No Images? Click here CAWR Newsletter November 2019 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.' NewsCAWR Launches ‘The Changing Room’, a podcast series about coping with changeRapid social, economic and environmental changes are occurring across all spheres of life on earth. CAWR’s new podcast series asks difficult questions about who benefits, who suffers, and how people are coping. The first in the series focuses on the climate emergency and features guests Jonathan Eden, Alistair Smith (University of Warwick) and local environmentalist Ann Wilson. Further episodes will be released every two months. You can follow the series here. Biochar featured on BBC CountryfileDonna Udall and her Biochar project was featured on BBC Countryfile this month with farmer Richard Copley. The project is investigating whether feeding biochar to cattle can cut contributions to greenhouse emissions. If you'd like to catch up with the episode click here. You can also read the press release here. Farming TodayThose of you who are up before 6am will know that the Organic-PLUS project featured on BBC Radio 4's Farming Today programme! They came to an open day we held at Ryton back in September, working with farmers on alternatives to plastic mulch. Listen from 6 minutes by clicking here. Farm Hack shows us everything that is wrong with UK Agricultural Training and ResearchAugust 2019 saw the UK’s 4th Farm Hack, an event which brings together farmers to share knowledge and build open-source technologies. This blog offers some reflections on the event, as well as its political significance in the context of the agroecology movement. Read the full article here. Scale, Agroecology and the Politics of Agricultural Sustainability Transitions in Sikkim, IndiaJoin Colin Anderson and David Meek (University of Oregon, participating by Skype) on January 17 at Ryton Gardens for this session sharing insights, pictures and film from our work in Sikkim India – the world’s first “all-organic state”. While Sikkim has received international accolades as the best agroecology policy in the world, little is known about how this resonates with the experiences of farmers and others in Sikkimese society, or the impacts on livelihoods and landscapes. In this presentation, we draw upon three periods of research in Sikkim to explore the opportunities and constraints of the organic policy for the agroecological transition. Community rights to land, seeds and natural resources for food sovereignty in West and East Africa - Video available!Check out our new video on community rights in Africa and efforts by the food sovereignty movement to better protect them. The videos document discussions that took place at two workshops organized by Priscilla Claeys and Stefanie Lemke in Mali (with IRPAD) and Uganda (with AFSA) and the methodology used to collectively identify research gaps. Aussi disponible en français! Click here to view. Hopwood Park visitStudents enrolled on our MSc in Agroecology, Water and Food Sovereignty visited Hopwood Park motorway service area to explore the series of basins, swales, filter strips and ponds that comprise one of the UK’s first fully integrated Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). Alongside class-based teaching focused on water sustainability and resilience, the course’s practical components and field trips encourage students to recognise and understand the key issues affecting water resources, including flood control, water quality and the impact of urban development and land management on ecological protection. DRS Lecture SeriesChiara Tornaghi gave an invited lecture in the DRS lecture series, at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, on Thursday 21 November 2019. The lecture was titled: “From Urban Agriculture to an Urban Political Agroecology praxis. Rethinking the urbanism of agroecological transitions”. Collaborations with the Parliament of the Czech RepublicProfessor Michel Pimbert was in conversation in July 2019 with Tomáš Uhnák, who is senior advisor for agriculture at the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. Their conversation is published as Agroecology and food sovereignty: charting a way to a radical transformation of the food system in the book Politics of Food just released by the Delfina Foundation and Sternberg Press. Politics of Food is an important document of current research and thinking around this subject with contributions by prominent artists, academics, activists and chefs. Through interviews, essays and artist contributions, the book critically assesses and illuminates ways in which the arts can confront food-related issues, - including the infrastructure of global and local food systems, alternatives and sustainability, climate and ecology, health and policy, science and biodiversity, and identity and community. Click here to view the article. Visit to Sacred Earth woodland to kick-off ash dieback research projectFrancis gathering ash tree saplings Dr Francis Rayns and Ffion Thomas visited