Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience - CAWR

Chiara Tornaghi was invited to give a keynote speech at the opening day of the social movements’ conference “Cambiare il Campo”, in Rome, 1- 3 March 2024. The event, participated by over 300 people, was the first national convergence of civil society organisations, social movement actors and farmers engaged in agroecology, and aimed at constituting a national organisational platform. An extract of Chiara’s speech, titled “La convergenza agroecologica e la questione urbana: spunti per nuove strategie di movimento” has been published on the new magazine launched by the organisers called, Rivista Contadina, No. 1, on the 18th June 2024: https://rivistacontadina.noblogs.org/

New publication in Journal of Hydrology "Variability in flood frequency in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of large-scale climate modes of variability and their future impacts”. This paper highlights for the first time the potential role of internal climate modes of variability in modulating African flood occurrence in the observed and future climates: https://bit.ly/46sBoa1

On Saturday 20th July, the Wildlife Gardening Forum held its trustee away day at Ryton Organic Gardens. CAWR researcher Judith Conroy and the other trustees discussed the forthcoming work of the charity and made full use of the gardens for team building activities. The Wildlife Gardening Forum is a small charity which recognises the value of gardens & provides evidence-based advice to amateurs & practitioners alike. Their next event will be an online symposium in January: https://wlgf.org/

CAWR researchers have been working with farmers and manufacturers to explore materials that can be used to create peat-free blocking media. Francis Rayns and Judith Conroy recently visited Wood Farm in Cambridgeshire to discuss practical methods of processing media, to ensure it is suitable for making blocks that seeds can be sown into. An important aspect of this project is to use materials which are both renewable and can be sourced and processed locally. Find out more on the project here: https://bit.ly/3VRdY9t

Growing Connections team members Sam Green and consultant Pete Stevens of AJS Flood Risk presented the Growing Connection’s community tree nursery research work by Liz Trenchard, Gabriele Warwick, Sam and Pete, to the Tree Health Citizen science network: citizen scientists, Defra, Forest Research, Botanic Garden network members, tree health scientists, biosecurity specialists, and tree data scientists to share research information about the community tree nursery sector both from buyers’ points of view, sustainability of community tree nurseries and community tree nurseries’ needs within the UK tree production sector. Growing Connections: https://bit.ly/3tCyOPX

Lucy Aphramor facilitated a workshop “Anti-colonial food narratives for collective flourishing” at EarthFirst! summer moot held at Crabapple Community near Shrewsbury. This was the 30th EarthFirst! annual gathering involving ‘five days of workshops, skill shares, solidarity, socialising, and conspiring the destruction of capitalism, patriarchy, and all the forces of domination of humans and nature.
… a space for radical thinkers, rebellious souls, and curious minds, bringing people together to strengthen and spread the radical ecological resistance movement across these northern isles that we call home.'

Ulrich Schmutz, Rosemary Venn and Ali Parsa attended this year’s Farm Woodland Forum, hosted at Cranfield University on the theme of ‘Agroforestry for food, net zero and biodiversity’. Work generated from the AGROMIX project was presented and discussed. A full day of knowledge sharing was followed by a day of field trips to two farms incorporating trees into their systems.

1 - Medbury Farm, Elstow, Bedfordshire. Increasing tree cover on a commercial farm. The managers of Medbury Farm took part in a greenhouse gas calculation project to determine how close the farm is to 'net zero', and have established a range of systems to increase tree cover.

2 - RSPB Hope Farm, Knapwell, Cambridgeshire. Hope Farm is a commercial arable farm managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Over recent years, biodiversity has been enhanced and a 11 ha silvoarable system including apples, cobnuts and windbreaks has been established.

All presentations and posters are available to view on the Farm Woodland Forum’s website: https://www.agroforestry.ac.uk/meetings/annual-meeting-2024

CAWR colleagues represented Coventry University at Groundswell, the Regenerative Agriculture Festival at Lannock Manor Farm on 26th and 27th June 2024, sharing in discussions on our stand and in forums for farmers, growers, or anyone interested in food production, community tree nurseries, and the environment, about research and the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems.

