CCRI is the largest specialist rural research centre in the UK, having expertise in all aspects of research in policy and planning for the countryside and the environment of the UK, Europe and further afield.
There has been a great deal of comment on the recently published draft Agriculture Bill, which seeks to set out how the government will support farming after Brexit. The CCRI Director, Professor Janet Dwyer has a number of important observations.
The CCRI is working in partnership with the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) who has announced a new £2.5m initiative to help meet the needs of the land management and agri-food sectors in the post-Brexit era.
One of the key recommendations coming out of a recently completed EU funded project is a new approach that would bring the social dimension – people – to the centre stage to deliver more environmental and social benefits.
More than 125 people attended a ‘Growing the Future’ rural policy workshop, held at the University of Gloucestershire, which revealed that British farmers get only 4.5% from all UK food sales and declared that ‘Brexit is happening now, not in the future’.
Researchers from the University of Gloucestershire’s Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) are working with a team of European scientists to develop a novel resilience-enabling framework that can support policy makers and the farming sector to enhance the sustainability and resilience of farms and farming systems.
David Drew MP and Julie Girling MEP are amongst those attending a ground-breaking workshop looking at the future of agriculture, which is being held at the University of Gloucestershire on Thursday, 29th March.
For the last two years, researchers from the Countryside and Community Research Institute, at the University of Gloucestershire, have been working with Marco Della Gala from the University of Calabria to develop a local food app, which was launched on 22nd February 2018. This free Smartphone app is available to download for free from iOS and Android app stores.
Word Soil Day 2017 (5th December) captures the essence of the EU-funded project, SoilCare, which is identifying ways in which soil quality can be improved through cropping systems and techniques, benefiting both the profitability of farms and the environment.
On World Soil Day, we talk about how scientists are looking at how the soil can capture carbon and so lessen climate change, how to stabilise the soil to slow the flow of water and stop flooding, and how agricultural soils can be managed sustainably into the future ensuring we are all fed.
Social science researchers will be at Cheltenham Farmers Market on Friday 10th November and Cirencester Farmers Market on the 11th November to give short talks and chat with members of the public about their latest food and farming research and how it affects the products we buy.