Event outputs

6th LCA conference 2008 proceedings

The 6th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment in the Agri-Food Sector 2008 (Zurich) has published its proceedings.

There are lots of useful papers on the LCAs of different foods, methodological studies and so forth. 

The 7th conference is being held in late 2010.

Conference paper: UK consumers' priorities for sustainable food purchases

This paper was presented by FCRN mailing list member, Angie Clonan, at the 84th Annual Agricultural Economics Society conference (29-31 March 2010) in Edinburgh. Abstract as follows:

Although interest in ‘sustainable food’ has grown substantially in recent years, an official definition for sustainability has yet to be agreed upon. ‘Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming’ provides guidance to consumers wishing to make more sustainable food purchases, in the form of seven guiding principles. Using these principles, this study seeks to assess UK consumer’s priorities towards sustainable food. A detailed structured questionnaire explored shopping habits, attitudes to sustainable food components (organic, fair-trade, local food and animal welfare), stated purchasing behaviour and demographic information. Questionnaires were sent to 2,500 randomly selected Nottinghamshire (UK) residents. A response rate of 35.6% was achieved. The data reveals that consumers prioritise packaging, how food is produced and animal welfare when considering sustainable food components. Stated purchasing behaviour demonstrates that ‘free range’ and ‘local’ products are more likely to take precedence over other sustainability aspects. Future research will seek to compare and contrast stated and actual preferences by comparing the population survey results to actual purchasing behaviour from supermarket data.

You can download the paper here. 

The other papers from the conference are available here.

Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet

Narrated by Nourishing the Planet co-director Danielle Nierenberg, this powerpoint presentation outlines the current state of global chronic hunger and poverty and highlights some of the successful and sustainable agricultural innovations that will be featured in the WWI’s upcoming State of the World 2011: Innovations That Nourish the Planet. You can download the presentation (in 5 parts) here.

For the Nourishing the Planet blog see here.

Public policy seminar publication and presentations

How will climate change affect people in the UK and how can we best develop an equitable response? 

In November 2009, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Local Government Association (LGA) jointly held a seminar to discuss the question of how climate change will affect people in the UK, the social justice implications, and how we might best develop an equitable response. The speakers were Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall Centre, Gordon Walker from Lancaster University, and Emma Tompkins from Leeds. You can download the presentations and summary report here. 

Webcast of Royal Society discussion: Geoengineering: A brave new world?

This event was chaired by Professor John Shepherd with five minute presentations from Professor Brian Launder, Dr David Santillo, Professor Corinne Le Quéré, and Professor Steve Rayner, followed by a discussion session. You can download it (and various other interesting webcasts) here.

Lecture by Sir David King on food security

The annual City Food Lecture was held at the prestigious Guildhall and was organised by the seven City Livery Companies whose roots are in the food industry (Worshipful Companies of Bakers, Butchers, Cooks, Farmers, Fishmongers, Fruiterers and Poulters). Six hundred guests from the food industry attended to hear Sir David King (ex Chief Scientific Advisor) deliver the lecture, which was on the theme of Managing the Earth’s Resources to Deliver Food for Nine Billion. The lecture gives a comprehensive analysis of the issues and challenges we face now and in the coming years. You can watch the presentation and the discussion here. You can read Sir David King's biography here.

Climate change, trade and standardisation - in a development perspective: Stockholm conference presentations

The Stockholm conference on Climate change, trade and standardisation was held on the 23 and 24 November 2009. The purpose of the Stockholm conference was to build awareness about standardisation as the engine to increase climate-related trade for developing countries. The ambition of the conference was to introduce more extensive initiatives and activities to develop the capacity of those countries to take advantage of increasing climate-related trade.

To download the presentations see here.

Climate Smart Food Conference presentations and videos

Presentations and videos from the Climate Smart Food conference, held on the 23 to 24 November 2009 in Lund, Sweden, under the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, can be found here.

Psychology and Climate Change Policy Conference Presentations

On 27 October 2009, the British Psychological Society Climate Change Working Party organised a conference for policy makers on Psychology and Climate Change Policy to inform them of the research going on in psychology to address climate change and encourage more sustainable lifestyles.

