CCRI has welcomed the recent report from the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee on Soil Health, which states that soil is often overlooked as an essential component to human life. Read Jane Mills' blog about CCRI's work in the challenge to address soil degradation.
Recently Pete Gaskell and Nick Lewis travelled to the North Pennines AONB as part of the Horizon 2020 project 'PEGASUS'. They were working with contacts within the AONB and aiming to develop an understanding of the area and the various relationships between farming, forestry and the provision of Ecosystem services.
John Powell recently attended the IASC European Regional Conference in Bern. 'Commons in a 'Glocal' World' looked at the interfaces between local and global processes, and you can read John's thoughts in his latest Blog post.
A recent article in the Daily Telegraph highlighted the issue of visitor control during the peak Bluebell viewing season at a National Trust site in Hertfordshire. It noted that for the first time the Trust would be charging visitors coming to look at wild flowers. John Powell comments on managing a public good where high levels of 'use' will potentially cause damage.
Matt Reed reflects on our recent blog post 'Superfoods go to the roof!' and explores some of the arguments behind 'superfoods' in connection with the future of food and the future of food in cities.
Matt Reed has been walking the terraces of Cyprus where a team from The Cyprus Institute, as part of the RECARE project, are investigating the role of terraces in preserving the soil. In this blog, Matt talks about the traditions of cultivation of mountain terraces and the the challenge to produce and sell food in a way that develops livelihoods and sustains the environment. Matt was accompanied by Jane Mills.
Some of CCRI’s Mauro Vigani's research recently featured in an article in The Guardian in connection with the production of microalgae spirulina on the rooftop of the Novotel Hotel in Bangkok. Our blog article goes deeper into this fascinating subject as Mauro Vigani talks about the two main factors that can drive the growth of the microalgae sector for food: reducing production costs and improving consumer demand.
A recent field trip along the Lower Severn Vale with a group of Landscape and Applied Ecology MSc students highlighted some of the opportunities and challenges associated with weaning ourselves off large-scale and centralised electricity generating systems. The area of interest is part of the Severn estuary between Gloucester and the old suspension bridge carrying the M48 from Aust to Chepstow.
CCRI Senior Research Fellow, Matt Reed, is a regular blogger writing on food, community and politics at his blog, 'the ruralist'. Matt's latest post, 'Going Digital', reflects on how the CCRI is addressing the challenge of getting its latest research findings out in the public domain as quickly as possible.
