Findings from the Sustainable Intensification Research Platform (SIP)
The results of the survey of the performance of commercial farms in England and Wales can be found here. This builds on, and updates, the work given here and further down this page. I was also part of an expert review of which interventions might deliver sustainable intensification in the UK, found here. The overall reports from SIP1, that addressed Integrated Farm Management, can be seen here.
You can also find here a new analysis of agricultural data to see whether we have achieved SI in England. This was led by friends at the University of Southampton.
The results of the survey of the performance of commercial farms in England and Wales can be found here. This builds on, and updates, the work given here and further down this page. I was also part of an expert review of which interventions might deliver sustainable intensification in the UK, found here. The overall reports from SIP1, that addressed Integrated Farm Management, can be seen here.
You can also find here a new analysis of agricultural data to see whether we have achieved SI in England. This was led by friends at the University of Southampton.
EFSA Opinions on the risks of importing GM crops
My work on the European Food Standards Authority GMO panel involves collaboration with the other panel members to produce Opinions on the risks of importing GM crops as food and animal feed. These will be coming out think and fast, so rather than link them separately to this website, simply search for Firbank EFSA Journal and you will be taken straight to the Opinions, which are open access. Alternatively, you can go to the EFSA Journal website here.
My work on the European Food Standards Authority GMO panel involves collaboration with the other panel members to produce Opinions on the risks of importing GM crops as food and animal feed. These will be coming out think and fast, so rather than link them separately to this website, simply search for Firbank EFSA Journal and you will be taken straight to the Opinions, which are open access. Alternatively, you can go to the EFSA Journal website here.
Grand Challenges in Sustainable Intensification and Ecosystem Services paper is here
This paper launches the Sustainable Intensification and Ecosystem Service section of Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
This paper launches the Sustainable Intensification and Ecosystem Service section of Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
Presentations on Sustainable Intensification in autumn 2017 / winter 2018 are here
This period saw the completion of the Defra Sustainable Intensification work, which featured in several presentations I made. The first was at the AAB conference on Sustainable Intensification on November 2017 at Rothamsted; the presentation and conference paper both made reference to draft results of the programme. I followed this up with presentations to the School of Food Science at the University of Leeds, a webinar for Bioversity International and a presentation to CIAT in Nairobi. The last two were cut-down versions of the Leeds seminar, which is given here.
This period saw the completion of the Defra Sustainable Intensification work, which featured in several presentations I made. The first was at the AAB conference on Sustainable Intensification on November 2017 at Rothamsted; the presentation and conference paper both made reference to draft results of the programme. I followed this up with presentations to the School of Food Science at the University of Leeds, a webinar for Bioversity International and a presentation to CIAT in Nairobi. The last two were cut-down versions of the Leeds seminar, which is given here.
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Brussels presentation about the history of the White Rose Sustainable Agriculture Consortium
is here BBC Radio York interview with the White Rose Sustainable Agriculture Consortium
Gareth Barlow at BBC Radio York visited the University of Leeds farm last July, and talked with quite a few of us as we worked, getting ready to harvest the crops. The website is here, but the podcast of the show is here. Beware, the show starts with Simply Red - it gets better after that !!! What do businesses need to know to manage the Nexus?
The idea of the Nexus is that increasingly issues of food, water and energy need to be managed together if they are to be managed successfully. But how, especially for businesses that find it hard to keep on top of the latest academic research and thinking? This was the central question raised at a seminar in 2015 organised by the University of Cambridge, bringing people from business, academia and policy. I was invited because of my expertise in sustainable land management and food production. The outcomes were highly pragmatic; is it possible to develop tools to support decision making, and what are the best ways of encouraging behaviour change within businesses? The findings are given here. Seminars in Brazil
I gave two seminars in my recent travels in Brazil. The first was a debate about sustainable agriculture, held at the University of Sao Paulo, which can be seen here. The site itself is in Portuguese, but the debate was in English. This was held on 5 September 2016. Sustainable intensification at EcoSummit 2016
There are several approaches to thinking about sustainable intensification, and I was involved in two pares at the recent EcoSummit 2016 in Montpellier - the website is worth checking out for details of loads of talks on ecological management issues. I gave one talk from the SIP work, which gives initial analyses of the recent SIP farm survey and its interpretation in terms of social, financial, production and ecological variables. This is available here: note the results are preliminary. A second approach is to study the dynamics of various ecosystem services over time, including food production, to see if the system can be analysed in ways which reveal potential limits and interactions in the system. This work, led by John Dearing at Southampton, seeks to identify the potential safe and just limits for sustainable agriculture - or at least to make a start to think about it. A new definition for sustainable intensification
I've been working with Richard Gunton here at Leeds, and MIchael Winter and Alex Inman at Exeter, on a literature review about the relationships between sustainable intensification and ecosystem services as part of the Defra SIP project. We came to the conclusion that one of the issues was that different people were using the term sustainable intensification in different ways, often according to the scale it is being used. This led us to propose a new definition for Si, thus: ‘Sustainable intensification means changes to a farming system that will maintain or enhance specified kinds of agricultural provisioning while enhancing or maintaining the delivery of a specified range of other ecosystem services measured over a specified area and specified time frame.’ See the paper here Using agricultural and environmental data to see whether an agricultural region is becoming more "sustainable" or not
I've been working with John Dearing, Guy Poppy and others at Southampton to use complexit_y modelling methods to see if we can use available data to judge whether a region is becoming more or less sutainable. We're applying the methods to different parts of the UK, and our early findings will be presented to the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna in April. Our abstract is here Evidence from the White Rose Sustainable Agriculture Consortium
to the Soil Health Inquiry of the Environmental Audit Committee of the UK Parliament is here Integrating intensive agriculture with sustainable landscape management - fact, myth or magic?
Prof Les G. Firbank, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK The slides are here, as presented at the OECD International Scientific Conference on Sustainability of Rural Areas in Practice, Nitra, Slovakia 3-4 December 2015. |
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ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
The new paper from the UK National Ecosystem Assessment can be found below, while the UKNEA Phase II reports and appendices are here
FOOD SECURITY
Details of Feed Leeds are here, along with the videos and other info about the Feed Leeds Think Tank.
SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION
The national survey on SI from 2013 is below ...
The national survey on SI from 2013 is below ...
