No Images? Click here
CAWR Newsletter
August 2018
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.'
News
Olivier Sparagano was elected as a member of the Peer Review College for the UKRI Future Leader Fellowships.
Ramón González-Méndez passed the NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety qualification.
Michael Warne has been made a member of the Science and Research Technical Working Group for the Queensland Plastic Pollution Reduction Plan. The PPRP is a Queensland Government initiative to reduce plastic pollution. There is a research component to the plan which is being funded by the waste disposal levy charged in companies and organisations.
Jonathan Eden wrote an article for The Conversation 'Why it’s so hard to detect the fingerprints of global warming on monsoon rains.'
Organic-PLUS news
The Organic Research Centre (ORC) have joined Organic-PLUS, the €4.1m CAWR-led EU Horizon 2020 project to phase out contentious inputs from organic agriculture. The ORC is an independent research organisation for the development of organic and agroecological food production and land management approaches. As part of Organic-PLUS, they will be working on alternatives to
be working on alternatives to synthetically derived vitamins and antibiotics given to livestock and also on replacements for the non-organic animal bedding often used in organic systems
How social supermarkets are filling a gap in austerity Britain
Lopa Saxena wrote an article for The Conversation which was reproduced in The Independent. Click here to find out more about what makes a social supermarket and how they risk becoming part of the broken food system.
Food Sovereignty plenary
CAWR Honorary Research Fellow, Carol Kalafatic, was a panelist in the Food Sovereignty plenary of the 17th Protecting Mother Earth Conference. The international conference drew nearly 1,500 participants to share information, strengthen relationships and honor frontline struggles for environmental and climate justice. It took place 28 June-1 July within Nisqually Territory (northwestern U.S.), at historic Frank’s Landing, where Billy Frank and others asserted their Treaty rights during the “Fish Wars” of the 1960s and 1970s. The conference was co-presented by the LSqually-Absch (People of the River, People of the Grass)/Nisqually Tribe, Indigenous Climate Action and the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Recently, Carol also contributed a chapter on Indigenous Peoples’ issues, to the book Food Security Policy, Evaluation and Impact Assessment (forthcoming, Routledge). The book’s editor is Sheryl Hendriks, Professor in Food Security, Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development, and Director of the Institute for Food, Nutrition and Well-being, at the University of Pretoria.
Co-panelists Roberto Nutlouis, Linda Black Elk, Simone Senogles, Carol Kalafatic and Valerie Segrest (Photo: Jihan Gearon).
15-foot (4.6-meter) cedar poles that students at Wa He Lut Tribal School helped design and carve, based on the values they wanted to celebrate in their community.
Results from the academic progression panel at Coventry University
Many congratulations to three CAWR researchers who were successful at the recent academic progression panel. Chiara Tornaghi and Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz have been promoted to Senior Research Fellow and Luke Owen to Research Fellow. These panels are extremely challenging and achieving a successful outcome is a fantastic achievement, and very well deserved.
Innovate magazine - out now!
Michael Warne wrote an article for the Innovate magazine which features the latest research at Coventry University.
Click here to read how we are helping to protect the natural icon that is the Great Barrier Reef.
Subscribe to future issues by contacting innovate@coventry.ac.uk
Spotlight on:
TRUE legumes project
It has been a busy summer of field trials at Ryton for the TRUE legumes project. Started in 2017, TRUE is an EU Horizon 2020 project which aims to identify ways of increasing sustainable legume cultivation and consumption across Europe. The team have been evaluating a range of commercial and heritage broad bean and French bean varieties for various properties such as their nutritional value as food for people, attractiveness to foraging insects and ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen.
Blooms for Bees
Our Blooms for Bees project attended Defra’s recent ‘Carnabee Street’ event in central London. Several universities and NGOs set out their stalls in ‘the Hive’, a pop-up shop where members of the public could drop in to find out more about bees and how to help them. Along with partner organisation the Royal Horticultural Society, we gave out free seeds, bee-friendly gardening advice and infographic cards which included the findings collected by our app users so far.
