Transitioning to more sustainable forms of agriculture is among the world’s most pressing environmental challenges – and it is one that is especially important in Denmark, where over 60 percent the nation’s land area is cultivated. It is already widely recognized that such goals require new modes of interdisciplinary collaboration and experimental practice. At present, researchers across a wide variety of fields are building new alliances and exploring novel research frames as they try to grapple with the socio-environmental issues of agricultural landscapes, not only in farm fields themselves, but also in the waters, ecological assemblages, and human communities entangled with them. As researchers across diverse academic traditions and departments take up the common challenge of how to respond to the scope and complexity of agricultural concerns, how can we better learn from each other?

We intend for this workshop to bring together researchers who are engaging not merely with agriculture as a topic, but more specifically with new modes of research that expand and/or cross disciplinary boundaries. How, we ask, can these already-ongoing research projects provide inspiration and models for future interdisciplinary collaborations? Overall, we aim for this initial sharing event to spark new conversations among researchers who may not yet know each other and to open paths for additional alliances across academic fields as we work to cultivate more sustainable agroecological formations.

To further focus the event, we have two initial themes from which to begin, with the aim of having additional events on two additional themes (food systems/culture and living labs) in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023.

Event Schedule

10:00-10:30      Welcome and brief introductions

10:30-12:30

Microbial ecologies: The challenges of animal farming, antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance

• Jens Seeberg (and other research group members) from projects on animal-human-microbe worlds, including https://projects.au.dk/PPIGMIC/
• Hanne Kongsted: Attitudes and experiences of farmers and vets towards the welfare-related effects of reduction of antibiotic usage in pigs.
• Michael Eilenberg on African swine fever in Southern Jutland: https://projects.au.dk/fencing-the-feral
• Anna Krzywoszynska (Sheffield) on soils and soil microbes, including https://www.soilcarenetwork.com
• Mette Vaarst, Merete Studnitz, Hanne Kongsted & Line Kollerup: About changing conflicts of interest to commonality of interests in animal farming, when it comes to reducing the risk of AMR. Examples from ROADMAP’s multiactor approach.   https://www.roadmap-h2020.eu/

12:30-13:30      LUNCH (Provided)

13:30-15:30

Landscape management and rewilding in agricultural worlds

• Janne Flora on rewilding and hunting in Greenland and Denmark, including her projects: https://www.carlsbergfondet.dk/en/Forskningsaktiviteter/Bevillingsstatistik/Bevillingsoversigt/CF21_0306_Janne-Karina-Flora and https://projects.au.dk/muskoxpathways/
• Britt Henriksen and Janne Winther Christensen: How to assess animal welfare in rewilding and other areas (‘nature national parks’; solar panel parks; public ‘recreative areas’ etc.)
• Heather Swanson on rivers and their restoration, including insights from her research on trout: https://www.sv.uio.no/sai/english/research/projects/global-trout/
• Andreas Roepstorff on emerging work on nutrient management and meadows
• Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe: The role of soils in agricultural landscape management  https://bio.au.dk/forskning/forskningscentre/sustainscapes
• Representatives from the ANTHEA project on Danish heathlands: https://projects.au.dk/anthropogenic-heathlands/

15.30             Group discussions on bridge building + common and different perspectives on the topics; will also include time for more extended self-introductions and info-sharing about other related projects

17.00   Transition to dinner together