Category Archives: Research

Research

DERREG Special Issues European Countryside

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The EU FP7 funded project DERREG has come to an end, but various publications are foreseen. The first set of 11 articles are published in two Special Issues of the European Countryside, an open access Journal, edited by Michael Woods and John McDonagh:

Special Issue 1: Volume 3, Number 3 / 2011

Special Issue 2: Volume 4, Number 1 / 2012

 The 11 articles are listed below including a hyperlink to the full text in pdf. Continue reading →

SOLINSA video: what is SOLINSA about in a nutshell

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Februari 1 and 2 we had our third SOLINSA project meeting in Paris. Apart from discussing the proceedings in the different Workpackages (see www.solinsa.net for more information and results) we had a workshop dedicated to making Participatory Video’s. In the workshop lead by Catcher Media and Chris High from the Open University, we as team of researchers learned to make our own participatory video: what is SOLINSA about?  This resulted in a short video ( 3 minutes only) that has been published at the front page of the SOLINSA website (www.solinsa.net) and at You Tube. If you want to get a quick impression of the SOLINSA project and our team have a look:

First results: analysis of the context (WP3)

Wageningen University (in casu: Communication and Innovation Studies and Rural Sociology Group) was the lead partner of WP3 Understanding the context. WP3 aimed at analysing the trends, relation to LINSA’s and structure of the Agricultural and Knowledge Systems in the participating 8 countries through desk study and a participatory SWOT analysis. This has resulted in two reports accessible at the website:

  1. A synthesis of the comparative analysis of the Agricultural Knowledge Systems in 8 countries
  2. Review of relevant EU Policy documents on innovation

For further information with regard to WP3 one can contact Frans Hermans  (Frans.Hermans@wur.nl).

Next event is the international dissemination workshop on the future of AKIS in Europe on March 5, 2012 in Brussels. The workshop is organised in partnership with the collaborative working group on Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems (AKIS) of the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR). Proceedings of the seminar will be available for download after the 15th of March. At the workshop a summary of the WP3 results will be presented.

Learning on Food Security from a regional systems perspective

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The ETC Foundation is looking for a volunteer; this may well be the start of an intersting career! You can also contact our education people if you would like to do your master thesis on this topic.

Food Security (FS) is a hot topic in the Dutch and international development debate today. Therefore, learning about FS interventions has priority amongst organisations like ETC.

ETC is involved in a Learn-and-Work trajectory called “Learning on Food Security from a Regional Systems Perspective”. In this trajectory, two learning questions (see below) will be addressed through three case studies in different regions in East-Africa. These case studies will be 1. jointly prepared in a preparatory event, 2. then implemented by organisations in East-Africa in their respective regions, 3. analyzed jointly in an international workshop and then 4. reported and presented both within and outside ETC and partner network. Continue reading →

Living the peasant way of life in Santa Cruz de la Colina

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After a longer posting-pause in which I finalized my first research phase, identifying supporters of rural grassroots development initiatives in the Province of Soto, here a new update of my activities in Colombia:

Time is flying and I am finalizing my second research phase, asking grassroots development initiatives to evaluate the support they are receiving to build joint capacities. To be able to speak with rural development initiatives, I was invited to spend a week with a peasant family in the vereda St. Ana of Santa Cruz de la Colina.

Santa Cruz de la Colina, Matanza, Colombia

Continue reading →

Request for a master student interested in product development and marketing for an organic farm and macro-distillery in Wales

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Glynhynod is an organic farm where artisan cheeses are produced, situated in west-Wales and managed by a Dutch family. The firm is highly innovative, applying sustainability guidelines to all their activities and producing food of high quality; several cheeses have received prices on national and international level. The family is now developing the first organic Welsh whisky and an orange liqueur at their newly established organic micro-distillery. They are looking for a master student- preferably one in food technology- who will be able to do an internship and/or thesis inWales. The student should be interested in organic, artisan food production. The student will be during his/her intership:.

  1. actively involved in developing, testing and trying out new liqueur and spirit recipes using organic ingredients and trial batches of different orange liqueurs using different ingredients and different amounts of ingredients. The student will be required to accurately measure the amounts of ingredients e.g. total weight, of oranges, orange peel amounts of sugar etc; ‘age’ the different liqueurs for 3 different periods e.g. 40, day, 50 day and 60 day infusions. The same method will be used to develop various recipes for spirits e.g. sloe gin and seaweed gin.
  2. Doing research on marketing aspects to try out the new recipes such as implementing a sensory evaluation in a real life situation where the public will be asked to judge the product. The student will be expected to develop a statistical sensory evaluation method that will determine which liqueur the public prefers and this liqueur will then proceed to bulk production.

 His/her master thesis can be focused on of the following themes:

  1. Marketing and/or gastronomy: how to enhance the supply of local artisan products in this rural area;
  2. Consumer demands towards locally produced speciality products in west-Wales;
  3. Develop guidelines for food quality and taste of new alcoholic local products
  4. Research on food safety of organic artisan products

 The student will start around the beginning of April 2012 and stay on the farm for 3-4 months in the beautiful setting of the Teifi Valley in Llandysul near Carmarthen, not far from the sea in west-Wales. The research will be supervised by a staff member of the relevant chair group and co-supervised by Ina Horlings (Rural Sociology Group). If you are interested please apply or ask for more information by sending a mail to (lummina.horlings@wur.nl) before the end of February, 2012.