The introduction and powerpoint presentations can be downloaded here.

Cylch Conference 2009: Presentations on Soil Carbon and Composting

Cylch (Wales Community Recycling Network) held its 2009 conference in Cardiff. The core aim of the Cylch Conference is to raise the profile of the Welsh community recycling sector. The Cylch Conference aims to bring together private, public and community sector representatives in order to forge links and exchange ideas. Speakers included Tim Jackson (on Prosperity without Growth), Ken Bellamy (on using compost to build soil carbon) and Gerry Gillespie (on an initiative to turn city waste - food and green waste - into compost and energy via anaerobic digestion).

You can download these and other presentations here.

Life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emission from ruminant agriculture: presentations available

The presentations and paper summaries from this event are now available on the British Society for Animal Science website. The topics covered by the presentations are as follows:

• An overview of life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting
• Livestock, life cycle analysis and the broader view
• Greenhouse gas emissions related to livestock in the UK inventory
• Carbon accounting for changes in livestock systems
• Building carbon footprints from the bottom up: issues of farms, farmers, scale and uncertainty
• The application of life cycle analysis in the marketing of milk
• Collaboration on a global basis can work – The Dairy Industry example
• Ensuring consistency in assessment of product carbon footprints

You can find the presentations here.

Animal Source Foods, Food Security and Climate Change: Burden, Blessing or Both?

The workshop report and powerpoint presentations from this workshop held on the 12 June 2009 at the London International Development Centre are available below:

• Workshop report
• Presentation by Cees de Haan, Consultant, World Bank
• Presentation by Michael Appleby, Chief Scientific Advisor, World Society for the Protection of Animals
• Presentation by Tara Garnett, Food Climate Research Network, University of Surrey
• Presentation by Joe Millward, Professor of Human Nutrition, University of Surrey
• Presentation by Nigel Poole, Centre for Development, Environment and Policy, School of Oriental and African studies

The future of rural land use: RELU event presentations available

The presentations from this very interesting event are now available to download here.

Presentations covered a wide range of topics, including:

• The potential impact of biomass production on biodiversity in the UK
• The land use implications of a move towards a more healthy diet in the UK
• The future for the uplands
• Governance of natural resources

Biochar workshop proceedings

The UK Biochar Research Centre organized a research workshop, Biochar: An Emerging Technology for Climate Change Mitigation?, which took place on 1 April 2009 at the University of Edinburgh.

Biochar has emerged as a carbon mitigation option of potentially global significance. But many key questions remain to be addressed before we can be confident that biochar can be a major part of the move to a sustainable zero-carbon economy. The aims of the workshop were to:

• map out the key research needs in establishing what role biochar may have in limiting atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases.
• identify the key research needs in deployment of biochar for carbon storage and as a soil amendment.
• review and assess the role that the UK research community can and should have in addressing the above-identified research needs.
• share information and to discuss how UK researchers can work together in meeting these research needs.

UK Network of Environmental Economists: Presentations Available

The UKNEE held its 2009 conference in London. A range of subjects were covered – just a few of them include:

• Marginal Abatement Cost Curves for UK Agriculture, Forestry, Land-use and Land-use Change Sector to 2022
• Counting the Cost of Climate Change in Developing Countries: Application to sub-Saharan African countries - report - briefing
• Saving Sumatra’s Species: Combining ecology & economics to maximise conservation efficiency within oil palm plantations
• Testing the Theoretical Consistency of Stated Preferences for Wildlife Conservation

You can download the papers here.

Conference presentations: Climate change and consequences for the food sector in Europe

This conference was held on the 15 January in Sweden at the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. Presentations included:

• Increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, stabilisation levels and needw for emission cuts, Markku Rummukainen
• Greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector in Europe, case study UK, Tara Garnett
• Greenhouse gases from land-use changes – an important source of emission from the food sector, Martin Persson and Christel Cederberg
• Climate policy in the EU – implications for the food sector, Anders Wijkman
• Regional climate models and future climate in Europe, Marku Rummukainen
• Agriculture and food production in a future climate in Southern Europe, Ana Iglesias
• Agriculture and food production in a future climate in Northern Europe, Joergen E Olesen

The presentations listed above can be accessed as follows: Go to www.ksla.se then click on the Konferenser tab (on the left). Next (left again) click on Tidigare Konferenser. Then go to Tidigare Seminariar (right hand side) . Then click on the names of the presenters to open their ppts.

