Food growing from the grassroots
WHILE OLDER allotment holders garden happily, a new wave of younger people are being drawn towards ‘urban agriculture’ – a range of initiatives aimed at growing, processing and distributing food in and around cities. “Small intensive urban farms, food production on housing estates, land-sharing, rooftop gardens and beehives, schoolyard greenhouses, public space food production, balcony and window sill vegetable growing are just a few examples of current urban agriculture initiatives,” says researcher Dr Chiara Tornaghi. In a two-year project, Dr Tornaghi from the University of Leeds investigated emerging forms of urban agriculture in the UK and their impact on social cohesion and environmental justice. Based on these findings and the experiences of urban food growers in the Leeds City Region, researchers have published two guides explaining to users and policymakers how to set up an urban agricultural project with a socio-environmental justice perspective. The project has also supported development of an umbrella organisation (Feed Leeds) and research informed a supporting document proposal presented to Leeds City Council in September 2014 by a delegation of citizens, asking to initiate a local Sustainable Food Strategy in which urban agriculture will play a key role. n
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Contact Dr Chiara Tornaghi, University of Leeds Email
chiara.tornaghi@
gmail.com Telephone 01908 655592 ESRC Grant Number RES-000-22-4418
www.urbanfoodjustice.org
Offenders at higher risk of problem gambling
LESS THAN ONE per cent of the general UK population are problem gamblers and only two per cent of people are at medium risk of problem gambling, according to the 2010 British Gambling Prevalence Study. In contrast, new research carried out by Lancaster and Glasgow Universities finds that 26 per cent of male offenders and 16 per cent of female offenders are rated as medium-risk and problem gamblers using a comparable measure (the Problem Gambling Severity Index). Almost a fifth of all prisoners reported that gambling had caused problems for their families, confirming the wider impacts of this often hidden problem.
“Offenders who have gambling as their main problematic issue are rare,” explains researcher Professor Corinne May-Chahal. “Drug and alcohol problems were highly prevalent for all prisoners and gambling problems tend to receive less attention in prison treatment programmes.” In-depth analysis of interviews
with more than 160 male and female offenders aimed to identify risk and resilience factors for problem gambling compared to low-risk gamblers and non-gamblers. A
8 SOCIETY NOW AUTUMN 2014
large proportion of offenders were highly motivated to ‘start afresh’ on leaving prison, determined to make significant positive changes in their lives through finding employment and registering for training/college courses. For some, these goals do become a reality, while many others are met with myriad barriers to achievement, particularly those with substance use issues, mental health and gambling problems. But not all problem gamblers have the same problems. The most frequently reported difficulty was chasing losses, spending more and more money to win back money lost. For seven per cent of all prisoners this seriously affects their family relationships, their financial security and health. “Greater understanding of how prisoners understand their gambling behaviour may enable more specific, tailored interventions for problem gamblers,” Professor May- Chahal concludes. n
i Contact Professor Corinne May-Chahal,
University of Lancaster Email
c.may-chahal@
lancaster.ac.uk Telephone 01524 594104 ESRC Grant Number RES-191-25-0004
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