Sustainable AgricultureAbout the ResearchThe research cluster brings together researchers from the Departments of History and Art History, Zoology and Anthropology, Gender and Sociology and from the Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CSAFE). The researchers will use will use transdisciplinary approaches to research the history of land and resource management in New Zealand, particularly in the second half of the 20th Century. We are interested in identifying current and future determinants of social and environmental sustainability of New Zealand agriculture in addition to other resource management issues. Coordinators and Researchers
Previous Cluster Events
Sustainable Agriculture ColloquiumSAC Friday is a weekly gathering of members of the University of Otago and greater Dunedin community who are interested in agricultural sustainability. The format includes short, informal presentations followed by Q&A and discussion. Broad-ranging, convivial, and informal in nature, SAC Fridays are intended to provide a forum for rigorous, exploratory discussions about agricultural sustainability that bridge diverse disciplinary and professional perspectives. All welcome—please send us an e-mail to be added to our mailing list. Power to the People? Charting the Agri-Environmental Governance Landscape in Aotearoa/New ZealandWith Dr. Arun Agrawal, University of Michigan 2 - 4 April, 2007 University of Otago, Dunedin The Sustainable Agriculture Research Cluster and CSAFE welcomed Dr Arun Agrawal for three days of intense dialogue with our partners across NZ including a series of hui and workshops highlighted by Arun’s public lecture, Do People Matter in Social Scientific Analyses of Environmental Politics? A political scientist based at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment, Arun is a leading expert in the fields of development and environmental governance with a particular interest in the issue of practices and subjectivities. We invited Arun because his work is very important to our Research Cluster's exploration of the impacts of changes in environmental governance in Murihiku/Southland. We too believe in the importance of moving beyond institutional analyses to get at the stories of individuals. He has some sharp and important insights about the state of social science research in regards to environmental governance. Visit the CSAFE page for further information on this visit. Agrifood Research Network Annual ConferenceThe Agri-Food Research Network is a forum for Australian and New Zealand social scientists researching the economic, cultural, social and environmental implications of agricultural and food systems. Since its establishment in 1992 it has convened regular annual research conferences and facilitated the publication of research. For more information go to: http://www.csafe.org.nz/afrn/index.htm Research ProjectsThere are five main projects incorporated under the cluster:
Nga Rereketanga a Whenua. How Green was their Valley? Farming and Fishing in the Mataura Catchment since 1945Southland’s Mataura River catchment has an important place in New Zealand’s history. The area supports a cohort of highly productive farms alongside robust environmental amenities, particularly freshwater and coastal fisheries. Our research explores the intersecting histories of the area’s agricultural systems and fisheries in the decades since World War II. Study objectives
Study methodsWe plan to conduct a series of oral history interviews with cooperating Maori and Pakeha fishermen and farmers. Our interviews with farmers will focus on farm management and its development since the 1950s. From fishermen, we hope to gather perspectives about how the river and its fisheries have changed during the same time period. We will conduct archival research in local periodicals, farming journals, Fish and Game documents, and catchment board records to document changing trends in land management activities as well as issues involving the fisheries. Study outcomesOne outcome of our work will be articles targeted for academic journals. Another will be detailed farm histories which will be made available to participating farm families. Oral history transcripts will be reviewed for accuracy by the interview subjects, who will receive final transcripts for their records. A summary research report will be available to the public via the internet.
