Growing risk? The potential impacts of plant diseases on land use and the UK rural economy
Brian Ilbery and Damian Maye are working on this major interdisciplinary ESRC RELU project, led by the University of Warwick and which also involves the Imperial College London and the Central Science Laboratory, London.
The project aims to develop a critical, inter-disciplinary appraisal of the potential impacts of plant disease (food and non-food) on land use and the UK rural economy. Brian and Damian, assisted by Research Assistant Ruth Little, are providing the social science inputs to the project and are working alongside plant pathologists and economists. They will use interviews, focus group meetings and workshops to gather the responses and attitudes of key stakeholders to the growing risks that plant diseases may pose to the rural economy. Possible future scenarios will then be examined among key actors in different food and non-food supply chains in selected rural communities within the UK. The project runs from 2007 to 2010.
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