Sacred Earth, the woodland in Sussex where they are setting up a field trial to assess the effects of different soil amendments, including biochar on the tree disease, ash dieback. CAWR are working with the community owned land project Sacred Earth to set up and run the trial, and during the visit Francis and Ffion met with the woodland manager Phil Greenwood to kick-off the project by gathering ash tree saplings from the woodland. These were then potted-up ready for planting out in the field trial later in the winter. They also visited Earth Trust, a charity run woodland in Oxfordshire who may be able to help in sourcing more ash tree saplings. Potted-up ash tree saplings which will be planted out in the field trial Bioethics and Cross-cultural CommunicationDr Anna Bogush was invited to give a presentation “Bioethics and Water Pollution” at the teleconference “Bioethics and Cross-cultural Communication” organised by the International Euro-Asian Congress in Bioethics, Digital and personalised medicine «Biomed-inn-2019» (5th-9th November 2019, Perm, Russian Federation). Scientists, medical doctors, psychologists, philologists, social workers, students, pharmacy companies’ officers, as well as specialists from industrial companies, social patients’ societies, medical professional societies, telecommunication companies, different religious confessions and media companies from India, Vietnam, China, South Korea, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Nigeria, Greece, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Belarus Republic, USA, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Israel were participated in the Congress. It was very interesting to discuss following questions with the specialists on Bioethics: 1) How does water pollution affect human health? 2) How does health care system impact water pollution (e.g., hospitals generate biomedical waste)? 3) How can bioethicists help address these issues? HOMED Project SurveyThe HOMED project (an EU Horizon 2020 funded project) is looking at Holistic Management of Emerging Forest Pests and Diseases and has launched a survey for people working with trees, and those who are interested in identifying or managing emerging tree pests and diseases. Do try it out! Click here to access the survey! Shifting from Industrial Agriculture to Diversified Agroecological Systems in ChinaThis latest book in the Reclaiming Diversity and Citizenship Series published by CAWR, Zhenzhong Si offers a new perspective on how to shift from industrial agriculture to diversified Agroecological Systems in China and contributes to recent debates on agroecology transitions and transformation. Click here to view it. At the CHANGE FestivalFrom left to right: Carole Wright, Martin Wilkes, Mima Letts and Kurikindi. At the very first CHANGE Festival organised at Warwick Arts Centre on 20 October, Dr Martin Wilkes was invited to host a panel discussion on Imagine Better Nature. It focused on the regenerative power of biodiversity on our doorsteps. Dr Lopa Saxena was invited to participate in the panel session on Imagine Eating Better where the focus was on the power of food to transform our lives, our health and our environment. The aim of CHANGE Festival was to help audiences imagine better futures through sharing inspiring stories about living, feeling, eating, travelling, working and being in nature. The event recognised the importance of ‘telling the truth’ about the scale and seriousness of our environmental crisis whilst taking a positive approach to the problem. Further information on future City of Culture events can be found here. Joining Martin were panellists Kurikindi, a shaman and Amazonian tribal leader from the Kichwa people in Ecuador, Mima Letts of the student-led forestry enterpriseTree Sparks, and London-based community gardener and beekeeper Carole Wright. Lopa spoke on how communities are self-organising in innovative ways to change the ways in which we think about food, how we produce and consume food and how we manage food waste. She spoke about her engagement with local food initiatives in Coventry. Other speakers on the panel included Sheila Dillon, much-loved food journalist known for her work on BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme for the last 20 years as a reporter, producer and presenter; Pam Warhurst CBE, co-founder of Incredible Edible, an initiative dedicated to growing food locally by planting on unused land throughout the community; and, Simon Crichton who leads the food, farming and trade team at Triodos bank, which supports sustainable businesses, and specialises in financing the UK's organic market. Liliane's trip to NigeriaLiliane Binego travelled to Nigeria last month to be a keynote speaker at a national seminar on Agriculture for the sustainability of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in North East Nigeria. The event was organised by the Nakudu Institute of Agriculture, Birnin Kudu, Jigawa State Nigeria, in collaboration with CAWR. Liliane's presentation