Charting the Agri-Environmental Governance Landscape in New ZealandDr. Julia Haggerty and Mark Haggerty While New Zealand’s experiments in environmental reform since 1984 have been radical, they have been neither formally nor functionally monolithic. In many environmental sectors like forestry and commercial fishing, governance has been marked by the rapid replacement of national-scale bureaucracies with market-based institutions. In other arenas such as resource planning, environmental decision-making has been devolved from national to regional bodies, but with oversight of a national court system. Non-governmental and voluntary institutions have taken on significant management roles in other sectors such as recreation and agriculture. Taken together, these emerging institutions all reflect a preference for local- and community-based as well as market-oriented institutions. In recent years, academics and practitioners have generated a robust knowledge base about the key factors that determine success in community-based resource governance [and market??]. Now that 20 years have passed since New Zealand initiated its first major environmental reforms, we believe it is time to assess the varied environmental management landscape in New Zealand as a whole relative to this global knowledge base. The purpose of this project is to chart the diversity of agri-environmental governance structures operating in NZ and to explore the experiences of different individuals and groups engaged in different types of institutions. We hope to learn lessons about how the shape/space of governance changes those experiences and ultimately the capacity of groups to participate effectively in governance. The question behind this work is: Has environmental reform in New Zealand engendered local governance institutions that feature the structural elements that lessons learned elsewhere tell us are crucial for success? Our focus is environmental, economic and social processes within productive landscapes in New Zealand. Our research is participatory, and we hope not only to share both our results with the individuals and organizations we interview, but also to initiate new relationships and partnerships.
The ARGOS Project (2003-2009)Associate Professor Hugh Campbell, Dr Henrik Moller The Agricultural Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) is an unincorporated joint venture between the Agribusiness Group, Lincoln University, and the University of Otago. It is funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) and various industry stakeholders and commenced in October 2003. ARGOS is examining the environmental, social and economic sustainability of New Zealand farming systems. The ARGOS programme is committed to a transdisciplinary approach to understanding the sustainability of farming in New Zealand. The programme involves researchers from: sociology, economics, geography, anthropology, agronomy, agricultural extension, environmental science, entomology, and soil science. The goal of the ARGOS research is to identify the key factors involved in achieving sustainable farming in New Zealand. The research programme has secured 'long-term' funding for 6 years from FRST as a first step in a 20 to 30 year project. ARGOS will investigate the environmental, social and, economic effects of different management systems like conventional, organic and low-input (IPM) on a range of farm types:
In future years, converting farms will be included to test whether the change in farm practice associated with IPM and organic certification actually caused the differences we may observe between already converted and control farms. An immediate goal of ARGOS is to compare the sustainability of conventional, IPM and organic approaches. However, it is also committed to discovering determinants of sustainability in general, irrespective of farming sector and the particular type of farming being applied.
Empires of Grass (2004-2006)Professor Tom Brooking Since the 1850s, New Zealand has undergone intensive environmental transformation. How and why this transformation occurred, and what that teaches us about changing practices of land management, are the subjects of this research. The overall aim of this research is to analyse the historical process of the transformation into European and other exotic grasslands of New Zealand indigenous environments, in particular native forest and native tussock, with a view to identifying paths of agricultural experimentation conducive to sustainable land management. The period under investigation in this research commences with Pakeha colonisation and observes the stages of 'soil crisis' and 'grasslands revolution' that agriculture passed through prior to the Great Depression. With information from four regional case studies, Empires of Grass is testing whether land holders' experimentation varied across New Zealand, reflecting the extent of their knowledge of local environmental conditions. Of central interest is which procedures were unique to New Zealand. Further, we are testing the hypothesis that open-minded experimentation targeted to local conditions led to the belief that applied science could resolve any environmental challenges. Disentanglement of the processes of changing land-use within New Zealand will facilitate more sustainable land management practices in the future. While this research will draw primarily on late nineteenth and early twentieth century evidence, it will also advance knowledge of New Zealand's current agricultural and environmental options. Tïtï Harvest Research Programme and extension to sustainable agricultureProfessor Henrik Moller This project helps ensure the sustainability of a traditional wildlife harvest of tïtï (or muttonbirds) which