Press Release
The future of the countryside
28 October 2009
“Rural areas are coming into a new time of importance as the combined pressures of the shortage of resources and climate change make questions of land use and food production pressing in a way that they have not been for many years. “
These were the sentiments of Sir Don Curry, former Chair of the Sustainable Farming and Food Delivery Group and author of the influential 2002 Curry Report, as he opened a major rural policy conference at the Queens Hotel in Cheltenham on 21 October.
The ‘Rural Policy and Local Assets’ conference was organised by the Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI), a rural research collaboration between the University of Gloucestershire, University of the West of England, Hartpury College and the Royal Agricultural College. A number of prominent speakers facilitated stimulating topical debate on many of today’s ‘hot’ rural issues, such as food security, which is currently under threat due to climate change and population growth.
Organiser Dr Paul Courtney, Assistant Director and Reader in Rural Economy and Society, in the CCRI, said “The policy conference provided an ideal opportunity to present contemporary rural topics based on evidence from CCRI’s latest research, and to open them up for discussion and debate by national and local policy makers, NGOs, researchers and academics”.
Over 70 people representing national and local policy makers, NGOs, researchers and academics from across England, Wales and Scotland, attended the Policy Conference.
The first two presentations considered the importance of localism in the coming century, each focusing on different aspects of the topic. One considered the role of local food in the emerging debate about food security, and another reviewed the research of the CCRI and how it has focused on the interaction between farmer decision-making and its impact on the wider landscape. This was followed by an observation of the role of ‘assets’ and the different form that those assets can take in rural areas.
The conference then reflected on research the CCRI and colleagues at the Open University had undertaken about the language used in the promotion of organic food, and the role that language plays in allowing alternative ideas to be formulated. This was followed by a presentation on an exciting new research project, which looks at the role older people play in creating the social and civic life of rural areas. This was accompanied by the first results of the social survey work underpinning this project.
The conference also considered the broader landscape in which rural policy is taking place and the directions that it could take in response to recent global events. Graham Garbutt, recently retired from his successive roles as Chief Executive of the Countryside Agency and the Commission for Rural Communities, reflected on his experiences and the likely pressures on future rural policy. The pressures on rural policy and the likely changes that will take place in EU policy were also contemplated.
To bring the conference to a close, key note listeners Professor Chris Gaskell, Principal of the Royal Agricultural College, and Ian Baker, Head of Economy and Research at Defra, led a debate which ranged from the likely impacts of public spending cuts on rural policies, the extent and nature of rural social exclusion and the future structure of rural policy.
Copies of the Powerpoint presentations and information on the work and activities of the CCRI can be found on the CCRI website
ENDS
Editors Notes:
Dr Paul Courtney, organiser of the conference, can be contacted on +44 (0) 1242 714132 or e-mail pcourtney@glos.ac.uk
Dr Matt Reed, co- organiser of the conference, can be contacted on +44 (0) 1242 714138/ 07813201807 or email mreed@glos.ac.uk
The Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) is a collaboration between the University of Gloucestershire, the University of the West of England, Royal Agricultural College and Hartpury College. It is one of the leading specialist rural research centres in the country with programmes of research in rural community development, rural poverty, agri-environment policies, agri-tourism, local sustainability, local economic development, EU and UK rural development, and the planning system in the countryside.
Julie Ryan, Communications Officer, can be contacted on jryan@glos.ac.uk
Chris Rayfield, the CCRI Business Manager, can be contacted on tel. 00 44 (0) 1242 714121
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