The Big Dilemmas Symposium 2011
The Big Dilemmas Project has kicked off its second year of focus on sustainability.
After its first successful year in 2010/11, the Big Dilemmas Project is continuing to unpick key sustainability issues of the future.
The project’s theme for this year is: The Future of Land Use in the South West: food, water and energy security in the face of environmental change.
With an increasing consciousness on the global population reaching seven billion in 2011, and the pressure this places on the land to provide not only space for living but food, water, energy and wellbeing, a solution to this dilemma is increasingly being sought. The question: How should land be used? Is one that leads to a variety of different, valid responses, and will almost certainly require compromise in order to find the best way forward.
The debate was launched via a symposium event on the 18 November, featuring a number of speakers with expertise in the field. Speaking from the university was Prof Peter Cox, Leader of Exeter’s Climate Change and Sustainable Futures (CCSF) research theme, Prof Michael Winter OBE, Coordinator of the Centre for Rural Policy Research and Chairman of the Food Security and Land Research Alliance and Dr Robert Fish, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Rural Policy Research. They were joined by Séan Rickard, Government Economic Adviser on Agriculture, and Helen Browning OBE, the Director of the Soil Association.
Prof Peter Cox introduced the symposium and provided some background, proposing that what is needed to start with is an elucidation of trade-offs in order to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to tackling the problem, an approach which would encourage a new generation of Rational Environmentalists.
Prof Michael Winter OBE discussed the changing narrative of food security in the UK. Prof Winter explained how the past 100 years have seen a dramatic shift in the UK’s relationship with this narrative, from a government-directed focus on self-sufficiency during the Second World War to the current position of a reliance on import and dependence on world food markets. Prof Winter argued that this narrative has brought two challenges to the fore: sustainable intensification of agriculture, which are by their nature, inherently difficult to value in economic terms.
Séan Rickard developed this thought on sustainable intensification, and argued strongly that in sustainability’s ‘triple bottom line’ of economic, social and environmental factors, economic factors drive the other two. The future of agriculture, Mr Rickard stated, is large-scale, industrial farms, which encourage efficient use of resources and this, he argued, is the only way to supply the increasing demands of an exploding population.
Mr Rickard was followed by Dr Robert Fish, who encouraged the reconsideration of the dilemma from one about rational choices to the consideration of mindsets. The topic of land, he proposed, was too complex to reduce to a balance of assets, and is instead more about the communities we wish to live in. He also encouraged looking at the dilemma through the idea of food systems and ecosystem services, rather than simply the issue of food production.
Helen Browning OBE closed the speakers’ session with a counter to Séan Rickard’s solution, arguing that the land of the South West does not lend itself to industrial farming, and that this approach misses the bigger picture of climate change. Supporting smaller-scale, organic farming, will encourage reconnections between people and the land, strengthen economic resilience as farmers use land for different crops or livestock, and maintain and improve the quality of the soil, which is critical for the support of life.
Professor Cox then chaired a panel of speakers who took questions from the audience and engaged in discussion. Nick Baker and Dr Matt Lobley, Co-director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research within the university, joined Séan Rickard and Helen Browning.
A new think tank of twenty students from both Streatham and Tremough campuses has been formed for 2011/12, and is tasked with unravelling the complexities of the land use dilemma. They will meet regularly with lead academics, stakeholders and experts, and announce their findings and a proposed way forward at a second symposium in March 2012.
The project is sponsored by the University of Exeter’s Annual Fund – an annual appeal which seeks the philanthropic support of alumni and friends to invest in the University and to enhance further Exeter’s status as a world-class institution.
By Emma Easy
Watch the panel discussion
A panel of experts discusses the Future of land use in the Southwest of the UK.
From left to right Sean Rickard (Agronomist and agricultural advisor to DEFRA), Dr Matt Lobley (University of Exeter), Professor Peter Cox (University of Exeter) , Nick Baker (Naturalist and broadcaster) and Helen Browning OBE (CEO Soil Association).
