Calendar

Our city has an ambitious target to reach carbon neutral by 2030. Join this roundtable discussion collectively building momentum across civil society and local government to meet the target in Edinburgh. We’re inviting people who work in civil society organisations whose purpose is to generate awareness and action on emissions reduction across Edinburgh communities.

The event is co-hosted by civil society and the City Council. We will be joined by Dr. Sam Gardner, the new Chair of the Edinburgh Commission on Climate Action, and Adam McVey, Leader of Edinburgh City Council.

It will be an interactive session to:

1. Generate a shared picture of the action taking place in the city
2. Share current and future developments and action across civil society, the council and the Edinburgh Commission on Climate Action
3. Have a positive conversation about our collective ambition for the city and identify ways of working together to accelerate progress, with a focus on the domestic sector

Attendees will gain insight into what’s happening across the city, and share ideas and next steps about how we build momentum together.

This participative climate action workshop taking place on 21st March in Perth will have a special focus on issues of food security, sustainable production and land use in Scotland. Keesje Avis from Nourish and James Murdoch from Extinction Rebellion Scotland will provide the keynotes for discussion.

Following the launch of ‘We need to talk about chicken,’ this online event provides an opportunity for a deep dive on how we can counter vast and growing chicken production and consumption. It will provide the opportunity to consider the question:

‘How do we counter the growth of chicken?’

We will hear perspectives from Philip Lymbery, Sue Pritchard , Patrick Holden . There will be a panel discussion and then an opportunity for views and questions from other participants in the webinar. The webinar will be hosted by Simon Billing.

Please note this event is now a webinar, a Zoom link will be shared with registered attendees.

In this Talk, Professor and TEDx Peter Higgins will discuss our relationship with our planet, its climate and biodiversity. He will offer some thoughts on communicating new ideas and supporting positive policy developments. Get ready for a challenging and perhaps controversial evening! The talk will be followed by a question and answer session.

Comrie Croft are showing a short film by filmmaker Zev Robinson about market gardens and veg box schemes in Scotland. This will be followed by a presentation about global food supply chains by Scott from Greencity Wholefoods.
Local Chefs – Beetroot and Chocolate – will be providing a locally grown meal and you’ll also be able to sample some locally brewed beer by Bigwig Brewery (for more drinks, please BYOB)

A panel discussion where Zev and Scott will be joined by Sam from Tomnah’a Market Garden will take place after dinner.

Intercropping offers the potential for more efficient resource utilisation, reducing pest and disease pressure and better competition with weeds. Members of the Innovative Farmers Field Lab on Intercropping in Arable systems have been experimenting with a range of intercropping and companion cropped mixtures on their farms.

David Casebow, at Sonning Farm (Crops Research Unit of Reading University), will take us on a ‘virtual farm tour’ of the trials at Sonning and share some insights from previous years. See a taster of David’s trials from last year here. Other farmers and researchers in the group will also share their experiences from on farm trials including Nuffield Scholar Andy Howard (Bockhanger Farms).

As a virtual alternative to the Field Lab meeting there will be an opportunity for all to share their own experiences, practical insights and questions in an informal discussion.

Necessarily postponed until 2021, COP26 will now be the first meeting of the world’s climate leaders in the wake of COVID-19. We will be seeking a pathway to recovery from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. COP26 will now be a vital arena in which to demand that this recovery, as yet to be imagined, be both a green recovery, and crucially a just recovery, that tackles the scourge of global inequality at the root, while reducing carbon emissions. As we’re now discovering so vividly, our futures are deeply interconnected; whether we acknowledge that or not, there is no path to ecological balance that doesn’t start by putting the goals of social and economic justice front and centre.

Now is not the time to stop talking about climate change.

In this webinar we will hear from activist from around the world to deepen our understanding of the connections between climate, the coronavirus and inequality, and explore how our response to these crisis can be anchored in justice and internationalism.

Speakers include:

– Jesús Vásquez Negrón, La Via Campesina

– Rhoda Boateng, Africa Regional Organization of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa)

– Lidy Nacpil – Coordinator of Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, Philippines

A webinar for farmers and advisers with lessons from New Zealand.

A group of farmers in Norfolk have teamed up with researchers to investigate whether it’s possible for lucerne to provide extended grazing for sheep in the UK. Join us for an online discussion of this farmer-led research. David Cross, farms a dry mixed farm in North Norfolk and started the trial as he was looking for ways to provide reliable forage during the summer. As well as drought tolerance, there are a host of other potential benefits to growing lucerne from soil health to input reduction and increased lamb growth rates.

Join David, as he talks through what he learned from his time in New Zealand and how he intends to bring these lessons to the UK.

The Landworkers’ Alliance, CSA Network and Organic Growers’ Alliance bring you a webinar which explores setting up online ordering systems.

In these strange COVID-19 times, the importance of having a way to sell your produce online is even more important than before. However, it is a bit of a minefield out there and can greatly depend on whether you consider yourself tech-savvy or a digital luddite.

This webinar brings you thoughts from farmer’s and retailers who have done all of this before. What did they opt for, did it work out and what would they advise someone setting out to do?