First advisory board

With our project well underway, we held our first advisory board meeting in March. The meeting proved extremely valuable providing much food for thought. Discussions revolved around some of the key questions the team are grappling with. One such question was around what the big societal challenges relevant for the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus. Here are some of the key points raised:

Brexit – academics have already started thinking about what this means for a range of fields.

Global Climate Change – the production causing emissions but also affected by changes in climate (sometimes leading to higher emissions as production systems are adapted).

Political short term-ism and lack of vision

Economic crisis – potential for changes in the WEF to deliver jobs and other benefits but need to consider how benefits are distributed too.

Health systems and pensions (ageing). Worth considering the wider social context of the WEF.

Growth agenda and consumerist society. How can scaling up anti-materialistic ways of living be achieved?  

Suggestion of considering practice based understanding of what happens in the WEF nexus.

Increased transparency of the large players in the nexus. A game changer in terms of the context of production and manufacture of food following on from the horsemeat scandal for example?

Collaborative society - ‘Uberisation’ of energy and food.

More insights and updates to follow soon...