Feeding the world conference presentations and sound recordings

Feeding the world...Are GM crops fit for purpose? If not, then what?

A conference to examine one of the most critical issues of our time took place on 12 November 2008 at the QEII Conference Centre, Westminster. Over 130 delegates and speakers debated the failure of GM crop technology to deliver anything on the promises of twenty years ago. Speaker after speaker pointed to agro-ecological approaches (including organic agriculture) as extremely attractive sustainable farming and food options, especially in a world fast running out of oil. Presentation slides and sound recordings have now been published.

Seminar report: Can Britain Feed Itself: Should Britain Feed Itself?

Held in October 2008 at the James Martin Institute. Speakers included Colin Tudge (biologist and author), Tim Lang (City University), Simon Fairlie (The Land is Ours), Patrick Holden (Soil Association) Hardin Tibbs (Said Business School, University of Oxford), Martin Large (Stroud Common Wealth Ltd), Julie Brown (Growing Communities), Nigel Lowthrop (Hill Holt Wood)

The seminar concluded that:

• A working group should be formed, from the participants of this seminar, to take forward government involvement in the change from the present food system
• Pressure for research grants to promote Transition Agriculture and Transition Technology into main stream further educational establishments
• Case studies of Transitional Technology be written up for presentation in government circles.
• This report to be distributed to feed into the government process of identifying regulatory measures for a better long term sustainable stable food system
• The Government should do more to promote a renaissance of food culture world wide.

New climate, new crops?

In June 2008 the University of Warwick organised a conference looking at the role of science, policy, and the food chain in identifying opportunities for growing quality produce in Britain's future climate. The presentations from that event as well as the conference proceedings are now available online here.

Earthscan Podcasts available

On the 30th of September, the publishing company Earthscan held a panel debate at the Royal Society of the Arts entitled Sustainability 2.0: Does sustainability need an update?The speakers were as follows:

Jonathan Sinclair Wilson, Managing Director, Earthscan Ltd
Caroline Lucas, Leader of the Green Party, UK
Bill Adams, Moran Professor, Cambridge University
Tim Lang, Professor, City University
Brenda Boardman, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford University
Nick Robins, Climate Change Centre of Excellence at HSBC
Paul Ekins, Professor, King's College London

You can hear podcasts of their talks here.

ESRC ESRC/TSB Public Policy Seminar on Human behaviours to moving people and goods more intelligently

A report of this seminar, held on the 26th September 2008 in London is now available here.

This ESRC seminar took place in the context of the Government's decision to invest up to £11million in new research that will adapt and develop technology to help us make smarter personal travel choices. The aim of the research, which will be funded by the Technology Strategy Board, is to pave the way towards alternative methods of planning travel. This seminar brought to together key social scientists to to explain some of the complexities of human decision-making and to discuss their findings with representatives of Government, industry, think tanks and the third sector.

Organic market trends and sustainability: presentations

The UK fresh produce sector recently held its annual re:fresh conference. One of the key presentations was by Andrew Fearne of The dunnhumby Academy of Consumer Research, Kent Business School. His presentation reveals the results of a major research project into trade and consumer perceptions of organic produce, asks how this affects perceptions of all other produce, and whether the industry should be relaying a new set of messages to its end customers. You can download both his presentation and the actual report of his research here: www.refreshconference.com .There are also interesting presentations from researchers on the following subjects:

• Food production in the 21 Century: What are we trying to achieve? (Rosemary Collier)
• How can genetics help deliver sustainability? (David Pink)
• How to obtain a more sustainable pre-harvest fruit chain? (Esther Bravin)

As well as other presentations.

The Price of carbon: what should it be and why?

