The John Ray Initiative

9.30am – 4.30pm, Saturday 6 March 2010

After months in the planning the JRI/Redcliffe College Environment day Conference: Food Futures finally came to fruition. Around 70 people attended a highly successful day. This page will now gradually change to give reports on the day which was organised in partnership with Redcliffe College, CMS and the Agricultural Christian Fellowship. The meeting was chaired by Revd. Margot Hodson. The picture shows (l. to r.): Mike Rayner, Ruth Valerio, Margot Hodson (Chair), Patrick Mulvaney and Andy Kingston-Smith (the main organiser for Redcliffe College)
Main Speakers
What the Bible says about food Rev Dr Mike Rayner (British Heart Foundation, Oxford) took us on an extended tour of the Bible looking at all aspects of the Bible and food. He even tried out some food on the conference attendees! There was a an American “cheese” which came out of a can, and bore little likeness to real cheese. And then a marvellous cake that Mike had baked specially for the conference- much better than the “cheese”.
How will farmers, herders and fisherfolk do it? Patrick Mulvaney (Chair of UK Food Group) is an optimist. He looked at the problems of world agriculture, and whether we would be able to feed the predicted 9 billion people by the middle of the century in a time of climate change and resource depletion. Patrick thinks we can by using a more ecological approach to farming.
Ethical food Ruth Valerio (author of ‘L is for Lifestyle’) began by explaining to us her virtues ethics. She believes that these are important in under-girding our decisions on the sort of food we eat. Once she had established her ethical basis then she went on the consider the practical outworking of the ethics in what we  should buy and what we should eat.

Over coffee we had a Coffee House session with contributions from three Redcliffe College students, looking at food issues in the developing world. Sir John Houghton gave us a short update on climate change after Copenhagen, and his recent battles with the sceptics. We had afternoon workshops on Human Population and Food; Climate Change and Agriculture; Aid and Development – missiological considerations; How then do we eat? – the practical response; and Models of Agricultural Production – how to feed the world sustainably.

7th March 2010

Sir John Houghton sent us this piece about the work of the IPCC that he wrote for a Royal Society group. It is often argued, not only by sceptics, that the IPCC cannot be a truly scientific body because the Policymakers Summaries of its Reports are approved at plenary  meetings with 100 governments present – UN style. Such ideas are very damaging to the IPCC’s acceptability. What is not generally appreciated is that amazingly these are genuinely scientific meetings – no political or other agendas are allowed to intrude. Only scientific or presentational points can be made. I hope this piece puts that argument to bed. The work of the IPCC

7th March 2010

COPENHAGEN AND THE CLIMATE CHANGE CRISIS (JRI Briefing Papers– No. 19) is a detailed analysis of where we stand after the Copenhagen climate change conference by JRI President, Sir John Houghton.

16th February 2010

Copenhagen– before, during and after
The last few months have been very busy ones for many of us involved in JRI. Undoubtedly the main reason has been the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference which was held from 7th to 18th December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Let us give you some insights into the run up, the conference, and the aftermath. We work in chronological order, starting with our JRI Pre-Copenhagen consultation. We then look at The Wave demonstration in London.  Then Dr Tjirk van der Ziel, a science journalist from The Netherlands, who was at the Copenhagen Summit sent us a short report on his experiences. Finally, the Newsletter concludes with the first analysis of the results of Copenhagen from JRI President, Sir John Houghton.
DOWNLOAD HERE

21st January 2010

For some time now the Christian Rural & Environmental Studies (CRES) web site has been looking a little tired. Fortunately John McKeown, the JRI webmaster, has designed a nice new site. Thanks very much John! Although the CRES course starts and finishes in September each year, the Spring and early Summer are the times when many people are looking for courses. CRES is now getting quite a few enquiries every week, and we recommend that potential students make their applications by about June as this allows us to find a local tutor and give instructions on the course before it really gets going! If you are interested probably the best place to look first is our CRES Certificate page. Then you might have some questions. If so go to the Contact CRES page. Then finally if you would like to apply download an Application Form and send it back to us with your payment.

19th January 2010

A briefing by JRI Associate Dr John Lockwood about an Australian website called “The Skeptics Handbook”. JRI has received a few enquiries about this website and the briefing provides an effective answer to the claims made there.
PDF download (5 pages)

8th January 2010