Landscapes

About Landscapes

It all comes back to land. Landscapes is an interview style podcast about the role of land in society and the environment, presented by Adam Calo.

Publisher

Adam Calo

Category

science · science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

9 Feb 2021

Latest episode

19 Dec 2025

Latest episodes

18 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   19 Dec 2025

   More is Less? - Michael Grunwald

   Michael Grunwald is an environmental journalist who sees maximizing efficient production as the most important sustianbility strategy. His book, "We Are Eating the Earth," brings fresh attention to an old debate. Episode Links We Are Eating the Earth Grunwald, M. (2024, December 13). Opinion | Sorry, but This Is the Future of Food. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/opinion/food-agriculture-factory-farms-climate-change.html The Useful Idiot, Land Food Nexus rebuttal to Grunwald's NYT piece The Enduring Fantasy of Feeding the World, Spectre Journal Historians rethink the Green Revolution The Globalization of Wheat: A Critical History of the Green Revolution Max Ajl's A People's Green New Deal On the contribution of yields to hunger abatement: Smith, L. C., & Haddad, L. (2015). Reducing Child Undernutrition: Past Drivers and Priorities for the Post-MDG Era. World Development, 68, 180–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.11.014 On the role of intensive agriculture in failing to reduce deforestation: Ceddia, M. G., Bardsley, N. O., Gomez-y-Paloma, S., & Sedlacek, S. (2014). Governance, agricultural intensification, and land sparing in tropical South America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(20), 7242–7247. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1317967111 Pratzer, M., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Meyfroidt, P., Krueger, T., Baumann, M., Garnett, S. T., & Kuemmerle, T. (2023). Agricultural intensification, Indigenous stewardship and land sparing in tropical dry forests. Nature Sustainability, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01073-0 Thaler, G. M. (2017). The Land Sparing Complex: Environmental Governance, Agricultural Intensification, and State Building in the Brazilian Amazon. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 107(6), 1424–1443. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1309966 Land sparers feel thier oats Thaler, G. M. (2024). Saving a Rainforest and Losing the World: Conservation and displacement in the global tropics. Yale University Press. The IEA on competing theories of Indirect Land Use Change and biofuels: Towards an improved assessment of indirect land-use change – Evaluating common narratives, approaches, and tools (https://www.ieabioenergy.com/blog/publications/towards-an-improved-assessment-of-indirect-land-use-change-evaluating-common-narratives-approaches-and-tools/) More Work for Mother: The Ironies Of Household Technology From The Open Hearth To The Microwave | Ruth Cowan Munro, K. (2025). Reconsidering the relationship between home appliance ownership and married women's labor supply: Evidence from Brazil (No. 2509). The Global Alliance for the Future of Food call for investment in food systems transition The World Resources Institute report on Denmark's Green Tripartite Agreement Behind the Danish Green Tripartite – Democracy, Smallholders and the Rights of Rural People Grunwald debates an agroecologist At COP30, Brazilian Meat Giant JBS Recommends Climate Policy About Landscapes Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam's newsletter: Land Food Nexus (https://adamcalo.substack.com/). Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com or Bluesky Music by Blue Dot Sessions: "Kilkerrin" by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

2. 

   15 Aug 2025

   The Afterlives of Coal

   Even as efforts to transition Appalachia out of coal receive broad policy support, the fate of the landscape is ultimately driven by incumbent actors used to getting what they want. Dr Lindsay Shade and Dr Karen Rignall discuss their research about how legacies of land ownership frustrate equitable and effective transition strategies. While an "Abundance"  argument suggests that  "the Democratic fetish for legalistic procedure has in so many places, made it impossible to get stuff done," the afterlives of coal provides a stark reminder of the deeper powers that control what happens on the land. Confronting the legacies of landownership may be the only path to meaningful landscape transformation. Episode Links Dr Lindsay Shade (https://sociology.utk.edu/people/lindsay-shade/) Dr Karen Rignall (https://cld.ca.uky.edu/directory/karen-rignall) Shade, L., Schwartzman, G., Rignall, K., Slovinsky, K., & Johnson, J. (2025). Afterlives of coal: land and transition dynamics in Central Appalachia. Environmental Research: Energy, 2(1), 015015. Also see: Shade, L., Rignall, K., Tarus, L., & Starr, C. (2025). The role of land in a just transition: the Appalachian Land Study collective. Environmental Research: Energy, 2(2), 025010. The ongoing Appalachian Land Study and the historic Appalachian Land Ownership Study Martin County solar project (https://www.martincountysolarproject.com/) on the former Martiki mine The Cumberland Forest Project (The Nature Conservancy) Congressman Hal Rogers and prison development Carbon sequestration court case: Pocahontas Surfcae Interests and Forestland Group The Alliance for Appalachia (https://theallianceforappalachia.org/) The Appalachian Rekindling Project The Abundance critique of process The Heavens (https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-heavens/), by Sandra Newman Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus (https://adamcalo.substack.com/). Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com or Bluesky Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue). Podcast Guest Correction: "At minute 26.41 - 27.55 it is implied that The Nature Conservancy (TNC) acquired all 253,000 acres as a single parcel and that it all passed through Pocahontas Land Company and Heartwood Forestland Fund, and also that The Forestland Group "sold" land to the former. Heartwood Forestland Fund is managed by The Forestland Group and holds land under various subsidiaries. In the three states where TNC brokered land deals for the Cumberland Forest Project, the land is held by various LLC's that TNC controls, all of which purchased land from subsidiaries of either The Forestland Group or Molpus-Woodlands, two different timber investment management organizations (TIMO's). These TIMO's previously bought land and/or timber rights from various coal and natural resource landholding companies in the region, including Pocahontas. As we describe in our paper on p. 8, the trajectory of the land in our case study in East TN is as follows: the land was first consolidated by the 19th century British coal company and land speculation firm "The American Association Ltd," later sold to JM Huber Coal, and then to Molpus-Woodlands, before being acquired by Cumberland Forest LLC, which The Nature Conservancy has a controlling share and manages."

