Relevant research and conferences

Hi Jo thanks very much for the papers. I just came across this paper from the US presenting the concept of urban food forestry https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10980-013-9903-z
They show show that urban food forestry can be a valuable strategy to address multiple sustainability challenges (e.g., food security, climate change, and poverty), to contribute to health through affordably increasing public consumption of nutrient-dense foods to combat hunger and obesity, and that it can be used to promote sustainable urban development through providing ecosystem services.

Here are the 2 papers which I will be presenting on academic conferences relating to my PhD proposal. Hope everyone likes them.

Tomas, Thanks for your post. I have just read this report about wilding, climate change and ecological restoration; https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/blog/new-report-how-restoring-nature-can-help-decarbonise-the-uk. Though this is clearly at macro/national scale, the question in my mind is to what extent might agro-ecological practices (forest gardening and all) be seen as fitting into wilding approaches, and contribute to carbon sequestation and ecological improvements? The answer is clearly yes, (the report mentions silvopasture in passing) but is there enough evidence to back up this assertion and put this into the wilding mix/bag of approaches. Richard

Thanks for posting Tomas it does sound very interesting. Will a summary or presentations be available on a website somewhere? I for one would love to read more.

Hi all,
here is quick report from the Evolving the Forest conference. It was a fascinating mix of foresters, civil servants, NGOs and artists, which resulted in much more, and more interesting, discussions than it might otherwise have been. Interest in forest gardening was definitely there. My presentation went down well and fed into a lively panel discusion around trees, forests and wellbeing. In particular I made some useful links with people in Birmingham City Council and in the Woodland Trust for Southwest England, which I will try to follow up and build upon. There may be future opportunities for roundtable discussions, and I will let you know if they come through.
It was also great to be in Dartington around midsummer. The estate is full of beautiful woodland, ancient trees and some very interesting agroforestry sites and well worth a visit.

Thank you Richard for taking the time to post this. I'm very curious about what it might take to get widespread participation in the growing process. Perhaps food is only one motivator. There is a parliamentary petition out around 'restoring ecosystems' https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/254607 which is almost up to 100,000 signatures. Would this message motivate a wider group do we think?

2 weeks ago I posted a notification of the Ox Peace conference 2019. Peace in the Anthropocene: Humanity, Environment, Sustainability. I have shared the summary of the conference and some notes /thoughts from one of the key sessions.

Th conference explored some of the challenges to peace, and responses to those challenges, that arise from the ascendancy of human beings on planet Earth and the consequent impact on our environment. The Conference opened with 'global heating' and the issue of climate justice - and unfolds the total human impact on our environment, in human migration, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, the ubiquity of plastics, changes in the Arctic and Antarctic and the oceans, urbanisation, and the nexus between environmental exploitation, crime, conflict and peace. What level of human population can this planet peacefully sustain? What answers are there to this question, and what ethical, political and practical issues arise? How do we react to this complexity? How can positive peace be built?

Some headlines from Prof Charles Godfray (Oxford Martin School)
• The Oxford Martin school programme on the future of food is looking at issues such as feeding the world sustainably.
• Food expenditure has been off the political and household radar screen in the UK for a long time so we have forgotten what it means to spend much money on food. In the UK it's about 10% of our income on food, while in e.g. Cameroon about 50%.
• Everyone should be making a shift to the WHO recommended diet as this would bring considerable diet/health and carbon reduction benefits.
• The food system is globalised but has not been stress tested, unlike financial system tests (which you may or may not have confidence in). If the global food system fails, either on a short term/acute or longer-term chronic basis, things could get quite messy.

My take on these points from the conference in relation to forest gardens;
a) While food remains so cheap, we won’t get widespread societal and political support for forest gardening on the basis of good value food. However, the concurrent health and environment benefits of the right (WHO recommended) diet must also be highlighted and the potential of forest gardens to support this. Extinction Rebellion and others have changed the terms of the environmental debate so this is the right time to raise the environmental benefits.
b) In addition, though the system is slow to understand this, the well-being aspects of being in and working within nature are being increasingly understood. These build upon the healthy diet argument, but this requires people being active participants in the growing process, i.e. going beyond just consuming.
c) Given the stresses on the global food system, its fragility and I think possible big price rises in the not distant future, it is important to no longer take cheap food for granted. We need to start to sow the seeds for building resilience. It’s not a point to make strongly now, as most people simply won’t acknowledge this, but is something to quietly point out and work on.

All this feeds into the climate resilience round tables we have started to convene. However, some further marshalling of evidence and building the compelling story for forest gardening is needed to support our case.

Richard

Thanks Paul, apologies for the late reply I believe I have seen that paper.

Sorry Jake not sure how i missed this off: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02344/full

Is there a link to the research paper? I was speaking to someone on Forest Garden UK Facebook group who wants to set up a community forest garden in Middlesborough :)