SouthseaScene

The University of Portsmouth has joined a new scheme from Friends of the Earth to help university caterers fight climate change.  The Kale Yeah! Kitchens scheme, launching this month, encourages caterers to make their menus more sustainable by serving less, but higher welfare meat, dairy and fish and offering more plant-based options.  The scheme has five different levels of accreditation that encourage universities to rebalance dishes, incentivise plant-based eating via a loyalty card scheme and commit to promoting sustainability. Caterers will have to alter their procurement and menus, and employ ‘nudges’ to inspire cultural, behavioural and attitudinal changes to the way we eat.  In reaching the higher levels, the university can ensure it is in line with Friends of the Earth and the Eating Better Alliance’s more ambitious target of a 50 per cent reduction in the amount of meat and dairy eaten and produced in the UK by 2030.  The University of Portsmouth trialled...

We caught up with Enwezor Nzegwu who runs Be Locals , supplying meat and produce from local farms for people who live locally. Every Thursday morning Enwezor shared an update on what's available so if you order by 8 pm, he can deliver the products to you by Saturday. You can imagine how fresh everything is! Enwezor Nzegwu on  Thursday 19 November 2020 Sometimes I forget that my customers don't get to see what it's really like on the farms that I visit every week when I pick up produce for Be Locals. This is a picture of Tim's farm. It's been in his family for over 70 years. To me, the farm seems enormous but Tim says it's not that big. As for livestock, Tim has these lovely pigs and cattle also growing arable produce like wheat. Tim's cattle out in the fields You'll see Tim's cattle roaming in the fields all through the year. They always stick together in a herd in one part of the field and they'll nearly always come up to you if you come up to t...

Researchers from the University of Portsmouth have been awarded £180,000 to help reduce plastic pollution in developing countries. An interdisciplinary team, led by Professor Steve Fletcher and Dr Cressida Bowyer have received funding from the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund for a two-year project ‘Catalysing sustainability transitions in cities in the global south suffering from severe plastic pollution’. The project, which contributes to a number of United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, will use Nairobi (Kenya) and Sylhet (Bangladesh) as the case study cities. Using arts-based projects, the researchers will work with local communities, business and authorities to map current systems of waste management and identify opportunities for reducing plastic waste leaking into the environment. The research findings and methods will be shared in a knowledge exchange workshop (scheduled for April 2021) that includes representatives from up to 10 other Development...

Portsmouth Film Society has announced its 5th Green Film Festival programme which will take place on 22 to 24 May in the Eldon Building, University of Portsmouth. Part of a worldwide movement to highlight environmental issues through film, festival organisers have selected three films that touched different aspects of our world. The festival launches with the screening of Embrace, a film that tackles the global issue of body image and screened with the support of the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industry which is concerned with the impact the related fashion industry has on the overall wellbeing issue. Is there something we can do to ensure the survival of important food plants? The film Seed follows passionate seed keepers who are keen to ensure the survival of our food varieties. Before the screening, people can also hear a short talk by Dr Rocio Perez-Barrales, senior lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. Tackling hard issues isn’t al...