MSc thesis opportunity: A multi-method approach to assess the sustainability of the quinoa value chain in France

Posted on by

Duration: 6 months

Languages: English and French

Credits: 33-36 ECTS (programme dependent)

Start Date: As soon as possible

Quinoa is experiencing a global expansion of cultivation all around the world. France is one the most important producers of quinoa in Europe. Yet the sustainability of French quinoa production systems remains under-researched. This includes familiar debates of organic versus conventional production, as well as the viability of ‘farm to fork’ transportation and distribution systems.

The MSc candidate will assess the sustainability of the quinoa value chain in France. The candidate will conduct interviews with members of the cooperative “Quinoa d’Anjou” assessing the sustainability combining quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Following the current restrictions, the interviews will be conducted online.

Objectives:

  • Combining quantitative and qualitative data to assess the sustainability of quinoa value chain of the cooperative of Anjou in France.
  • Conduct a Life Cycle Assessment testing the MEANS program. Training will be provided.

Supervision team:

  • Mark Vicol, Assistant Professor in RSO
  • Federico Andreotti, PhD Candidate in GRS

Advisors:

  • Didier Bazile, researcher at CIRAD, France
  • Cécile Bessou, researcher at CIRAD, France

Relevant literature:

  • Alandia, G., Rodriguez, J. P., Jacobsen, S. E., Bazile, D., & Condori, B. (2020). Global expansion of quinoa and challenges for the Andean region. Global Food Security, 26, 100429.
  • Bazile, D., Jacobsen, S. E., & Verniau, A. (2016). The global expansion of quinoa: trends and limits. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7, 622.
  • Jouini, M., Burte, J., Biard, Y., Benaissa, N., Amara, H., & Sinfort, C. (2019). A framework for coupling a participatory approach and life cycle assessment for public decision-making in rural territory management. Science of the Total Environment, 655, 1017-1027.

Requirements:

  • Interest in Agroecology studies, value chain studies and/or sustainable development
  • Interests and/or knowledge of food value chains: production, processing, distribution
  • Skills for conducting interviews remotely and data analysis
  • French language fluency is required.

If interested please contact federico.andreotti@wur.nl

75th Anniversary: 25) De Stad-Platteland Tegenstelling

Posted on by

Door Henk Oostindie

In de jubileum publicatie rondom ons 25 jarig bestaan leverde Lijfering een bijdrage onder de titel ‘het rural-urban continuüm in het licht van sociale veranderingen’. In die bijdrage gaat Leifferink in op de zin en onzin van dichotomisch denken en de noodzaak om de begrippen stad-en platteland als ideaaltypen te beschouwen. Vertrekkende vanuit het centrale begrip menselijke nederzetting, verwijst Lijfering naar de volgende drie dominante onderscheidende kenmerken: het fysieke milieu, de sociale interactie en het cultuurpatroon. Naast deze in zijn ogen verhelderende invalshoeken om stad en platteland als anachronismen nader te duiden, komt Leifering met het voorstel om meer expliciet aandacht te besteden aan wat hij benoemt als ‘functionele stad-platteland patronen’. Continue reading →

Conviviality virtual conference June 1-7, 2021 – Call for abstracts

Posted on by

The Conviviality conference is co-hosted by the Massey University Political Ecology Research Centre (PERC) and the Wageningen University Centre for Space, Place and Society (CSPS).

The virtual conference will be from June 1-7, 2021. When interested to participate, please send a 250 word abstract with your name, e-mail address, and affiliation to masseyPERC@gmail.com by Monday, April 5, 2021. Proposals for panels and (digital) roundtable discussions are also welcome. If you would like to propose a panel, please send us a short panel rationale and details of panel participants. Innovative formats are encouraged.

For information see: https://perc.ac.nz/wordpress/conviviality/

Webinar: Towards a Gaian agriculture

Posted on by

‘Towards a Gaian agriculture’ – Dr Anna Krzywoszynska.

Date: 28th April 2021 – Time: 15.00 CET

This talk is concerned with the role for agri-environmental social sciences in understanding the new human condition called by some “the Anthropocene”, and what I increasingly think of as the challenge of living with Gaia. How have we become so lost that our most fundamental relationship with the environment, food getting, has come to undermine both our futures and those of our environments? And what is needed to build a new pact between humans and living ecosystems? I have been exploring these questions specifically in relation to soil as an existentially and conceptually crucial matter. In this paper, I examine modern farming as built on multiple alienations, and propose the conditions under which re-connection and a building agricultures which work with Gaia may become possible.

Register online via this link
Or check out the YouTube streaming link

This talk is the second in Wageningen University Rural Sociology Group’s 75 years anniversary seminar series “Looking back, Looking Forward: Setting a future agenda for rural sociology”. For more information see our full agenda here.


YouTube streaming link:

75th Anniversary: 24) Rural Sociology and the making of the Health and Society Group

Posted on by

The inaugural lecture by Maria Koelen upon taking up the post of Professor of Health and Society at Wageningen University on 10 March 2011 (source: Health and Society website)

By Maria Koelen (Professor Emeritus of the chairgroup Health and Society)

Belief it or not, but the young Health and Society Group has its origin in the 75 years old Rural Sociology of Wageningen University. In fact, Professor Evert Willem Hofstee, the founder of Rural Sociologie (1946) as has been mentioned often in this blog, started to pave the road to it. The Agricultural University (at the time Landbouw Hogeschool) developed a lot of scientific, technological and economic insights for farming practice, which was transferred to the farmers through agricultural extension educators employed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The prevailing idea was that farmers would appreciate these insights and, from a kind of self-interest, would apply these insights into their daily practice. However, as Hofstee argued in 1953, just transferring these insights to the farmers would not suffice. He advocated an additional, sociological approach and to pay attention to social groups and culture. This idea caught on with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. To operationalise the idea, in 1955 the Ministry seconded its employee Anne Van Den Ban to the Rural Sociology group to advance this type of research. With his appointment, the foundation has been laid for a new interdisciplinary field “extension education”, in Dutch “Voorlichtingskunde”. In 1963 Van Den Ban obtained his PhD under supervision of Professor Hofstee and in 1964 he was appointed to be the first professor in this field. Continue reading →