeller and Colin Anderson (now at the University of Vermont) presented results of their studies analysing finance for agroecology at an official COP26 side event organised by CIDSE.

The panel answered the question: “How effective is climate finance in catalysing an urgently needed paradigm shift in food systems?” with a resounding: “a lot remains to be done!” A representative of the Green Climate Fund listened. We can only hope the conversation will continue.

Click here to watch the recording.

CAWR marks Black History Month 2021

During October 2021, the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience organised two events to mark Black History Month. 

On Monday 4th October, CAWR organised a screening of Death in Custody. The documentary produced by British Broadcaster Darcus Howe details the story of Clinton McCurbin, who died in 1987 while being arrested for alleged shoplifting and use of a stolen credit card in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.

Following the screening, community activist Simeon Green a community activist who lives and works in Wolverhampton and, features in the film participated in a Q & A, moderated by PhD student Sophia Wanthe.

Link to the film and additional resources can be found on the Peoples’ Knowledge Website

On the 28th October, Dr Geraldine Brown and Jasbir Singh hosted this year’s BHM seminar, titled Unlocking Nature and the Outdoors: race, gender and class.

The seminar was an opportunity to bring people together to explore barriers to access and engagement in nature and the outdoors for Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities and consider strategies and actions for change.

Speakers included:

• Pammy Johal - Founder of Backbone CIC https://www.backbone.uk.net/#
• Dr Geeta Ludhra - Lecturer in Education at Brunel University, https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/geeta-ludhra/impact
• Andre Kpodonu - Head of activism at Feedback https://feedbackglobal.org/

City of Horticulture - Autumn Harvest Open Day at Ryton Organic Gardens

5 organisations based at Ryton Organic Gardens: CAWR, Coventry University Estates, 5 Acre CSA, Garden Organic and Best in Horticulture training school, joined together to welcome visitors to celebrate horticulture in Coventry as part of the ‘Coventry City of Culture’ year.

On the Tuesday of half term, local community gardening groups and gardeners, growers, florists, seedsavers and those interested in nature, food and the outdoors had the opportunity to showcase their produce and promote their projects. Visitors could enjoy the organic gardens and vegetable farm, get involved in hands-on horticultural activities including apple pressing, willow weaving, plant division, seedsaving, citizen science, and make botanic artworks, explore CAWR research projects and taste local food. Live music was provided by CAWR research staff.

3rd Agroecology Europe Forum 

Agroecology Europe organised together with local farmers, universities, social movement organisations, local administrations and non-governmental organisations the 3rd Agroecology Europe Forum, which took place both online (Wednesday 17 November ) and on-site (Thursday 18 and Friday 19 November) in Barcelona.

Professor Michel Pimbert and Dr Jessica Milgroom participated from CAWR.  Michel Pimbert shared reflections on some of the outcomes of the COP 26 on Climate Change for Agroecology by focussing on two questions: Will the UK and Europe fulfil and finance their commitments to the COP 26? Are there concrete opportunities for an agroecological transformation?

Click here for the video recording between 0:51:18 and 1:03:10

The politics of knowledge : Understanding the Evidence for Agroecology, Regenerative Approaches, and Indigenous Foodways

Researchers from CAWR and from ALC at the University of Vermont jointly contributed to The Politics of Knowledge: Understanding the Evidence for Agroecology, Regenerative Approaches, and Indigenous Foodways. Their white paper was one of over a dozen contributions which were synthesized into the publication that the Global Alliance for the Future of Food is launching on Dec. 6.

 The new compendium tackles the dominant questions about evidence that are holding back food systems transformation. Authors unpack the narratives and legacies that unpin these questions and explore the many ways funders, researchers, and policymakers can take transformative action.

Click here to find out more.

CAWR and Garden Organic research visit to Melcourt Industries Ltd

On 25th November, CAWR researchers working on the Organic-PLUS project visited Melcourt Industries, manufacturer of peat-free growing media. Despite being highly contentious (due to habitat loss, CO2 emissions and increasing flood risk), peat is still a primary ingredient in many growing media used by growers across Europe. Together with associated partner Garden Organic, we were able to see the processing of peat-free growing media (based on bark and wood from UK forestry), discussed the forthcoming Responsible Sourcing Calculator, and Organic-PLUS’s trials of on-farm produced growing media.

Waste FEW ULL meeting: Bristol Urban Living Lab

The Waste FEW ULL project met on November 11 in Bristol’s “Watershed” with a group of stakeholders and interested parties to present findings, challenges and proposed future work. 

The project’s overall aim is to map and substantially reduce waste in the urban food-energy-water (FEW) nexus across three continents: Europe (Bristol, UK; Rotterdam, Netherlands), Africa (Western Cape, South Africa) and South America (Sao Paulo, Brazil). The study was funded by the Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative, the Belmont Forum, Urban Europe and the European Commission.

The timetable included:

The meeting generated lively debate around what constitutes a Circular Economy (ie is “success” circular?) and what “nexus” actually means in terms of the systems studied. Challenges were discussed including the disconnect in the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus, problems with scale when comparing other Urban Living Labs and issues around the various approaches taken to investigate the FEW nexus.