This report summarises the outcomes of a recent seminar organised by Friends of the Earth, which explored the pros and cons of a variety of approaches to treating carbon in policy and project appraisal. The report examines where we are now in approaches to carbon valuation for appraisal and discusses four key alternatives; the social cost of carbon, the marginal abatement cost, market price, and precaution and pragmatism. It is recommended that the fourth approach in particular has potential and should be explored further - around a combination of an escalating carbon tax and a presumption against high carbon projects or policies. A copy of Professor Paul Ekin’s presentation, given at the seminar, is included in the appendix.

CooLogistics Presentations: Quality and responsibility in the global cold chain

This conference, held in the summer of 2008 looked at refrigerated transport by all modes (sea, ship, road and rail) and from a variety of angles – trends, environmental impacts, efficiencies, supply chain relationships etc. Some of the presentations (especially the one by MDS Transmodal) give some useful figures on volumes and trends. See here for more information.

Greenpower Conferences: Food and climate presentations available

Greenpower Conferences ran a two day event in 2008 focusing on the Carbon Reduction Commitment in the first day, and the food system and climate change on the second. There was also a pre-conference workshop focusing on carbon footprint issues.

You can download the presentations here:

• Workshop
• Day One
• Day Two

Green logistics – presentations available

On the 23rd April 2008, the Green Logistics project (a collaboration among a number of universities including Leeds, Heriot-Watt and Westminster) ran a Green Logistics event. There were presentations from a range of academic and industry speakers and these covered a range of subjects including: Carbon auditing the supply chain, Comparative environmental impact of online and conventional retailing’ Reverse logistics and Modal shift; carbon footprinting.

To download the presentations see here, or for more about the Green Logistics Project and its various work streams, see here.

Greener Supply Chain Conference - Presentations available

The Food and Drink Federation and the London Technology Network recently held an event entitled: Developing a Greener Supply Chain. There are presentations from Tate & Lyle, Cadbury, United Biscuits, University College London, WRAP and others, all of which can be downloaded here.

Food Security and Environmental Change: Presentations available

On 2-4 April 2008 a 3 day international conference was held in Oxford to present and explore research on environmental change, food security and food systems. The project was organised by the Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS) project - an international, interdisciplinary research project focussed on understanding the links between food security and global environmental change.

Presentations covered a vast range of subjects – food and GHG emissions, biofuels, water stress, crop adaptation, to food security and urbanisation, household adaptation to food stress. Presentations tended to be either country- or region specific.

Bob Watson (Chief Scientific Advisor to Defra and ex Chief Scientist at the World Bank) gave a presentation which is, along with most of the plenary and parallel session presentations, now available here.

Papers available – environmental economics

The presentations given at the 2008 UK Network of Environmental Economics annual conference are now available online at www.uknee.org.uk or more specifically here. Sessions focused on: Climate and carbon; Ecosystem services and biodiversity; Water; market based instruments; Economic valuation; and Life expectancy and satisfaction.

Content from past conferences (envecon 2004-2007) and UKNEE seminars can also be accessed via the website.

Living Rainforest Seminar: Powerpoint downloads available

In March and April 2008 the charity The Living Rainforest held two events on sustainable food on the following themes: Green Feast: Exploring the Multiple Meanings of Sustainable Food and Greening the Greenhouse: Designing a Carbon-Neutral Future. Presentations from both these events can be found here.

Leverhulme Climate Symposium 2008

On 10-13 March the University of Cambridge and the Royal Society held a Symposium, bringing together leading scientists from around the world to explore how knowledge gained from understanding past climate change may be applied to the modelling of the Earth's present and future climate and the likely sensitivity of climate to anthropogenic forcing.

Videos of the presentations, powerpoints of the presentations and of the posters are now all available on the Leverhulme website.

Sustainable consumption and production in Europe

In February 2008 the European Environment Agency, the Slovenian Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning and theUNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) jointly launched a report entitled:Time for action — towards sustainable consumption and production in Europe. The report presents summary outputs of a conference held in September 2007 which focused on priority areas of concern: food & drink, housing and mobility. It also (in its Annex 2) includes a briefing paper comparing national SCP strategies in selected EU countries.

For other European reports on SCP see here.

