CAWR Newsletter

October 2023

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 equitable, sustainable and 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.

Devastation for Gaza’s People and their Foodways

George McAllister and Chiara Tornaghi, alongside our colleagues caught up in the Gaza Strip, have been working together on Gaza Foodways for over 2 years. The current war on Gaza began just days before we were due to welcome 30 farmers and activists onto our new Diploma in urban agroecology and food sovereignty, at the University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS) in Gaza City. In this Conversation piece, George explores the devastation of the bombardment, and the implications of the 'complete siege' on Gazans and their food system.

CAWR researchers win funding from M4C for MRes studentship

Jackie Abell, Charley Hill-Butler and Mike Kennedy won funding from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership to cover fees and a stipend for a postgraduate student to conduct research about Coventry’s Charterhouse Fields.

The MRes project is titled: Historical Knowledges of Charterhouse Coventry and their Influence on Contemporary Perceptions, Planning and Practice of Ecological Restoration of Charterhouse Fields and starts January 2024

Diana participates in the European Conference of African Studies, Cologne 2023

One of our PhD researchers took part of the European Conference of African Studies, held in June 2023 in Cologne, Germany. Diana Rodríguez Cala presented a paper on the environmental, socio-economic and historical transboundary factors shaping the ornamental gardening in southern Africa. Diana is supervised by our researchers Jana Fried and Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz, and John Wilson, from the South African Biodiversity Institute. As part of her PhD, she also works with Dr. Seoleseng Tshwenyane and Dr. Israel Legwaila, from the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Peat-free pressed blocks

Growing media mechanically formed into blocks in which seedlings are grown

Due to the multiple environmental harms of peat extraction, the UK government is phasing out its use in horticulture. However, many vegetable and salad producers have existing machinery which requires cohesive growing media to form pressed blocks in which seedlings are grown. CAWR researchers are working with Riverford Organic Farmers and Delfland Nurseries in a new UKRI Innovate UK funded project, to develop organic peat-free growing media suitable for this purpose. Find out more about this work here.

CAWR Bring & Take Table to support Sustainable Fashion Week 2023

Sustainable Fashion Week was from Monday 25th of September until Sunday 8th of October. CAWR supported the ReWear Revolution with a Bring & Take Table.

Seeding Transformation – A Global Forum on Food Systems and Agroecology at the University of Vermont in the USA

Professor Michel Pimbert was invited to speak about Deepening Democracy for Agroecological Transformations at the University of Vermont in the USA. He participated in the Institute for Agroecology’s flagship global event Seeding Transformation – a Global Forum on Food Systems and Agroecology. This public event was very well attended, and was held at the University of Vermont on September 18, 2023. The all-day event was anchored by three interactive panels with participants bringing a diversity of perspectives.

A recording of Michel’s reflections on Deepening Democracy for Agroecological Transformations is available here from 1:11:55 to 1:24:53

Agroecological Living Lab

Ezster Kovacs (left) from Project Springboard in Coventry, with other AE4EU living lab representatives

CAWR researchers working on Agroecology for Europe (AE4EU) went to the project’s final conference held jointly with sister-project ALL-Ready. The meeting at The Committee of the Regions, Brussels was also attended by organisations involved in agroecological living labs across Europe, including Eszter Kovacs from Team Springboard, a social enterprise active in the Coventry Agroecological Living Lab (CALL). CALL, comprises a diverse range of local growers, working to improve crop diversity to be more resilient to climate change. As most labs are in rural locations, it was of interest at the meeting that CALL is an urban living lab.

Welcoming new intern, Shu

Shu (centre), working with Francis Rayns and Katie Moore, inspecting growing media ingredients

CAWR is pleased to welcome Shu Zhu who has recently joined the centre as an intern to find out more about research and sustainable growing methods. With a background in landscape architecture, Shu is keen to improve her understanding of how biodiversity and horticulture interact with this, and is assisting with work such as the peat blocking project, and research to utilise invasive species as biochar.

MSc students visit Abbey Home Farm

John Newman explaining how the arable crops are sustained by fertility built up during the grass/clover phase of the rotations.