Agroecological transitions, between determinist and open-ended visions

What are the visions of change underpinning agroecology? This freely available new open access book (Ed. Claire Lamine, Danièle Magda, Marta Rivera-Ferre and Terry Marsden) explores different ontologies of change that guide agroecological transitions.

Together with Divya Sharma, CAWR researcher Barbara Van Dyck explores ontologies of change as an object of struggle for social movements for food sovereignty.

Latest Organic-PLUS growing media trials

Cabbage seedlings 2 weeks after sowing, already showing some differences

A new series of growing media trials began this month in the glasshouse at the Ryton site. Researchers working on the Organic-PLUS project are growing lettuce and cabbage in a variety of mixtures based on composted chipped wood as an alternative to peat. Composted wood and bark have already been shown to be excellent peat-free growing media, so we are also aiming to eliminate other contentious ingredients such as vermiculite, a mined and highly processed material used to improve aeration and water retention. The trial focuses on methods which could be replicated by small to medium sized growers who often raise small plants in modules to transplant into the soil.

PhD successes

Suburban allotment holders near Havana province.

Titled “Exploring Suburban Agroecological Agriculture and its Contribution to Food Sovereignty in Socialist Cuba”, Graciela’s research analyses the extent to which Cuba’s Suburban Agriculture Programme contributes to the development of food sovereignty and broader implications for the conceptualisation and praxis of agroecology and food sovereignty. The supervisory team comprised of Julia Wright and Jahi Chappell, and examiners were CAWR’s Michel Pimbert and Yves Cabannes from UCL.

Congratulations Dr Yvette Brown who graduated on the 18th November. 

Her thesis is titled 'Black Men, Mental Health and Oppression: What Do We Learn When We Listen to Black Men’s Voices?'

Please click here to read a blog written by Dr Yvette Brown about her doctoral Journey.

CAWR’s Research Funding and Development Manager Amy Beaumont

I am CAWR’s Research Funding and Development Manager, and have now been working here for nearly three months.  I have loved my time here so far and starting to get to know everyone and your incredible research work.  Prior to starting at Coventry I was at Warwick in a similar role supporting researchers with all elements of research applications, awards, and contracts.  Before that I used to run the operations for a major medical aid agency in eastern DR Congo, where we supported the Ministry of Health operate over 50 health centres across conflict-affected health zones alongside running mobile clinics in IDP camps and heavily affected communities.  Before that I worked for the same agency in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake where we ran mobile clinics and cholera hospitals.  I’ve also had some time working in a Trusts and Foundations team for a charity and look forward to exploring funding opportunities in these areas with you.  Outside work I now volunteer at our local vaccine clinics, which has been a lovely way of giving back to our wonderful NHS (and keeping me sane during lockdowns as it meant seeing actual people!).  I love languages and speak fluent (if a bit rusty) French, and along the way have had fair smatterings of Nepali, Haitian Creole, Swahili, and German, and I like to dance salsa (very badly).  I sit in the CAWR operations office on a Wednesday and Thursday each week so please do pop in and say hello at any point, or please be in touch and we can get a coffee and discuss your research funding plans.

Events

Catch up on our events and seminars from this month by visiting our YouTube channel

'City of Horticulture' Autumn Harvest Open Day at Ryton Organic Gardens

Unlocking the Nature and the Outdoors communities, race, gender and class

Studentships

Chemical analysis and bioaccumulation of ‘forever chemicals’ in aquatic organisms - This opportunity will remain open until a suitable candidate is identified

Publications

Pimbert, M.P. 2021.  Citizens’ Juries.  In: Patricia Leavy (Ed). Popularizing Scholarly Research: Working with Non-academic Stakeholders, Teams, and Communities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pimbert, M.P., 2021. Regenerating Kurdish Ecologies through Food Sovereignty, Agroecology and Economies of Care. In: Stephen Hunt (Ed). Ecological Solidarity in the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Lexington Books.

Mahdad, F., A. R. Bakhtiari, M. Moeinaddini and S. Charlesworth (2021) Seasonal occurrence, source apportionment, and cancer risk assessment of PAHs in the second largest international holy metropolitan: Mashhad, Iran. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16336-6

Call for papers

Special Issue "Surface Water Management: Recent Advances and Challenges"

Topic Editors: Prof Susanne Charlesworth, Dr Tom Lavers and Dr Craig Lashford 

Manuscript submission deadline: 30 November 2021

Water Resources Resilience for Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

Special session: Water Security Challenges & Strategies in the 21st Century and Special session: Flooding and resilience against climate change

You are cordially invited to submit abstracts and subsequent full papers to the bi-annual Water Efficiency Conference organised by the Water Efficiency Network, The University of the West Indies and The Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago (APETT).

Abstract submission deadline: 30 November 2021

Contact: info@watefnetwork.co.uk for all conference, exhibition and sponsorship enquiries.