Europe - waste management and climate change – conference papers available

In late January 2008, the Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and Sustainable Resource Management held a conference on waste management and climate change. The presentations are now available on their website here.

Arable Cropping in a Changing Climate

This conference was held in early 2008 by the Home Grown Cereals Authority. The presentations from that day cover the potential impacts climate change will have on UK agriculture, how growers can adapt and the opportunities that may be presented. You can download the presentations here.

Food policy seminar – IPPR event notes

In December 2007 the Institute for Public Policy Research held a seminar on food policy. The seminar was intended to provide in put to the IPPR’s ongoing research on food policy and considered the following questions:

• Do we need a more joined up food policy? If not why not – for example this would remove the risk of industry capturing regulators, but given the levels of European legislation and actions does this remain a valid argument?
• Should we at least recognise areas where policy can come together, moving from either or policy situations and disconnections? Could this work in practice?
• What is the role of public policy? What are the processes and outcomes it hopes to achieve? What is the relationship between the state, the market and the individual and what should they be?
• Can we balance social, environmental and economic concerns? Can we balance domestic and international practicalities and responsibilities?

Notes and presentations from the seminar can be read here. Scroll down to where you see "Click here for a summary of the seminar and discussion content".

RESOLVE Seminar, December 2007

Tim Kasser, Associate Professor of Pyschology, Knox College, Illinois, US, gave a fascinating presentation on materialistic values and its relationship with personal wellbeing and other qualities. He argued that people living in contemporary Western societies, and increasingly the rest of the world, are frequently exposed to messages and institutions that encourage materialistic values. Advertisements, business practices, and governmental policies often suggest that a meaningful, happy life is best obtained through the pursuit of financial wealth and consumption.

You can listen to this presentation and to the questions that followed by going to the Events section of the Resource Efficiency Knowledge Transfer Network website. You need to register to join, but it’s free.

Joint UK-Italian ‘Sustainability in the food chain’ workshop – presentations

On 29-30 November 2007, Defra and the Italian Embassy held a bilateral workshop on sustainability in the food chain with a view to promoting cooperation on the issue between the two countries. The presentations from the event are available for download here.

RELU Food Chain Conference Report

In late 2007, the ESRC Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) Programme held an extremely interesting conference focusing on the sustainability of all aspects of the food chain.The presentations from the day will be available on the website in due course. In the meantime, RELU has posted up an independent report to the programme, compiled by Tom MacMillan of the Food Ethics Council, available here.

Soil Association Summit on Air Freight: Presentations and Summary Notes

In July 2007 the Soil Association held a summit on air freight which brought together a range of organic businesses, development organisations and environmental groups to discuss the challenges that air freight poses and to consider the best ways forward. After a series of presentations, participants broke up into smaller workshops to focus on finding solutions and consensus.

The general view to emerge was that a general ban on air freighted organic products would NOT be appropriate, because of the effect on producers in developing countries. Wthin this general consensus there were several different perspectives:

• The SA should find a compromise that reconciles the environmental damage from air freight with the benefits from international development
• The SA should look at carbon more generally; a focus on air freight is too specific
• The air freight issue is something for other organisations to address.

Green Power Conferences: climate change and the corporate sector

Green Power Conferences held a three day conference in May 2007 on the subject of climate change and the corporate sector. The event addressed a wide range of issues from Carbon offsetting/emissions trading to the challenges to SMEs. One of the three days was entirely devoted to food. It covered the issue of food miles and carbon labelling and highlights included a video link to delegates in New Zealand (a good example of an attempt to keep delegate-miles down) and a presentation from the manager of a zero-carbon winery.

All the presentations can be downloaded here. Additional interviews and a blog of the event can be viewed here.

Biofuel Assessment Conference

If you have an interest in biofuels and land use you might want to see the outputs from this conference, held in June 2007 in Denmark. The presentations look very interesting: focusing mainly on biofuels and their implications for use change.

Agricultural Economics Society conference: Bioenergy - Green Gold?

Presentations from this conference which took place in January 2007 can be viewed online here. The presentations cover aspects such Government policy, the global economics of biofuels, farmer perspectives, biofuels and carbon life cycle analysis and other environmental aspects