On 2^nd March, Dr Steve Emery of CRPR was interviewed by Charlotte Smith of Farming Today for its feature on the Government’s Land Use Framework.   You can listen to it here. 

On 17^th December, CRPR had the pleasure of hosting the Distinguished Lecture by Prof. Michael Winter entitled ‘Whatever happened to the Political Economy of Agriculture? A personal and affectionate reflection on trends and fashions in British rural studies since the 1980s’. It was, of course, a highly entertaining, informed and thought-provoking lecture enjoyed by all those in the lecture hall and joining on-line. You can watch here.

In February, Rebecca Wheeler, Project Lead of the UKRI ESRC-funded Health and Wellbeing of Women in Farming project took part in a live interview in her return to Women’s Hour to discuss the preliminary findings of the survey conducted last year for the first stage of the project. Becca was joined by Lorna Burge who also took part with Becca in last year’s Women’s Hour special on women in farming. You can listen to the new interview here at just before the 30 mins point.

Please also Check out Becca being interviewed by Veronica White (in a slightly soggy Lazenby garden) about the Health and Wellbeing of Women in Farming project. 

Matt Lobley CRPR University of Exeter Co-Director was at the UK Parliament in London on Friday as a member of the Great South West (GSW) Food Security Programme Board's launch of their new agrifood growth plan. Food security is one of three strategic priorities for GSW and they launched this new plan to a packed room in Westminster full of parliamentarians, civil servants, stakeholders and representatives of SW food and drink businesses. Could this document be a regional blueprint for implementing the Minette Batters Farm Profitability Review? The report also highlights horticulture as one of the priority growth sectors for the SW.

CRPR PhD student and IIED researcher, Giulia Nicolini, participated on a panel at the Oxford Real Farming Conference, alongside Don Staniford and Alma Joensen. The session, chaired by Jack Thompson from TABLE, explored "farming from the water," including debates around salmon farming, seaweed growing, and the invisibility of blue foods in food system debates. Giulia shared reflections from her PhD research on seaweed farming and argued for the inclusion of aquatic foods in policy and research on the future of food. To learn more, read Giulia's essay on Table: https://www.tabledebates.org/essay/out-sight-out-mind-addressing-invisibility-aquatic-foods-food-systems-debates

The paper led by Charlie Masquelier, Fostering High-Quality Engagement in Nature Recovery: Towards a De-reification of Environmental Land Management,  has now been published online. 

Congratulations to John Harvey on having his article Your dog’s dinner could be worse for the planet than your own published in The Conversation. It has resulted in an interesting comment re the rights of dogs. The original academic journal article Estimating the environmental impact of dog foods marketed in the UK was published at the same time in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

We are delighted to announce that the publication of Health and Wellbeing of Women in Farming: Preliminary Survey Findings led by Rebecca Wheeler has now been published. 

In other good news  the publication of Giulia and Celia's book chapter, 'Seaweed, Science, and Sushi: Cross-cultural Knowledge Transmission between Japan and the UK' published in an edited volume titled Global Japanese History and Culture: De-Isolating Japan from Past to Present. 

Angela Cassidy, CRPR member and co-lead of the Collaborations Theme of RENEW and Paul Merchant of the British Library have published a piece on LSE Impact Blog, "What oral histories can teach us about effective environmental research'.  They explore lived experiences of how to collaborate across disciplines and sectors from researchers, funders and administrators involved in projects and programmes including the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (RELU, 2004-2013), Valuing Nature (2014-2021) and the Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability Centre (STEPS, 2006-2021).  Have a read - and listen - to some voices of experience!

If you are interested in the future of UK agricultural research this is your chance to take part in the State of Agricultural Research & Innovation (SARI), which will provide the most comprehensive review to date of agricultural research across the UK. You can take part in the short (15 minute) survey here.