|
|
From the FCRN: 25 January 2017
Dear <<Name>>
Join our new forum discussion:
Land-sharing vs. land-sparing debate – moving towards a more constructive conversation about agriculture and the environment?
We have published a new forum discussion to encourage a debate and to hear reflections from our diverse group of members, on a recent article discussing the land-sharing versus land-sparing debate. The article Changing the agriculture and environment conversation (which was summarised in our newsletter here) argues that agricultural scientists, development economists, and ecologists have talked past each other ineffectively for decades. It concludes that we need to widen the discussion and reframe the question, going from a mere focus on how agricultural landscapes improve food production and biodiversity, to highlighting the many ways in which agricultural landscapes improve human well-being.
Read more in the forum introduction and add your thoughts to the discussion!
NB. You will have to be signed in as an FCRN member to post a comment. Registering a profile to become a member is easy and will only take a minute or two, register here.
Do you want to discuss other topics or have questions you want to the FCRN community to collectively debate? Post your own question or a suggestion/idea in our ‘General discussion’, ‘Quick questions’, ‘Research needed’, ‘Partnerships wanted’ or ‘Research projects sought’ forums.
Research library
Journals and Journal Articles
This article by agricultural researchers in Spain reviews the historical changes in land use and soil management practices, and examines how these changes have contributed to soil erosion in the past, before presenting modelling data to show how soil erosion may impact on agricultural yields in the future.
Read on the FCRN website »
Comment on this article »
Journals and Journal Articles
In this paper, a coupled agriculture and health modelling framework is used to estimate the mitigation potential and global health impacts from emissions pricing of food commodities. The analysis suggests that levying an appropriately designed GHG tax on food would be a health-promoting climate change mitigation policy in all high-income, middle income and most low-income countries. It is suggested that sparing healthy foods from taxation, selectively compensating for income losses from the tax, and channelling the subsequent revenues to health promotion could avert potential negative health impacts on vulnerable groups.
Read on the FCRN website »
Comment on this article »
Reports
The Global Food Security (GFS) programme in the UK has published a report providing evidence for the existence of environmental tipping points and exploring potential consequences for global food security.
Read on the FCRN website »
Comment on this article »
Opportunities
Beyond the Silo: Understanding and Building Linkages Across the Food System, University of Oxford, April 29, 2017
The 2017 Oxford Food Forum seeks to showcase diverse understandings of the food system that break down traditional silos constraining connectivity between people, places, and problems within the food system. By bringing together graduate and early-career researchers and a wide range of players from throughout the food system-producers, consumers, activists and advocates, and everything in between- the Forum will generate new possibilities for understanding and building linkages across the food system.
The Forum organisers now invite proposals for a broad range of presentations and workshops. Academic researchers across the social and biological sciences are invited to submit a title and abstract for a 15-minute oral paper/presentation. Those outside academia are also welcome to submit an abstract or outline of a presentation showcasing their work in or perspective on the food system. They also welcome proposals for interactive workshops, discussion sessions, posters, or film viewings.
Sponsored by the Oxford Martin School, the Forum will take place over the course of a full day on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at Oxford University's School of Geography and the Environment. Please feel free to disseminate this call for papers among your academic networks. For submissions and questions, please email oxfordfoodforum@gmail.com.
Read on the FCRN website »
Comment on this article »
Unilever is currently recruiting an Environmental Sustainability Scientist to work within the Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC) based at the Colworth Science Park in Bedfordshire, UK. SEAC plays a vital role in building and sustaining confidence from consumers and communities around the globe in its brands and products. Unilever’s ambition is to double the size of the business while reducing its environmental impacts. SEAC has a world class reputation for environmental sustainability science and will play a key role in supporting Unilever to achieve this challenge by working with product developers, suppliers, retailers and external research organisations to reduce the environmental footprint of products.
The successful candidate will hold a Masters or PhD in a relevant subject and have several years’ of post-doctoral or commercial experience. They will be able to apply life cycle thinking and assessment approaches to evaluate products and services, helping to identify opportunities to manage environmental impacts of Unilever products, technologies and portfolios.
Applications should be made online here.
Read on the FCRN website »
Comment on this article »
Working within the cross-university Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning (IFSTAL) project, the teaching fellow will help deliver IFSTAL in City University and will help organise events and work across the consortium.
Each teaching fellow will have experience in one or more of the following areas: course and curriculum development, VLE use and development, social media, organising and implementing summer schools, engagement with business, the science/policy interface and the international development agenda. They will also have experience of teaching at higher education level in a discipline related to food or food security; a commitment to developing skills in teaching at graduate level; the potential to be an aspiring mentor; and experience in information and communications technology (ICT) in higher education.
The position is a two days per week job share on a fixed-term contract until 30th September 2018.
For more information and to apply, see here.
Read on the FCRN website »
Comment on this article »
Registration is now open for the International Conference on “Innovative solutions for sustainable management of Nitrogen”, held at Aarhus University, Denmark, June 26-28, 2017. The conference will focus on solutions at different scales and places in the N management chain, and participants are invited to submit abstracts to the conference proceedings, and potential special issue papers. In addition to the conference, a full day of excursions is offered to showcase examples of sustainable N management in Denmark. In addition to the conference, the UN-ECE Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen workshop is also being hosted on June 29-30. Those interested can join this meeting as well, and follow discussions in the related expert panels on such topics as nitrogen mitigation, budgets, food and health. You can read more about the conference sessions at the conference website.
Please go to the registration at the conference website to sign up.
The organisers also welcome abstracts for papers - see the guidelines here. The deadline for submitting abstracts is February 15, 2017.
Read on the FCRN website »
Comment on this article »
Events
The Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning (IFSTAL) consortium is hosting its first public symposium on Saturday 28th January 2017 at Royal Vetinary College, Camden, London. The day will bring together academics, students, and professionals from a range of sectors to discuss the role of technology in future food systems. The day will be shaped around three sessions with the broad themes of: 1) production, 2) processing and distribution, and 3) consumption and waste, and will conclude with a final session being a directed panel debate. There is a wide range of speakers bringing diverse perspectives to each session. There will be opportunity for questions and discussion throughout the day.
For more information and to register for a place, please go to their Eventbrite page. Please note, to secure a place, a fee towards the catering costs (£20 to £40) needs to be paid through Oxford University’s site in addition to the Eventbrite registration.
Read on the FCRN website »
Comment on this article »
If you have been forwarded this email and would like to subscribe yourself, please click here. You can also become an FCRN member here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
![[Valid RSS]](https://gallery.mailchimp.com/85afd3b5aa2e515e25c3e7b9d/images/valid_rss_rogers.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}