As Advisor on the Spain-based FLUCOS (Sedimentos FLUviales y COSteros) project, Sue Charlesworth travelled to the north of Spain in late June to visit the Nalón and Esva River basins (Fig 1). With Dr Rodrigo Álvarez and Professors Almudena Ordoñez (project PI) and Eduardo de Miguel (Fig 2), she visited some of the many field sampling sites, and examined the eroded sediments which were found to contain arsenic, mercury and, to a lesser extent, copper, from mercury and copper mines. The elevated concentrations of these elements pose a threat to aquatic systems and biota highlighting the need for results of the project to be used to manage fluvial sediments impacted by mining activities. See more: https://bit.ly/4d1MJjL

Former PhD student Muhammad Shahid visited CAWR. He was self-funded and started with CAFS (Centre for Agroecology and Food Security) back in 2013. After completion in 2017 he made his career in the food industry and in a leadership role of a 2bn turnover company (Greencore). Congrats and so nice you have not forgotten your old PhD team and alma mater.

The Big Butterfly Count 2024 ran from the 12th of July until the 4th of August. As well as adding butterfly counts to the Butterfly Conservation data, Coventry University also created a survey for the city centre campus and Ryton to better understand butterfly species on campus

If you wanted to catch up on any of our previous seminars you can visit our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com//videos

Applications are open for CAWR's Agroecology, Water and Food Sovereignty MSc Course. For further information about this unique, brilliant opportunity to deepen knowledge, understanding and practices, scan the QR code or see here: https://bit.ly/49Mynlk

Coya Halley is a PhD candidate at CAWR. In May, she attended a summer school organized by the University of the West Indies and the University of Leicester International Summer held at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, to explore Gender, Violence, and Conflict. During the event, Coya presented emerging themes from her research, and explores a community land-based approach to address domestic violence in Guyana among incarcerated women. Her presentation focused on using creative practice to create a humanizing space that fosters engagement.

In June, Geraldine Brown was invited to speak at the British Sociological Association Southwest Medical Sociology Conference, where the theme was "Developing Creative Research Practices." Geraldine was pleased to share her experiences of using creative methods and how she and the CU team (including Alex Franklin, Barbara Smith, and Lindy Binder), are using participatory film-making in the EU-funded study, Planet4B: https://bit.ly/3Vk4swA

Rosemary Venn, Marco van de Wiel, Julia Wright and Ulrich Schmutz attended the 7th European Agroforestry Conference in Brno, Czech Republic. It was a 4 day conference with farm tours in Czechia and Austria. Many of the 28 AGROMIX project (7-million project) partners presented work and the CU focus was on policy with a presentation on agroforestry policy needs for the next EU commission and a poster comparing EU policies with other large democratic region (US, Brazil, India). In his introduction speech the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski specifically mentioned the Brussels Agromix summit as the only project in his presentation - a sign our work and the agroecology approach is taken seriously at EU top level, while it might still be partly ignored, due to the composition of the next EU parliament. Conference participants adopted the “Brno Agroforestry Declaration” for Europe: https://bit.ly/4bxRBvB

A group of Degree Apprentice students visited Ryton Organic Gardens as part of their module on Ecology. Lopa Saxena and Francis Rayns have recently delivered this module with the assistance of Judith Conroy and Samantha Green. One of the topics covered was the role of citizen science for ecological monitoring and this was illustrated by reference to two key projects: Blooms for Bees led by CAWR and Check a Sweet Chestnut run in collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society.

Rebecca Schmutz from North Leamington School joined the team at CAWR for a 1 week work placement. She helped with a variety of tasks, in particular our UKRI funded project to develop peat-free growing media for blocking. As well as laboratory work which included pH and conductivity analyses of materials, Rebecca helped with some of the messier outdoors jobs such as sieving composts.

👏 We're thrilled to announce that we have been given the Green Flag International Award award for the quality of our green spaces for the 11th year running! 👏

The 2024 award, which is the international quality mark for parks and green spaces, has been handed to the university every year since 2014 and the latest success follows an assessment of our management plan and a site inspection judging on almost 30 separate criteria including biodiversity, conservation and sustainability.

Earlier this year, we opened our Peace Gardens where the Alan Berry building once stood. The new garden allows for uninterrupted views from Coventry Cathedral down to the Delia Derbyshire building, the home of our art and design courses.

Our campus is also home to Starley Gardens, an ideal spot to pause and take a break, and an edible garden which is used as a pollinator hub and consists of vegetables, fruit and herbs that showcase the growing and use of food for students, staff and visitors, as well as allowing users to harvest crops at the appropriate time.

Professor John Latham CBE, Vice-Chancellor of Coventry University, said: "Our city centre campus is not only for our students and colleagues; it is for everyone who comes to, and travels through, Coventry.

