Agriculture and Copenhagen

COP15 at Copenhagen gets underway today and agriculture issues will take centre stage on 12 December at the Agriculture and Rural Development Day. There is also a possibility of a programme of work on agriculture emerging.

The ODI highlights that transitions to more sustainable agriculture will mean taking action to: use existing resources more economically; farm more flexibly and ‘resiliently’; switch to conservation approaches to farming from current approaches that degrade resources, and, shift nutritional habits of society’s wealthy populations away from highly resource-intensive diets.

The crisis with no name

Interesting article from the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) about the difficulties of drawing attention to future food crises which have might have poor crop diversity as their cause. But is the Irish famine history´s biggest food crisis?

Does the IUCN take agricultural biodiversity seriously?

The IUCN World Congress has been taking place this week in Barcelona and this is a question that has crossed my mind more than once. If one was to answer this question based on the range of events taking place to do with agriculture, food security and sovereignty and agrobiodiversity then one might be tempted to answer in the affirmative. But I have come away with the impression that there is much that needs to be done including a greater need for better joined up analysis and advocacy. There still appears to be a massive disconnect between the global conservation and agrobiodiversity communities. But we need not be in conflict, from the evidence presented here there is much we could and should be doing better. The challenge is how we find better and more effective ways of working together. How do we address this disconnect between those of us working in agricultural biodiversity and conservation?
There are many opportunities and entry points for both communities. The responsibility for the current situation does not lie solely at the door of either community. There is much that the agricultural and agrobiodiversity community could and should be doing to improve an important partnership. Some participants pointed out that the agrobiodiversity community was actively looking for collaboration with the conservation community. I am sure they are but how effectively are they doing this? I am convinced there is room for improvement. This would involve a much more coherent and evidence-based approach, an approach that is much more inclusive and strategic, much more thought through than is currently taking place. Other participants have stressed the need for creating more awareness on the benefits of agrobiodiversity. While important, this is only one element of a much more concerted effort that is required in order to break down a very entrenched mindset.
Some suggestions that have emerged from this meeting include the IUCN having a more active role in promoting that biodiversity in agricultural systems has a function, is useful and can support food security and sovereignty. Enhancing integration of the relevant commissions and member organizations of IUCN to promote a higher profile for agricultural biodiversity, so that the IUCN can better articulate a position on this. Jeff McNeely suggested that maybe there was a need for conservationists to better understand agriculture and to have a better historical perspective on land use. Clearly there is. There was allusion to how this might trickle down to a new level of ‘professionalism’ among conservation workers and practitioners. I certainly hope so. There were many other positive suggestions, too many to go into any detail here.
However, I just wanted to add that we, as the agricultural biodiversity community, might want to look inwards and reflect on what we have been doing recently to change this disconnect. I am sure there is more that agrobiodiversity organizations, programmes, projects and individuals could be doing so they are better organized and positioned to engage the global conservation community and effect change. It will take much more than an awareness campaign to change the current disconnect.

Irish Genetic Resources Conservation Trust

Agency with useful information and links on Irish agrobiodiversity. I have linked to them on earlier postings.

The Change Agency

The Change Agency have a tremendous website, full of useful, state-of-the-art tools for community and social activists. The training resources are among the best I have seen.

The Thiagi Group

The Thiagi Group website is a useful source of ideas and resources for those interested in using games and similar activities for enhanced learning and participation.

Irish links, an online directory

Irish Links is the first and only online directory exclusively listing Irish non-profit organisations that use the Internet and which share the common goal of bringing about positive change in society. There are many categories including Community Development/Renewal and Rural Development. Very useful.

INFASA seeks dialogue on sustainable agriculture

INFASA, a collaboration between the IISD and Swiss College of Agriculture (SHL), seeks to improve our understanding of sustainability and what sustainability means in agriculture, how it is measured, and how the knowledge generated can promote sustainable agriculture.

The Rural Media Company

The Rural Media Company is an innovative media education and production organisation with a national reputation for its socially aware media and communications work. It aims to enable rural communities to learn about and use media by participating in practical media activities and the creation and dissemination of high quality media communications and educational resources.

Travellers Remembered is is a collection of 25 beautiful digital stories which record the personal memories of Traveller families in the West Midlands. Media workers helped children and young people to record their parents and grandparents, adding family photographs to bring the memories to life.

A similar project entitled Fieldwork - the Bygone Days of Farming is underway.

Certainly an interesting and useful approach for community involvement in documenting social history. Check out the other projects and activities on the site.

Training for transformation

The Partners Training for Transformation, who have been hiding out in Ireland, are an independent agency dedicated to personal, group, organisational and societal transformation through community development work. Partners have been largely involved in cross-border and cross-cultural contexts and have developed considerable international networks. They have recently brought out the publication Partners Intercultural Companion to Training for Transformation: Exercises, Processes, Resources, and Reflections for Intercultural Work. This new resource written by Maureen Sheehy, Frank Naughton, and Collette O'Reagan is a compilation of exercises, processes, resources and reflections used by facilitators over several years. It draws mainly from the experience of PARTNERS’ work in Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland and in a European Grundtvig Learning experience.

Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI)

I recently came across this interesting initiative at NUI Galway. It is known as the Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) and

'supports and promotes the ethos of civic engagement among students, staff and the wider community. Through partnerships with community groups and organisations, CKI helps the University share with, and learn from, civil society. Whether supporting volunteering among students, integrating community into teaching or researching social needs – the aim is to reinvigorate the civic mission of higher education in Ireland by engaging with the wider community.'

The CKI would appear to have much in common with the Learning and Teaching for Transformation (LTT) initiative which I posted on earlier and which works towards meeting the challenge for education in a globalising world through discovering and exploring forms of learning and teaching that promote the emergence of civil societies and which are relevant to their own social and cultural settings. Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs), through teaching, training and research, play a pivotal role in the social, political and economic change necessary for sustainable development. But such change will only occur if it is responsive to the needs of the wider community. Initiatives like the CKI and LTT are obviously well placed to build collaborative learning partnerships that ensure capacity building and research is relevant to the wider community.

The CKI has recently been involved in the publication of Higher Education and Civic Engagement – International Perspectives

ICERTS, promoting rural transformation and sustainability

The Irish Centre for Rural Transformation and Sustainability (ICERTS) at NUI Galway has a long tradition of research, teaching and consulting/studies in rural development and is supported by substantial funding from local, national and international levels. The Centre also coordinates undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in rural development and most recently launched a BSc degree in rural development delivered through distance education mode.

A Feasta news on sustainability

'Feasta aims to identify the characteristics (economic, cultural and environmental) of a truly sustainable society, articulate how the necessary transition can be effected and promote the implementation of the measures required for this purpose.'

Environmental news

For up-to-date information on wildlife and environmental news in the British Isles, such as the recent announcement by the government's chief scientist on badger culling, visit the Habitat website. Very informative lots of resources by discipline and regions.

World Rural Forum Association

'The World Rural Forum Association (WRF) is a forum for meeting, analysing and
observing rural development. It has established agreements with universities and
other educational or research centres, with farmers' associations and with NGOs
which have solid links with grass-roots organization. As a result of this work,
we avail ourselves of reliable information which enables us to analyse the
problems of farmers (men and women), stock-breeders and the inhabitants of rural
areas throughout the world and draw up proposals for courses of action.
The WRF is a non-lucrative Association of an international nature, whose activities
are carried out in a world context. It defines itself as a network which amply
covers the five continents and is formed by people and public and private
institutions, committed to the achievement of sustainable and equitable
development, particularly in the field of rural development.
In the quest for achievement of rural development, the WRF also promotes projects for cooperation in various rural areas of the world.'

There are some useful resources and links available on the website

Campaign to Protect Rural England

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has been campaigning and working for some time now for a sustainable future for the English countryside, a vital but undervalued environmental, economic and social asset belonging to the nation. Their work highlights threats and promotes positive solutions for the environment and should be of interest to anyone working in sustainability and the countryside.

Tackling health inequalities, the CDHN

'The Community Development and Health Network as a member led organisation aims to make a significant contribution to ending health inequalities, using a community development approach.'

Visit their site for an interesting range of resources, publications and contacts.

Teagasc, supporting the agri-food industry in Ireland

Teagasc is the DARD counterpart in the south of Ireland looking after education, research and advisory work for the agri-food industry.

Better food and farming

Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, promote equity and enrich society and culture.

Sustain was launched at the UNED-UK hosted Healthy Planet Forum on 17 June 1999. It was formed by merging The National Food Alliance and the Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment (SAFE) Alliance, both of which had been established for over 10 years.

The Centre for Global Education, enhancing local awareness of global issues

Recently, I visited the Centre for Global Education (CGE), based in Belfast, which

'was established to provide education services that will enhance awareness and
understanding of international development issues. It aims to use education
as a means of challenging the causes of poverty and inequality in both local and
global contexts.'

CGE, in partnership with the Suas society at Queen's University Belfast, are organising a Global Issues Seminar Series beginning on 11 October and running over eight consecutive Thursdays finishing on 29 November. The seminars cover a variety of topics, including migration, gender and climate change, that will be of relevance to local development workers and help provide a global perspective that can no doubt help influence local practice and social change in Ireland.

The venue for all of the seminars is Room 302b in the Peter Froggatt Centre in Queen's University each Thursday, commencing at 6pm. For more information and a pdf document describing the series contact the Information Officer info@centreforglobaleducation.com. Try to get along, it should be an excellent and informative series.

While on the topic of the CGE, it is also an excellent resource/information centre with a large and accessible library, has web-based resources to support learning in local and global citizenship and offers an Open College Network accredited training course in global youth work with the aim of creating capacity in development education among practitioners in the youth sector in Northern Ireland.