is a defining cultural activity that generates social cohesion and group identity amongst Rakiura Mäori. The research also increases understanding of the way kaitiakitanga (Mäori environmental stewardship), mätauranga (traditional environmental knowledge) and science can complement each other to guide wise environmental stewardship of many other natural resource uses around Aotearoa. The fourteen year research programme is directed and interpreted by Rakiura Mäori (Mäori students and field workers are used wherever possible), and research results are communicated in a culturally congruent way so that future decisions on harvests can be taken by consensus of the Rakiura Mäori community as a whole. This is helping build scientific understanding and a science capacity within the Rakiura Mäori community. The programme tests a bicultural model of directing and applying science that could be used in many other environmental co-management initiatives. The titi project has highlighted several lessons of more general applicability for sustainability than the Mäori and bicultural aspects. The role of subsidiary and co-management (bottom-up involvement of resource users) in environmental research and management will bring significant gains in environmental practice. Also the issues of connection to land, development of a land ethic, learning and transmitting local or 'Traditional Environmental Knowledge' and 'becoming native to this place' are as pertinent to Pakeha New Zealanders as they are to Mäori. Dr Moller would now like to research and apply these lessons from the Titi project to sustainable Agriculture in New Zealand. In 2000 and 2001 Dr Moller undertook a major review of research gaps and management priorities for biodiversity restoration and enhancement in New Zealand's managed (farmed) landscapes. The ARGOS initiative begins to fill some of the gaps identified in that review, and to combine support for Ngai Tahu's sustainable land use aspirations with the support of Pakeha farmers to create a proud history of sustainable land use and conservation in Aotearoa. Research and awareness of the environmental history of agriculture, as now proposed by this research cluster, will be important for understanding how farmers have come to form their current beliefs about their relationship to the land, and their attitudes towards conservation as portrayed by predominantly urban based preservation movements. That understanding will also potentially hold the key on how to deepen the relationship between farmers and their land, and how to nudge them towards more sustainable farming and the consequent sense of self and place that is likely to ensue. Researcher ProfilesDr Tom Brooking, Professor in the Department of History and Art History, has long term research interests in the history of New Zealand agriculture: concentrating especially on the environmental history of the development of pastoral farming in New Zealand. He formed numerous collaborations, both locally and internationally, in constructing an environmental history of New Zealand with the most visible result being the recent publication of the Environmental Histories of New Zealand . Dr Hugh Campbell Director of CSAFE (The Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment) and Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, is involved in developing research into sustainable agriculture, environmental trade barriers, consumer perceptions of food, food scares, and strategic options for primary production in New Zealand. Since 1994 he has been involved in the Greening Food programme, which is examining the development of sustainable agriculture practices among food export industries in New Zealand. Dr Henrik Moller, Professor in the Zoology Department, has been the programme leader of the FRST-funded Titi Harvest Sustainability research programme since 1996. This programme has involved engagement with the social and environmental dynamics of sustainable use - particularly in indigenous contexts. Dr Moller is now working with CSAFE and brings strong expertise on environmental sustainability and indigeneity to the broader socio-economic research strengths of CSAFE. Dr. Julia Haggerty is a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Sustainable Agriculture Research Cluster and is based at CSAFE. Her research has focused on land use and land tenure in both historic and contemporary ranching landscapes. She and her partner, Mark Haggerty, recently relocated to Dunedin from Bozeman, Montana in the northern Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Dr Haggerty can be contacted at julia.haggerty@stonebow.otago.ac.nz or on 03 479 5230.
Angela MacKenzie is a postgraduate student based at CSAFE. She is researching in the areas of social sustainability, traditional knowledge, and environmentality. Angela has a background in social anthropology, her interest areas are the intersections of the environment and society. When not at her desk in the heart of CSAFE (the kitchen), Angela is most likely to be at home, on the beach, on the Otago Peninsula....anywhere with food, plants, animals, and friends. Mark Haggerty has ten years of applied conservation experience, most recently with the Sonoran Institute in Montana where he facilitated community based and collaborative land use planning efforts across the US Northern Rockies. At CSAFE, Mark has lent his expertise as a field team leader for ARGOS and is helping to develop research partnerships to benefit farmer-led community groups across New Zealand. Postgraduate ResearchRecently completed and current research by PhD and Masters students linked to the Sustainable Agriculture research cluster: PhD
Masters
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