Congratulations to Elizabeth Bos who has successfully defended her PhD! Her thesis was entitled ‘Reconnections in the City: Exploring the Drivers of Community Garden Participation’ which focused on people’s participation in communal food growing activities on estates and in community spaces across Lambeth, an inner city London borough. 

Elizabeth designed and applied a conceptual framework which considered participation as a person-centred, situated practice and was specifically concerned with causation. The findings revealed a number of internal and external drivers influencing participation, and the presence of underpinning processes and principles. Community food growing in local neighbourhood spaces in Lambeth served to reconnect people to each other, to where they live, and, through continued participation, to food, responding to a range of wider ‘urban negativities’ associated with the conventional food system, urbanism, and social isolation. Initial participation in community food growing was also dependent on the provision of key resources by the council and community organisations. Finally, the findings have shown how principles of relational partnership working were essential in creating

relational partnership working were essential in creatingand sustaining community food growing spaces where responsibility is shared, therefore generating new opportunities for empowerment, and the creation of caring communities. Initial participation in community food growing was also dependent on the provision of key resources by the council and community organisations. Finally, the findings have shown how principles of relational partnership working were essential in creating and sustaining community food growing spaces where responsibility is shared, therefore generating new opportunities for empowerment, and the creation of caring communities.  

Welcome to Breadlines! The new offer from CAWR and Community Centred Knowledge focusing on Food Justice and hoping to make it controversial, critical and cutting edge!

Breadlines is and will be an online and paper 'zine which will hopefully develop a wide national and international reach to share a range of issues pertaining to Food Justice and associated issues.

To view Breadlines  click here. 

Congratulations to Lucia for successfully defending her PhD. 

Here is a message that Lucia would like to share:

"I have always thought that growers held the fate of humanity in their hands. Now, thanks to my research at CAWR, I know it, especially if we are ‘speaking’ organic. Engaging with producers directly, through an approach reaching far beyond my hard-scientific background, and then comparing notes between two different countries to get information on a niche agricultural sector such as protected cropping in different settings, let me uncover relevant issues, whether they be environmental or socio-economic, political or cultural, that make growers’ views converge

or diverge in relation to how sustainable and resilient they consider it, for both present and future food production. So, thank you CAWR, for giving me the chance to scratch the surface in discovering the ‘human’ side of agriculture, a side most are still barely aware of.

Stefanie Lemke co-chaired a seminar with Tim Hart from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) Pretoria, South Africa, on 26 February, entitled "Sharing back" - An initiative to share research outcomes with local communities in and around Richtersveld National Park, South Africa". The aim of the documentary and the seminar is to emphasise the position of the various actors engaged in marginalised livestock husbandry and to promote acceptable nature conservation practices. The seminar was presented by Lena Michler and Humair Hayat (University of Hohenheim, Germany), Stefanie co-supervised Lena's research and facilitated the link with Tim and the HSRC. The event was hosted by HSRC and constructive, positive feedback was provided by the seminar participants with respect to the documentary being prepared by Lena and Humair. All participants expressed the relevance and ethical necessity to share research information to participating communities and other actors in easy to understand ways. The presenters were acknowledged for their novel approach in doing this

their novel approach in doing thisand in providing the documentary in the language of the local community residents. The documentary is available to others through the addition of subtitles.  

On 16 March  the trailers of the documentary were shared with more than 100 local community members during an official ceremony in Kuboes, Richtersveld. This initiative aims at including local communities in the processes of disseminating research outcomes, and has subsequently led to discussions with park management and other stakeholders on how some of the challenges revealed by this research might be addressed in future.

For watching the trailers and more information on this process, click here. 

Donna Udall joined 30 mostly conventional farmers in a muddy field in Ansley!  In this workshop, run by the Campaign for the Farmed Environment, farmers discussed the pros and cons of using different organic fertilisers to meet crop nutrient requirements and build soil health.

This included how to handle, spread and store manures, digestates and slurries to reduce losses to water and air of nitrates and ammonia. It was very heartening to listen to the farmers discussing what a huge

farmers discussing what a hugeimprovement in soil health had occurred when they incorporated organic matter. 

Ulrich Schmutz travelled Minsk, Belarus for the “V International Conference on organic farming in Belarus”.

He gave a presentation on “Organic-PLUS: Agroecology and the development of organic food systems all across Europe” at the conference and then travelled together with Ramona Duminicioiu from Eco Ruralis/Via Campesina (Rumania) to two organic farms north-west of Minsk. One with blueberries, honeysuckle and other

north-west of Minsk, one with blueberries, honeysuckle and other woody species and wood fired greenhouses for onions, the other producing artisan goat cheese and dairy goat products.

People's Knowledge have been working with Kudali collective to launch a new play re-enacting the real life situations faced by young farmers attempting foodsovereignty, documented with Nakashi art. This featured in Hindu, India’s largest-selling daily. You can view the article here. 

Bastien Dieppois, Jonathan Eden, Immo Fiebrig and Damian Lawler were among the delegates at the World Water Day event at the University of Birmingham. Held on 22 March every year, World Water Day aims to focus attention on the global importance of water. The 2018 theme ‘Nature for Water’ encourages the development of nature-based solutions to the water challenges we face in the 21st century. The Birmingham event included presentations and discussions of the newest developments in water science, policies and industries alongside ample networking opportunities. 

The screening of the film 'In Our Hands' by the Land Workers Alliance took place on 21st March in Coventry, with over 30 people from the community attending. The evening was held at the Tin Music and Arts Centre in Coventry's Canal Basin, which was the perfect, intimate setting to host a screening and to share reflections on this timely, thought-provoking film. Luke Owen said "We cannot solve the problems of our food systems overnight, but these spaces are invaluable in raising awareness and

getting people thinking and talking about solutions to make for a better, fairer and more sustainable future."

You can find out more about the film and about the next film screening here.