addressed the fundamental need for (1) building/increasing the ecological and social resilience in communities affected by forced displacement, (2) an all-inclusive development that ensures processes are proof for resilience, and (3) identifying and targeting potential stressors that may impede resilience. After a representative from the NGO African Network for disaster reduction and sustainable development provided briefs on IDP situation in the North Eastern States of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Taraba and Yobe, group discussions took place and involved policy makers, academics from the different universities in Nigeria, farmer associations, religious leaders, practitioners, representative from the private sector and NGOs operating in IDP settings across Nigeria. Participants were unanimous in recognizing that issues of IDPs and the environment are inter-connected hence the need for a holistic approach by all concerned parties. From these interactions emerged a range of recommendations, and a draft plan of action was elaborated and endorsed by all present at the seminar. The governing board of the Nakudu Institute of Agriculture and participants at the national seminar acknowledged CAWR inputs and support to the collective effort and successful delivery of the national seminar. International Roundtable on Funding for Agroecological ResearchMichel Pimbert participated in a workshop and international roundtable on funding agroecological research that took place on 21 -22 November in Zurich (Switzerland). The events were co-organised and hosted by IPES Food and Biovision. Some sixty participants from Europe and Africa discussed recent research on the levels of funding for agroecology in East Africa by overseas aid and philanthropic foundations. The international round table identified barriers and opportunities to increase financial investments in agroecology research and to influence the political economy of knowledge co-creation for agroecology. Participants also made recommendations for donors and research institutes on how to amplify and scale up agroecological research & development. Strengthening Ties with UVM’s Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC)CAWR has recently signed an MOU to enable ongoing collaborations with University of Vermont’s ALC group who share strong alignments in our commitment to transformative agroecology and food sovereignty. We plan to use this as an opportunity to advance joint research, education and outreach to support an ecologically sound and socially just agrifood system. Latest Food Sovereignty Stories Film: Addressing the Legacy of Colonialism and the Power of Traditional Knowledge in Just TransitionsSheldon and Roberto from Black Mesa Water Coalition discuss Addressing the Legacy of Colonialism and the Power of Traditional Knowledge in Just Transitions as a part of the @USFSA’s #FoodSovereigntyStories video series. View them all here and consider the multiple diverse struggles for food sovereignty in the USA and food justice for all! New Film - Our Seeds: Central to Food, Life and CultureThis film, co-produced by our AgroecologyNow! group with farmers from Lower Dzongu, Sikkim, India discusses the importance of traditional seeds for food, life and culture and their plans to establish a community seed bank to help maintain and revive traditional seeds. You can watch the film here. Three Knowledge Mobilization Strategies for Social Change: Transmedia, Layering and Building BridgesThree Knowledge Mobilization Strategies for Social Change: Transmedia, Layering and Building Bridges This post, written by Colin Anderson as a part of his work in the People's Knowledge group, shares three strategies for mobilizing knowledge in processes of social change for social justice and sustainability. Click here to read. Commonwealth Scholarships AwardsNbuwak Peace Yashim attended the Reception for winners of the Commonwealth Scholarships Awards held by the Commonwealth Commission. Peace won a scholarship to study the CAWR MSc in Agroecology, Water and Food Sovereignty in 2019-20. She also attended a separate event organised by the International Office/CU for the winners of the Commonwealth Award. Assessing the applicability of Artificial Intelligence in the Environmental Impact Assessment process – a case study of oil and gas projectsThis non-funded studentship is now available! The applications deadline is 31st January 2020. Click here for more information. Congratulations to LovemoreLovemore Gwiriri successfully passed his PhD with very minor corrections this month. His project was ‘Agrarian reform, institutions and livelihood dynamics of emergent livestock farmers in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa’. Congratulations Lovemore! EventsIntroduction to Circular Economy with Evi Viza Beyond Ecosystem Services: Brokering Agrobiodiversity Management Enterprises in Europe and Internationally with Humberto Rios Labrada Publications
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