Category - People
Clare Devereux on Food Matters
Clare Devereux of Food Matters from Brighton & Hove was the third and final speaker at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology yesterday (6th Dec). Here’s a summary of what she said:
Although the south east city of Brighton & Hove might appear affluent, in fact it isn’t. It falls within the bottom 25% of deprived areas in the UK, 25% of their kids come from low income families, wages are below the national average, and there’s lower than national average in various health stats, including mental health.
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Mary Clear on Todmorden’s Incredible Edible
Gloriously plain-speaking grandmother of ten, Mary Clear of Todmorden’s Incredible Edible was the second to speak at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology yesterday (6th Dec). Here’s a summary of what she said:
Three and a half years ago, a few Todmorden people were discussing concerns about it all — climate change, people in some developing countries going hungry, everything . . . and how everyone blamed everyone else for what was going on. Let’s see, they decided, if we could do something for Todmorden that’d make a difference.
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Rosie Boycott on London’s Capital Growth
Rosie Boycott from Capital Growth was the first to kick off at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology yesterday (6th Dec). Here’s a summary of what she said:
Cities have never been designed to grow food, but to be supplied with food, hence food security is their concern. Growing food in cities is about transforming communities. It leads to lots of transformational activities, all positive.
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Ten scientists, an architect & the city’s development strategist
Next Wednesday, 2nd November from 6pm to 9pm, ten scientists, an architect (last year’s RIBA President no less) and the city’s development strategist take part in the first New Optimists Forum event.
They’re a great mix of people. And here they are (see photo below for their mugshots):
(l-r, top row): Plant scientist Eugenio Sanchez-Moran, IT strategist Professor Hanifa Shah, chemical engineer Professor Peter Fryer and biochemist Dr Gareth Griffiths.
(l-r, middle row): Director of Warwick Crop Centre, entomologist Dr Rosemary Collier, Professor of Primary Care Jim Parle, social scientist Dr Peter Lee and architect Ruth Reed.
(l-r, bottom row): Birmingham City Council’s development strategist David Bull, biomedical scientist Professor Helen Griffiths, computer scientist Professor Ian Nabney and public health nutritionist Professor of Sociology Liz Dowler.
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New Optimists Forum: Who’s who for the first event on 2nd November
The New Optimists Forum is a series of conversations among regional scientists and others to generate food security scenarios for Birmingham in 2050.
Here are the list of people engaged on the first event 0n 2nd November 2011 (in alphabetical order):
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David Bull, Birmingham City Council & the Forum
A bunch of scientists talking about the future of a city is interesting, but may or may not make a difference as they have little or no socio-political clout..
However, if you make sure the guys who make big decisions about infrastructure and investment, and know a tad or two about such matters as demographics, spatial planning and public institutions, also join the party, the odds increase greatly that something meaningful will happen.
And so David Bull, responsible for Development Strategy in Birmingham City Council, is coming along to the first Forum event on 2nd November.
His particular remit is in the provision of transportation infrastructure to support Birmingham’s Growth Agenda and investment for job creation in the city in the future. he has specifically been involved in major infrastructure projects that include the reconstruction of New Street Station, the Northfield Relief Road and the major development issues at Longbridge, plus a new Metro Extension in the city centre, with HS2Ltd and the DfT on the proposals for high speed rail from London to Brum.
He knows the city well, having worked here for the last nine years, after having worked in West London Boroughs for 12 years.
An entomologist, Rosemary Collier & medic, Jim Parle
Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be introducing the dozen or so people from different disciplines who are going to be at the New Optimists Forum on 2nd November.
The first is entomologist Rosemary Collier, the Director of the Warwick Crop Centre. She models the relationships between insects and the environment, and so knows a lot about pest management systems for agriculture, notably field veg and bulb crops. She featured in my blogpost Professional muddy boots, vegans and West Midlands food security.
Jim Parle is Professor of Primary Care at the Birmingham Medical School, so heavily involved in teaching the next generation of medics. He was a practising GP in the city until very recently too.
A month or so ago, I asked him what he was most proud of in his professional career. I expected some dramatic George Clooney-style life-saving episode. Instead
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The future of publishing – @BhamBookFest 3pm today Eastside Projects Gallery
As an independent publisher, I’m on a panel this afternoon, along with Simon Thirsk, Editor with Bloodaxe Books and the novelist David Belbin. We’re discussing the future of publishing, one of the States of Independence (West) events at Birmingham Book Festival.
It’s free, it’ll be thought-provoking, and it’s at 3pm today in the East Side Projects Gallery at 86 Heath Mill Lane in Digbeth.
Bloodaxe is a brilliant independent publisher of poetry based in Northumberland. They’ve published translations of the poetry of Tomas Transtomer, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature no less.
David Belbin is a Nottingham-based novelist with over 30 books
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SWM Green Leaders 2011: Andreas Hornung & Tony Bridgwater
Two Aston Profs, Andreas Hornung and Tony Bridgwater are among Sustainability West Midlands 2011 Green Leaders, joining their VC Julia King, a 2010 Green Leader.
Our congratulations to them for this well-deserved accolade. Both men are chemical engineers, the brains behind all the stuff on bio-energy that’s coming out of the University, including the European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI), about which we’ve blogged before.
I was at the Sustainability WM annual get-together on Wednesday, and a fascinating day it was too. There’s much a-going on in the city, particularly in decentralised energy networks. The Birmingham District Energy Company already has three schemes providing heat and power to large swathes of the city centre and Eastside. Aston University is part of that, and the EBRI power plant will be doing its bit when it fires up in late 2012.
Birmingham on brink of a new era in generating electricity
Birmingham City Council has plans to generate its own electricity. Harking back to the days of Joseph Chamberlain, the idea is supported by deputy council leader Paul Tilsley, who says that the use of solar panels could make this a reality.
There are already more concrete plans to generate power going on next to the Sack of Potatoes pub in Gosta Green. And I mean ‘concrete’ both metaphorically and literally.
Few people appear to have heard of this exciting development. Yet with £16.5M of EU money, our very own Professor Andreas Hornung is pioneering a revolutionary carbon-negative process under the auspices of the European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI).
He’ll soon be in charge of an industrial-scale demonstrator power plant actually being
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