News

John Clarkson, Andrew Taylor, Rob Lillwhite and PhD student James Syrett will be contributing to the AHDB Narcissus Growers Workshops to be held on:

17 May 2017, Pool Innovation Centre, Trevenson Road, Pool, Redruth, Cornwall, TR15 3PL

25 May 2017, Springfields Events & Conference Centre, Spalding, Lincolnshire PE12 6ET

Programme

Sophie Greenway, 3rd year (part-time) PhD student in the Centre for the History of Medicine, has just won the Postgraduate Paper Prize for the Social History Society's recent conference in London.

The paper was called 'Producer or consumer? The house, the garden and the sourcing of vegetables in Britain, 1930-1970'. It used women's and gardening magazines to explore the reasons why Britain did not become a nation of domestic vegetable producers, given the importance of nutrition in public health during the 1930s and 40s. The nutritional and hygienic health of the family in mid-twentieth century Britain was portrayed in magazines as the responsibility of women.

Housewives were the main decision makers regarding domestic food procurement. Advertising and articles in magazines encouraged them to purchase food from shops, not to take part in the 'dirty' job of growing it at home. 'Growing your own' was consistently portrayed as a practice for desperate times, due to unemployment or war, not a part of everyday life.

This paper thus provides historical and cultural context to present day efforts to create sustainable food systems. Sophie's PhD research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, is 'Growing well: Dirt, health and the home gardener in Britain, 1930-1970'. The full paper will be available on the Social History Society website shortly: https://socialhistory.org.uk/conference-2017.

The University of Warwick is advertsing two PhD studentships to start in October 2017. These projects are part of a BBSRC-funded Collaborative Training Partnership (CTP) between the Waitrose Partnership, their international food production and supply companies, the University of Warwick, Lancaster University, the University of Reading and Rothamsted Research. Between 2017 and 2023, the CTP will deliver 20 four-year studentships on the themes of sustainable crop production, sustainable soil and water and biodiversity and ecosystem services in agriculture.

Both studentships advertised by Warwick are in partnership with G's and one is in partnership with members of the Insect Survey team at Rothamsted Research. Further details are here:

PhD project: Enhancing spring onion yield and quality through an understanding of in-field variation

PhD project: Phylogeography and management of the aphid pest Nasonovia ribisnigri in commercial lettuce crops