Strategic Research Agenda for organic food and farming

The TP Organics Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) was finalised in December 2009. The purpose of the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) is to enable research, development and knowledge transfer that will deliver relevant outcomes – results that will contribute to the improvement of the organic sector and other low external input systems. The document has been developed through a dynamic consultative process that ran from 2008 to 2009. It involved a wide range of stakeholders who enthusiastically joined the effort to define organic research priorities. From December 2008 to February; the expert groups elaborated the first draft. The consultative process involved the active participation of many different countries. Consultation involved researchers, advisors, members of inspection/certification bodies, as well as different users/beneficiaries of the research such as farmers, processors, market actors and members of civil society organisations throughout Europe and further afield in order to gather the research needs of the whole organic sector

Enhancing Ontario’s Rural Infrastructure Preparedness: Inter-Community Service Sharing in a Changing Climate — Environmental Scan

Given the research that has been done in this environmental scan and the gaps found in this research, it is our aim to find out: What types of service sharing are going on in Ontario municipalities, particularly in rural/remote areas? How can inter-community service sharing (ICSS) benefit the asset management planning process in these rural/remote areas to enhance capacities for climate change resilience? Climate change (CC) will exacerbate deterioration to existing infrastructure and increase replacement costs. Improved preparedness reduces risks and increases efficiency, readiness and coping capacity. To increase the preparedness of Ontario rural communities, this project develops CC-Prepared Inter-Community Service Sharing (ICSS) as an innovative strategy that expands cost-effective solutions within Ontario’s standardized Asset Management Planning (AMP) process. Overseen by a Project Advisory Board (PAB), it identifies a suite of best practice ICSS processes and principles and a range of factors and indicators that influence the uptake of ICSS as a viable and practical opportunity targeted to enhance rural infrastructure preparedness for CC. It utilizes a multimethod, interdisciplinary approach involving an environmental scan, interviews, a survey and case studies and develops an ICSS Toolkit consisting of reports, workbook, policy brief and media kit. Knowledge translation and transfer (KTT) includes blogs, teleconferences, articles, presentations and a workshop. For small rural Ontario communities, this study enhances management of CC impacts on infrastructure through the development of a CC-Prepared ICSS strategy, increasing anticipatory, collective actions that reduce dam age and increase efficiencies. It informs sound municipal/provincial level programs and policies about innovative ICSS that benefit rural communities through the identification of Ontario-wide trends, case study best practises and action-oriented recommendations

Consumer values and eco-fashion in the future

This paper discusses the consumer values, attitudes and expectations regarding sustainable textiles and clothing. Consumers' interest in ethical issues is currently raising ethical questions in the mass market. What does a consumer expect from sustainable products in the apparel industry? and what is future eco-fashion

Challenges of Green Office Implementation: A Case Study in Penang, Malaysia

This study was conducted in response to the lack of green office buildings in Malaysia, despite the fact that the green concept has been initiated in Malaysia for many years. The Penang State Government has taken the initiative to establish the Penang Green Council (PGC) as the first state in Malaysia, and the implementation of green offices is one of its programme initiatives. Nonetheless, green offices are still in scarcity across Penang. This study identified the challenges faced in implementing green offices. Data were collected from five green building owners using semi-structured interviews and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. The outcomes revealed that the main challenges faced by green office adoption were lack of budget, lack of awareness, lack of expertise, ownership factor, and type of building. This study offers several implications for practitioners and policy makers to improve the adoption of green office in Malaysia. The results may be applied to raise awareness amongst practitioners and office owners regarding green practices in office buildings. The study outcomes may serve as reference to policy makers on enhancing the development of green buildings

The Tourist Culture Nexus: Occurrence, Advantages, Sustainability

This article investigates the concept of tourist culture in three island cases. Fieldwork and qualitative depth interviews of key stakeholders are used to identify and describe. Tourist culture is identified through artefacts and practises that are shown to be stimulated, reinterpreted and created as a result of interactions between hosts and guests, both of whom are shown to have distinct cultures of their own. Tourist culture is thus described as a nexus between. A range of benefits are identified. These may be associated with overall sustainability of tourism. Yet findings highlight that tourist culture evolution is affected by stage and scale of tourism development and may therefore need careful management if it is to be established and maintained

Citizenship in sustainable transition : a two-sided story about refugees and sustainability

The world is facing multiple crises, including ecosystem degradation, global climate change and human conflicts. One of the consequence is an unprecedented displacement of 65 million people in total and historic records in the number of asylum seekers in the European Union. This poses the challenge of how to integrate the increased number of refugees in an effective way. As immigration is only one of many convergent crises, integrated solutions are needed - solutions that provide synergies between human equity, well-being and environmental sustainability. To date, no research on sustainability within immigration studies has looked beyond sustainability as a condition for human development and examined the potential of sustainability processes in solving social challenges that are not directly linked to environmental conflicts or degradation. This thesis seeks to demonstrate how processes towards environmental sustainability can also nourish socially inclusive and flourishing societies. Focus is on Denmark where the challenge of refugee integration has become a matter of particular importance and political focus. Denmark also faces significant challenges in its agricultural sector which is unsustainable both ecologically, economically and socially. Through a multiple-case study, this thesis explores how to better integrate refugees via sustainable projects and to provide the opportunities for them to take active part in sustainable transition in a local community. With a theoretical outset in the capability framework, the study finds evidence on how learning and practises for sustainability can have a positive effect on refugees in terms of enhancing their capabilities and motivation to take active part in sustainable processes. The case studies reveal that the examined initiatives form viable supplements and alternatives to current policies and practices within both fields. However, the case studies also show certain constrains pointing towards the need of a broad collaborations between governments, business and civil society as a condition for successful integration of refugees. This form the basis to discuss concepts of citizenship and elaborate on the theory of ecological citizenship. Supported by the case studies the research finds a potential of a new sense of citizenship that goes beyond territorial and nation-based cultural norms and values. The study suggests that approaching refugee integration, policy- makers should take a holistic approach and a long-term perspective. Finally, the thesis concludes that approaching sustainability as a process that can encourage more inclusive and democratic societies while also tackling environmental issues has so far unrevealed potentials

