CAWR Newsletter

August 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.

Judith's Bee Walks Making a Buzz on Campus

Bee walk at Ryton Organic Gardens and small selection of the bees found

CAWR and Coventry University’s Grounds team are working together to raise awareness of the biodiversity present on campus. This summer, CAWR researcher Judith Conroy has given bee walks at Ryton Organic Gardens and in the university’s city centre green spaces.

Staff and students have been able to see bees up close and discover more about the fascinating range of wildlife supported by the university’s grounds, including the ruderal bumblebee, Bombus ruderatus, a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species.

 Growing Interest in Coventry Heritage Apples

Growing Connections staff with local residents looking for fruit trees together at Charterhouse abandoned allotments in August

Growing Connections’ pot trials experiment with Coventry heritage apples has generated interest locally and nationally, with the project featuring in The Daily Telegraph and on the BBC in recent weeks.

This coverage, along with other media attention, has spread news about the project, and the Growing Connections team are working with Coventry City Council to provide trees from the Growing Connections pot trials nursery at CAWR for local planting projects in the city.

The team also met local residents onsite at Charterhouse Park abandoned allotments, Coventry, in mid-August to share details of apples, plums, history and memories and with members of the local residents’ association.

Nature and Us Citizens Assembly

Donna Udall is pleased to be working with Andrew Darnton, Shared Future, and other independent researchers in a new project funded by Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

The work involves conducting an evaluation of the Nature and Us (Natur a Ni) programme delivered by NRW between 2020 and 2023. The programme objective was to develop a shared vision for the natural environment of Wales. Our new project involves an assessment of the extent to which NRW have met Natur a Ni programme objectives, along with an evaluation of programme processes and an evaluation of the impact of the programme on the ways of working with other organisations in Wales.

Scaling up Agroecology: Grassroots Perspectives on Opportunities and Challenges

Professor Michel Pimbert was invited by the Agroecology Fund to contribute to a webinar on Scaling up Agroecology: Grassroots Perspectives on Opportunities and Challenges.

The invited speakers for this event on 19th July 2023 were:

·  Kathryn Manga of Asian People's Exchange for Food Sovereignty & Agroecology in the Philippines

·  Andrea Carmen of the Yaqui Nation who is a member of the International Indian Treaty Council

·  Nury Martinez of the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo in Colombia

·  Sena Alouka from Togo who is a member of Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement International and the Alliance for Food sovereignty in Africa

·  Michel Pimbert of the Centre for Agroecology, Water & Resilience in the UK

·  Oliver Oliveros, Agroecology Coalition, Italy

The video recording of Michel Pimbert’s talk is available here (1:09:23-1:26:35) and a link to the entire recording can be found here.

British Council Pakistan Mobility Partnership Make Visit to CAWR

The delegation from Pakistan and their hosts at the CAWR offices at Ryton Gardens

Representatives from five universities in Pakistan involved in a British Council Mobility Project visited CAWR on August 24th.

The visit was organised by Professor Sue Charlesworth who, along with RISER Director Professor Michel Pimbert, introduced the visitors to the research undertaken in CAWR. With PhD student Peter Hollings as a guide, the visitors were shown around the laboratories, and Peter also explained the outside and greenhouse experiments.

Dr Francis Rayns talked about the funded projects hosted in the polytunnels on site. In the afternoon, research projects were discussed, and potential funders searched for with David Duncan, Research and Funding Officer in CAWR.

CAWR Researcher's New Book on Peasants, Capitalism and the Work of Eric Wolf

A new book by Mark Tilzey (CAWR), Fraser Sugden, and David Seddon – Peasants, Capitalism, and the Work of Eric R Wolf: Reviving Critical Agrarian Studies – is published this month by Routledge

Fifty years after the publication of Eric Wolf’s celebrated Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century, and forty years after the publication of his path-breaking Europe and the People Without History, this book offers a much-needed critical assessment and update of Wolf’s contribution to the study of the peasantry and its relationship to capitalism, the state, and imperialism. Building on the work of Wolf, the authors develop their own analysis of the political role of the peasantry in contested transitions to capitalism and to ‘modes of production’ beyond capitalism.

Launch of Gaza’s first course in Urban Agroecology & Food Sovereignty.

Developed as a key pillar of our Gaza Foodways action research, this exciting one-year professional diploma has recently been accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education in Palestine and will be hosted at the University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS) in Gaza.

It offers a unique approach that combines the political economy of food systems with socially and ecologically regenerative farming practice. It aims to prepare a new generation of interdisciplinary thinkers, policy makers, practitioners, and activists capable of reimagining and transforming a food system currently highly dependent upon the importation of agrochemicals and industrially produced food.

Beginning on the 23rd September 2023, we hope to welcome applicants with an interest in transforming food systems as farmers, NGO practitioners, policy makers & activists. And we are particularly encouraging applications from women, and are offering 10 funded spaces for women working in food & farming who are unable to cover their tuition, and 10 spaces for women working as agricultural extensionists.

Coventry 'Living Lab' for Crop Diversity Created

Chickpeas doing well at Ryton Organic Gardens

As part of the Agroecology for Europe project, a Living Lab network in Coventry has been established. A range of small scale food producers as well as Coventry University’s grounds team and CAWR researchers have come together to tackle a common theme: to improve crop diversity in order to be more resilient to climate change. Participants are growing a wide range of both novel and heritage varieties (supported by Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library) and sharing their experiences.

Events

Upcoming Seminars

21st September 2023 - Rebels without a cause? Rosewood and insurgency in Senegal with Dr Martin Evans, register here. 

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

Publications

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, Volume 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.

Félix, G.F. (2023). Agroecology and food sovereignty in the Caribbean: Insights from Cuba, Puerto Rico and Sint Maarten. Book chapter in Routledge Handbook of Latin America and the Environment. Routledge 

Bennett, J.E., Marandure, T., Hawkins, H-J., Mapiye, C., Palmer, A., Lemke, S., Wu, L. and Moradzadeh, M. (2023). A conceptual framework for understanding ecosystem trade-offs and synergies in communal rangeland systems. Ecosystem Services 61 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2023.101533