Mainstreaming Agroecology within the world’s Horticultural Science Community
At the 30th International Horticulture Congress (12-16 August 2018, Istanbul, Turkey) organised by International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) Agroecology as a science got a big boost!
The 2nd International Symposium on “Organic Horticulture for Wellbeing of the Environment and Population” was held with a large audience. In addition, a Short Training Course onOrganic Agriculture was hosted; a workshop on the discussion of Soil and Soilless Organic Production Systems,and a workshop on Agroecology and Education: Socio-ecological Resilience to Climate Change. Prof. Dr Uygun Aksoy (Chair of the Scientific Committee, and in partner in Organic-PLUS organised them and helped to get agroecology science a bigger role in international horticulture research. With the election of Prof. Dr Yüksel Tüzel as next ISHS president (Yüksel has been at Ryton and working with CAFS/CAWR since the days of the Biogreenhouse project) the society has now a leader with deep understanding of organic horticulture.
To add to the growing role the current commission on ‘Organic Horticulture’ will be expanded and renamed ‘Agroecology and Organic Farming Systems’ (this is still within horticultural science) and more working groups on organic vegetables, organic temperate and tropical fruit and agroecology will be added to the existing working groups to respond to the rising academic and practical interest in this work.
Speakers at the Agroecology workshop are shown above (Left to right): Prof. Reza Ardakani (Iran), Dr. Ulrich Schmutz (United Kingdom), Prof. Beatrix Alsanius (Sweden), Prof. Martine Dorais (Canada), Prof. Uygun Aksoy (Turkey) and Prof. Maria Claudia Dussi (Argentina).
Evolving frontiers of arts-based responses
On 10th July Dr. Flora Gathorne-Hardy represented Touchstones and CAWR at a national discussion on the evolving frontiers of arts-led responses to the ecological issues of our time. This gathering was coordinated by members of the Arts and Environment Network, in conjunction with art.earth, the Centre for Contemporary Art & the Natural World, and the Art, Nature & Environment Research group. It was held at the Chartered Institution of Environment and Water Management (CIWEM) and brought together by Dave Pritchard with David Haley taking up the position of discussion provocateur. In the words of Dave Pritchard speaking to the those representing a rich diversity of regions, organisations, artistic practices and arts-related initiatives:
‘The meeting considered ways of mapping out a new era of support and collaboration in the arts, and between the arts and other fields, towards more ‘artfully’ wise strategies for the future. The discussion began by addressing the question: ‘Given the transformative challenges we face, how may arts practices be supported to promote ecological resilience?’
While the meeting itself was exploratory and not intended to reach any decisions, it generated a clear shared sense of positivity, mutual trust for all the various perspectives that were exchanged, and willingness to continue building relationships and supporting each other.
Note of the day is on the CIWEM website.
Events
11/09/18 11:30-12:30
SEMINAR: Backbone: Indigenous Peoples protecting wild salmon in Alaska
Carol Kalafatic
Register to attend by clicking here
13/09/18 11:30-12:30
SEMINAR: Introduction to the work of Garden Organic
Steve Thomson
Recorded for our YouTube channel
Register to attend by clicking here
19/08/18 11:30-12:30
SEMINAR: Sustainable drainage in challenging environments
Recorded for our YouTube channel
Register to attend by clicking here
Publications
Eden, J. M., Kew, S. F., Bellprat, O., Lenderink, G., Manola, I., Omrani, H., & van Oldenborgh, G. J. (2018). Extreme precipitation in the Netherlands: an event attribution case study. Weather and Climate Extremes.
MacLaren, C., Storkey, J., Strauss, J., Swanepoel, P., & Dehnen‐Schmutz, K. (2018) Livestock in diverse cropping systems improve weed management and sustain yields whilst reducing inputs. Journal of Applied Ecology.
Tornaghi, C., & Certomà, C. (Eds.). (2018). Urban Gardening as Politics. Routledge