Implementation Action Plan for organic food and farming research

The Implementation Action Plan completes TP Organics’ trilogy of key documents of the Research Vision to 2025 (Niggli et al 2008) and the Strategic Research Agenda (Schmid et al 2009). The Implementation Action Plan addresses important areas for a successful implementation of the Strategic Research Agenda. It explores the strength of Europe’s organic sector on the world stage with about one quarter of the world’s organic agricultural land in 2008 and accounting for more than half of the global organic market. The aims and objectives of organic farming reflect a broad range of societal demands on the multiple roles of agriculture and food production of not only producing commodities but also ecosystem services. These are important for Europe’s economic success, the resilience of its farms and prosperity in its rural areas. The organic sector is a leading market for quality and authenticity: values at the heart of European food culture. Innovation is important across the EU economy, and no less so within the organic sector. The Implementation Action Plan devotes its third chapter to considering how innovation can be stimulated through organic food and farming research and, crucially, translated into changes in business and agricultural practice. TP Organics argues for a broad understanding of innovation that includes technology, know-how and social/organisational innovations. Accordingly, innovation can involve different actors throughout the food sector. Many examples illustrate innovations in the organic sector includign and beyond technology. The various restrictions imposed by organic standards have driven change and turned organic farms and food businesses into creative living laboratories for smart and green innovations and the sector will continue to generate new examples. The research topics proposed by TP Organics in the Strategic Research Agenda can drive innovation in areas as wide ranging as production practices for crops, technologies for livestock, food processing, quality management, on-farm renewable energy or insights into the effects of consumption of organic products on disease and wellbeing and life style of citizens. Importantly, many approaches developed within the sector are relevant and useful beyond the specific sector. The fourth chapter addresses knowledge management in organic agriculture, focusing on the further development of participatory research methods. Participatory (or trans-disciplinary) models recognise the worth and importance of different forms of knowledge and reduced boundaries between the generators and the users of knowledge, while respecting and benefitting from transparent division of tasks. The emphasis on joint creation and exchange of knowledge makes them valuable as part of a knowledge management toolkit as they have the capacity to enhance the translation of research outcomes into practical changes and lead to real-world progress. The Implementation Action Plan argues for the wider application of participatory methods in publicly-funded research and also proposes some criteria for evaluating participatory research, such as the involvement and satisfaction of stakeholders as well as real improvements in sustainability and delivery of public goods/services. European agriculture faces specific challenges but at the same time Europe has a unique potential for the development of agro-ecology based solutions that must be supported through well focused research. TP Organics believes that the most effective approaches in agriculture and food research will be systems-based, multi- and trans-disciplinary, and that in the development of research priorities, the interconnections between biodiversity, dietary diversity, functional diversity and health must be taken into account. Chapter five of the action plan identifies six themes which could be used to organise research and innovation activities in agriculture under Europe’s 8th Framework Programme on Research Cooperation: • Eco-functional intensification – A new area of agricultural research which aims to harness beneficial activities of the ecosystem to increase productivity in agriculture. • The economics of high output / low input farming Developing reliable economic and environmental assessments of new recycling, renewable-based and efficiency-boosting technologies for agriculture. • Health care schemes for livestock Shifting from therapeutics to livestock health care schemes based on good husbandry and disease prevention. • Resilience and “sustainagility” Dealing with a more rapidly changing environment by focusing on ‘adaptive capacity’ to help build resilience of farmers, farms and production methods. • From farm diversity to food diversity and health and wellbeing of citizens Building on existing initiatives to reconnect consumers and producers, use a ‘whole food chain’ approach to improve availability of natural and authentic foods. • Creating centres of innovation in farming communities A network of centres in Europe applying and developing trans-disciplinary and participatory scientific approaches to support innovation among farmers and SMEs and improving research capacities across Europe

Towards (re)generative agriculture

The challenges of adapting farming in response to climate change, degraded soils, depleted natural resources and an increasing population have created new agricultural concepts with focus on an environmentally long-term sustainable way of producing food. One possible solution presented is regenerative agriculture, an alternative form of food production that focus on building and re-forming resilient ecological systems supported by ecosystem processes. Regenerative agriculture works with various agricultural practices and management techniques and focus on the entire ecosystems to be able to establish a selfsustained well functional system. Techniques and practises used within the concept also contributes to building carbon in the soil, which leads to less impact on the climate. - However, the concept lacks a formalized definition and critical voices have been raised regarding its presumed positive impact on soil health, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. This study thus aims to investigates farmers and gardeners currently practise regenerative agriculture on Gotland, Sweden’s largest island, to enabling future studies. A mixed method was used to enabling both collection of data in terms of management practises and techniques through a questionnaire and investigating thoughts and ideas about the concept with semi-structured interviews. The results illustrated regenerative agriculture as a flexible concept both in terms of practises and techniques used on the farm and gardens and as well the ideas and thoughts expressed