Our Agroecology, Water and Food Sovereignty MSc students recently made a field visit to Abbey Home Farm which is an excellent example of a well established organic farm with a diverse range of enterprises. John Newman, the farm manager, explained the approaches for addressing many technical issues and then Hilary Chester Master, one of the owners, spoke about how direct marketing of the farm produce was an important part of the business.

Producing flour using traditional low impact technologies

The new sails on Whissendine windmill; their shutters open in strong winds to regulate the speed of the grindstones.

Grinding grain into flour is an energy demanding process, mainly done today in large industrial mills driven by fossil fuels. During the recent pandemic most of their output was directed to commercial bakeries and so individual consumers found it difficult to buy flour in shops. Many ‘heritage’ windmills and watermills were able to step up their production, highlighting the value of these small scale sustainable enterprises in our food supply chain. Francis Rayns, with the Midland Mills Group, has been helping to make new sails for Whissendine windmill in Rutland, first built in 1809.

Flour from Wissendine windmill for sale at Leicester Wholefoods.

Virtual Open Days: Agroecology, Water and Food Sovereignty

The Virtual Open Days for the Agroecology, Water and Food Sovereignty MSc will give prospective students a chance to learn both about the course, and the work of the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience in which the MSc is delivered. It will consist of a presentation on key information, including the types of careers that our graduates go into, and a chance to meet teaching staff and ask questions about the programme. We are offering four slots across two days each lasting one hour:

• November 27th 10am - 11am & 15.00pm - 16.00pm
• March 29th 10am - 11am & 15.00pm - 16.00pm

Register here.

CAWR engages with woodland managers

A demonstration of small scale biochar making using a portable kiln – the ‘Exeter Retort’.

Francis Rayns and Samantha Green attended the Annual General Meeting of the Small Woods Association at their headquarters - the Green Wood Centre near Ironbridge in Shropshire. This was an opportunity to engage with their membership (mainly owners of established woodland managed using traditional methods) and learn about some of their ongoing projects.

Call for papers in the Special Collection “Advanced Oxidation/Reduction Processes for Removal of Organic Contaminants from Water” in the Frontiers in Environmental Chemistry.

Emerging contaminants, including halogenated persistent organic pollutants, BETX, pharmaceuticals/personal care products, and pesticides, in water environments are a significant global concern due to their health and ecological risks. Advanced oxidation or reduction processes (AOPs/ARPs) are currently employed during water treatment to generate hydroxyl radicals, sulphate radicals, singlet oxygen, chloride radicals, aqueous electrons, and hydrogen radicals in order to address this contamination. However, the effectiveness of these technologies in improving water quality is greatly influenced by variations in radical yield, mass transfer, and utilization efficiency that occur during the AOPs/ARPs. This research topic welcomes original research on advanced oxidation/reduction processes for removal of organic contaminants from water.

Editors:

• Dr Anna Bogush, CAWR, Coventry University, UK

• Dr Yixiang Bao, National Institute of Clean and Low-Carbon Energy, China

• Dr Elisa I. García-López, University of Palermo, Italy

• Dr Yanxin Gao, Fuzhou University, China

• Dr Giovanni Cagnetta, Tsinghua University, China

Call for papers in the Special Collection “Advances in Biochar Production and Applications” in the Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio)

Biochar is regarded by many as a promising negative emissions technology and an important tool in the fight against climate change. It is formed by the pyrolysis of biomass under low-oxygen conditions, which generates a highly stable form of carbon, predicted to persist in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years. Due to its porous structure, extended surface area, and retention capacity, biochar has also been proposed as an efficient water and soil remediator, with potential benefits for crop production. The impact of biochar is however still controversial. Studies have shown that its properties can be highly dependent on the type of originating biomass and production methods, suggesting it is possible to tailor biochar for different purposes. This Collection aims to highlight the benefits and drawbacks of biochar and welcomes original research on biochar production and applications towards a sustainable environment.

Editors:

· Anna Bogush, CAWR, Coventry University, UK

· Bruno Glaser, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

· Shubiao Wu, Aarhus University, Denmark

CAWR participates in the Organic Growers Gathering

The walled garden area at Tolhurst Organic – buckwheat as a green manure is flowering in the foreground.

