Three calls for proposals from Defra

Defra is calling for proposals on food growing in schools, fruit and vegetable demand, and improving environmental and economic performance in the food chain.

Outcomes of food growing activities in schools (FFG 1105)

The research brief here is to:

• Assess, through a literature review, the wide range of published studies that have investigated regional, national, UK and international programmes for growing food in schools. It should evaluate both peer reviewed and non peer reviewed publications, taking into account the quality of the evidence.
• Determinethe impacts derived from food growing in schools on at least the following areas:

  o Public health (including both direct and indirect physiological and psychological benefits)

  o Improvements in pupil’s attainment

  o Building communities and citizenship, from a local to a global dimension

  o Practical horticultural skills and knowledge (leading to careers in the sector)

  o Enterprise (including social enterprise)

  o Environmental behaviours

The Study should also include information on how food growing achieved these impacts:

• Aim to investigate the cost-benefit of such programmes, looking at role in supporting long-term intervention strategies, such as tackling obesity or Improving pupil’s attainment in schools.
• Consider challenges to success at both local school and national delivery level.
• Identify best practice for developing and implementing food growing in schools initiatives, to overcome barriers and deliver maximum benefits. These should not be restricted to ‘one size fits all’ approaches, but rather explore opportunities for building on, and engaging, local resources, initiatives and communities.

The deadline for submissions is 20 May 2011

Review of Factors Affecting Fruit and Vegetable Demand (FFG 1104)

Key questions the work will address:

• Are there UK markets for a variety of different quality of fruit and vegetables including ‘ugly’ fruit and vegetables, and how do these markets compare to each other in terms of value for money, accessibility for those on lower incomes, throughput and opportunities for growers?
• What are the key drivers and barriers affecting the demand for different quality requirements of fruit and vegetables e.g. price, packaging, presentation, appearance, reason for purchase such as to eat fresh immediately, to keep till ripe, to use in cooking, demographics, seasonality, logistics, retailers and farming practices?
• What would be the impacts of consumers having increased access to lower quality fruit and vegetables, such as slightly ripe fruit, fruit or
• Has the revised EU marketing standards for fruit and vegetables (and the home processing derogation from the ten specific standards) had any impact on the availability of lower quality produce?

The work will need to consider:

• Potential impacts of changes in availability of fruit and vegetables with different quality standards on consumption and 5-a-day targets.
• Whether the same constraints apply to home-produced and imported fruit and vegetables, for example local and in-season produce.
• The impact and potential barriers within the supply chain.
• Impacts on wholesale and processing industries and alternative waste streams i.e. animal feed.
• Socio economic barriers including consumer education and affordability.

The deadline for submissions is 20 May 2011

Opportunities to improve environmental and economic performance in the food chain – lean thinking, continuous improvement and benchmarking FFG 1106

Research is required to improve the evidence base on current scope, availability and uptake of technologies and practices available for improving resource use efficiency, competitiveness and environmental performance in the food chain.

The research should address the following questions:

• What benchmarking and auditing tools are available to assess resource use efficiency and environmental performance in the food chain? What are the available options for improvement (technologies, practices) and what is their cost-effectiveness
• What is the current rate of uptake of tools for assessing and improving performance and what are the barriers and drivers to uptake? What are the typical savings, benefits and costs that can be obtained through their use? What does this mean in terms of potential to reduce negative impacts and improve efficiency of the food chain?

Research should consider at least the following impacts: energy use, GHG emissions, emissions to air and water, natural resource depletion, water use and waste generation.

The deadline for submissions is 26 May 2011

You can download further details here