"Our outdoor spaces are just as important as our lecture halls and classrooms and we are delighted to once again be awarded the Green Flag International Award which we shall fly with pride."

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/4d7Vto8

Jasber Singh presented at a roundtable on pedagogy at Queens Mary University. Jasber spoke about his pedagogical practice within the university and with community-led education projects. Panel members Afaf Jabiri, University of East London, Abeera Khan, SOAS University of London, Jo Krishnakumar, SOAS, and Fatima Maatwk, University of Westminster, spoke to the following questions:

1. How can feminist pedagogical practices in and outside the classroom grapple with this moment of genocidal violence, suspension and interregnum that we find ourselves in?

2. How do we manifest critical hope for a possible future where all forms of life co-exist in an ethical relation to each other?

3. How do you work outside of the university/traditional education spaces? Why is this work of political education important for you?

4. What methods of pedagogy do we adopt to address, sit with, and work through grief, exhaustion, rage, despair, and move toward love, mutuality, intimacy, and justice-to-come? What is your dream for tomorrow?

The panel discussed the importance of participatory and feminist approach to pedagogy.

Ivan Kourtchev received a John Beynon Travel and Conference Fund to present his work on novel development and application of high resolution mass spectrometry for identification of emerging pollutants at the British Mass Spectrometry Society (BMSS)-BSPR Super Meeting 2024. The meeting offers an extensive program featuring cutting-edge scientific sessions in analytical chemistry and mass spectrometry.

As part of the UKRI project to develop peat-free growing media for salad transplants we have been exploring a wide range of alternative materials including spent mushroom compost. Francis Rayns visited the production facility of Dart Valley Fungi who work closely with Project Lead Riverford Organic Farmers. They grow a variety of ‘gourmet’ species such as lion’s mane, sh*take and oyster mushrooms on substrates such as wood pellets and bran; after their harvest this could be utilsed in plant growing media.

An amazing 31,357 citizen scientists (YOU) have got out for the so far! 🎉🦋

Currently taking the top spot is the Meadow Brown with 69,298 records, followed by 2022's number 1, the Gatekeeper with 48,068 records.

There are still 2 weeks left to let us know how butterflies are faring where you live. 💚

Take part today at 👉 bigbutterflycount.org

📷: Gatekeeper - Megan Lowe

Jasber Singh was invited by the Food and Worker Network (FAWN) to present a workshop on agroecology and labour rights at Organic Lea, London. Jasber conducted a participatory workshop on defining agroecology collectively, and then discussed his experience of working in India and the UK on agroecology. Jasber offered a reflection on the importance of scaling out agroecology in South Asia, particularly in South India. Jasber, drawing from a paper written by Sagari Ramdas and Michel Pimbert, raised concerns on the ways in which agroecology, in some cases, has reproduced caste oppression and erased gendered labour rights. Participants at the workshop went on discuss more broadly the challenge of scaling out agroecology and integrating strong labour rights for workers in the global south, and here in the UK.

CAWR researcher Lucy Aphramor participated in two panels with international colleagues and gave an Expert Lecture in the International Congress of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2024, Toronto. Queering Dietetics As a Liberatory Process and Expert Lecture Ways of Knowing - Linking Agroecology and Dietetic Sustainability Policy were held within the Food Culture, Advocacy, and Social Justice theme, and Knowledge Systems for Engagement with Sustainable Food Systems in Dietetics contributed to the Dietetic and Interprofessional Education theme.

Congratulations to all our students that graduated yesterday and their Director of Studies and Supervisory Teams.

Congratulations to Emily Amini for graduating yesterday and being awarded a Master of Research. Her thesis title was 'An investigation into the relationship between greenspace availability and wellbeing in Leeds' and her Director of Studies was Sue Charlesworth.

Congratulations to Ali Parsa for graduating yesterday and being awarded a Doctor of Philosophy. His thesis title was 'A systems approach to environmental, social and economic sustainability in circular economies' and his Director of Studies was Marco Van De Wiel.

Congratulations to Megan Bedford for graduating yesterday and being awarded a Master of Research. Her thesis title was 'To what degree can natural flood management truly be considered 'natural'? and her Director of Studies was Michelle Farrell.

Congratulations to Joseph Esuman Acquaah who graduated yesterday and has been awarded a Doctor of Philosophy. His thesis title was 'Assessing the impact of hydraulic fracturing on groundwater in the UK. A case study of Preston New Road' and his Director of Studies was Babatunde Anifowose.