Francis Rayns and Dennis Touliatos attended the three day Organic Growers Gathering that was in partnership with the the Organic Growers Alliance with the participation of many other organisations concerned with sustainable horticulture. The event was held at Tolhurst Organic in Oxfordshire – we have been involved in participatory research at this site for many years. Dennis gave a talk about approached to training in agroecology with specific reference to the FarmStart project in Lancaster.

Events

Upcoming Events

Thursday 30th November - Seminar: Community-Driven Agroecology on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua with Lucas Sebastián Worsdell, 2pm - 3pm UK TIME. Register here.

Tuesday 19th December - Seminar: Uncertainty in future changes in Sahel precipitation with Paul-Arthur Monerie, 12pm - 1pm UK TIME. Register here.

Virtual Open Days: Agroecology, Water and Food Sovereignty MSc, November 27th and March 29th, Register here. 

Catch up on our events and seminars by visiting our YouTube channel

Publications

Lokidor, P., Taka, M., Lashford, C. and Charlesworth, S. Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable Flood Management in East Africa. Journal of Flood Risk Management. http://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12954

Charlesworth, S.M., Kligerman, D., Warwick, F., Blackett, M. (2023) The suitability and acceptability of Sustainable Drainage Systems to address inadequate drainage and greywater management in favelas in Brazil. Institution of Civil Engineers, Infrastructure Asset Management, Special Issue: Sustainability of Built and Natural Environments. https://doi.org/10.1680/jinam.23.00012

Baskoro M.L., Tjahjono B., Bogush A., Beltran M., Syaifullah D., Tjahjono M. (2024). The Influence of Ecolabel: Insights from the Indonesian Bioplastics Packaging Industry Stakeholders. In: Silva, F.J.G., Ferreira, L.P., Sá, J.C., Pereira, M.T., Pinto, C.M.A. (eds) Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing: Establishing Bridges for More Sustainable Manufacturing Systems. FAIM 2023. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38165-2_112

Baskoro M., Beltran M., Bogush A.A., Tjahjono B. (2023) The imperative of communication signals in boosting business strategies of the bioplastics packaging industry. Business Strategy and the Environment, https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3490 

Bautista Quispe, JI. Campos, LC. Masek, O. and Bogush, A. (2023) Optimisation of biochar filter for handwashing wastewater treatment and potential treated water reuse for handwashing. Journal of Water Process Engineering, Vol. 54, 104001 

Burnett, E. (2023). Coopetition outside the market economy: Oxfordshire’s community food initiatives as a case study. Local Economy, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/02690942231189821

Parsa A, Van De Wiel MJ, Schmutz U, Fried J, Black D, Roderick I (2023). Challenging the food waste hierarchy. Journal of Environmental Management 344, 118554.

Tornaghi C., McAllister G., Moeller N., Pedersen M. (2023), “Building Medicinal Agroecology: Conceptual grounding for healing of rifts”, Chapter 1, in Fiebrig I. N. (ed.), Medicinal Agroecology, CRC Press; pp3-16

McAllister, G., Bhatasara, S., Claeys, P., Howard, J., Lemke, S., MacKinnon, K., Moeller, N.I. (2023). Editorial: Participatory action research in a time of COVID and beyond. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. Volume 7.

Buratti-Donham J., Venn R., Schmutz U., & Migliorini P. (2023) Transforming food systems towards agroecology – a critical analysis of agroforestry and mixed farming policy in 19 European countries, Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 47:7, 1023-1051

Manuelian, C. L., Pozza, M., Franzoi, M., Righi, F., Schmutz, U., & De Marchi, M. (2023). Comparison of organic and conventional Italian cheeses chemical composition from parallel production. Journal of Dairy Science https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22730

Black, D.; Wei, T.; Eaton, E.; Hunt, A.; Carey, J.; Schmutz, U.; He, B.; Roderick, I. (2023). Testing Food Waste Reduction Targets: Integrating Transition Scenarios with Macro-Valuation in an Urban Living Lab. Sustainability, 15, 6004. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15076004

Rachel Wynberg, Michel Pimbert, Nina Moeller, Georgina McAllister, Rachel Bezner Kerr, Jasber Singh, Million Belay & Mvuselelo Ngcoya (2023) Nature-Based Solutions and Agroecology: Business as Usual or an Opportunity for Transformative Change?, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development,65:1, 15-22.