3. 

   28 Jun 2024

   An Alibi for Ecocide

   An apparent "success story" of Amazonian forest conservation motivates a 6-years investigation of the land sparing hypothesis. Dr. Gregory Thaler (https://gregorythaler.com/about/)'s new book, Saving a Rainforest and Losing the World, reveals a tragic belief that agricultural intensification will solve our problems of enduring extraction of the world's biodiversity. Episode Links Saving a Rainforest and Losing the World: Conservation and Displacement in the Global Tropics. Yale University Press Roser, Max. 2024. Why Is Improving Agricultural Productivity Crucial to Ending Global Hunger and Protecting the World’s Wildlife? Our World in Data. Phalan BT. 2018 What Have We Learned from the Land Sparing-sharing Model? (https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061760) Sustainability. 10(6):1760. Scientists calling the apparent Brazilian halting of deforestation "one of the great conservation successes of the twenty-first century," in Nature Food For an excellent review of the Land Sparing / Land Sharing debate see: Claire Kremen, Ilke Geladi (2024). Land-Sparing and Sharing: Identifying Areas of Consensus, Remaining Debate and Alternatives, Editor(s): Samuel M. Scheiner, Encyclopedia of Biodiversity (Third Edition), Academic Press, 435-451, ISBN 9780323984348.  OR Land Spares Feel Their Oats, Land Food nexus Ritchie, Hannah. 2021. Palm Oil. Our World in Data. An example of the "active land sparing argument." The green revolution: Patel, R. (2013). The long green revolution. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(1), 1-63. An argument for the "forest transition model" as it applies to Brazilian forests. Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus (https://adamcalo.substack.com/). Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com or https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social) Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

4. 

   21 Mar 2024

   Building new land relations from within the core - (Dido van Oosten)

   The Netherlands is a world leader in the industrial model of agriculture with speculation-driven land prices to match. Dido van Oosten of Stitchting Kapitaloceen (https://www.kapitaloceen.nl/) presents a strategy for unravelling entrenched land relations from within a place where property is sacred. Episode Links Nicholas Blomley: Performing Property: Making the World Mietshäuser Syndikat De Warmonderhof (https://aereswarmonderhof.nl/english) training program Land van Ons (https://landvanons.nl/) Vrijcoop collective housing project (https://vrijcoop.org/) Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus (https://adamcalo.substack.com/). Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com or https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social) Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

5. 

   27 Dec 2023

   The People's Land Policy - (Bonnie VandeSteeg)

   Recognizing how systems of private property control new visions of land use is one thing. Working on a political process of land reform is another. Bonnie VandeSteeg of the People's Land Policy discusses the recent program outlined in: Towards a Manifesto for Land Justice. Episode Links Land for What? Land for Whom? (https://landforwhatlandforwhom.org/) by Dr Bonnie VandeSteeg Towards a Manifesto for Land Justice A People's food policy from the Land Worker's Alliance (https://www.peoplesfoodpolicy.org/) Scottish Land Commission (https://www.landcommission.gov.scot/) Liverpool Land Commission (https://cles.org.uk/tag/land-commission/) Southwark Land Commission Land for the Many (https://landforthemany.uk/), 2019, UK Labour Right to Roam Campaign (https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/) Dartmoor Wild Camping court case Climate Litigation Example Access and Property: A Question of Power and Authority. Sikor and Lund 2009 Three Acres and a Cow (https://threeacresandacow.co.uk/) The Diggers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers) Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus (https://adamcalo.substack.com/). Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com or https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social) Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

6. 

   11 Dec 2023

   Holistic grazing, holistic thinking - (Nikki Yoxall)

   A recent wave of sustainability claims confidently dictate how, for what, and where we ought to use land for climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. Nikki Yoxall, a self proclaimed regenerative landscape manager walks through her thinking on land use decision making and responds to these critiques. Episode Links Food without agriculture, Nature Sustainability (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01241-2) Guthman on the problems with localism DeLind on the problems with localism Phil Loring – deeper meaning of regen ag Understanding Ag team in the US (https://understandingag.com/who-we-are/) Paige Stanley’s rangelands research (https://paige-stanley.com/) Pasture for Life (https://www.pastureforlife.org/) Remembering David Stanley Carbon Cowboys Network (https://carboncowboys.org/) Samantha Mosier article on evidence of benefits of Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing Soilmentor  (https://soils.vidacycle.com/) Highlands Rewilding (https://www.highlandsrewilding.co.uk/beldorney-estate) Hannah Ritchie introducing her new book (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmNdDJoABU8) An environmentalist gets lunch – Hannah Ritchie The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People, George Monbiot EU project on livestock futures (https://pathways-project.com/) Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus. Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com or https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/adamcalo.bsky.social) Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

7. 

   8 Sept 2023

   The Visible Hand - Roz Corbett

   Normally, land owners get a powerful say in the direction of land use. But what if we could design policies such that public values of land use directed who gets to own the land? PhD student and farmer Roz Corbett travels to France to find out. Episode Links Public consultation on the Proposed Land Ownership and Public Interest (Scotland) Bill (closes 12th September 2023) Scotland’s Rural Land Market insights (Scottish Land Commission) Tim Lang, Feeding Britain Terre des Liens How the authorisation system works and it’s impact on land market competition Summary article on the development of the new Land law in France Amelia Veitch Speculation in French agricultural land markets and the impact on SAFER decisions on land allocations Article exploring the impact on proactive local authority support for agroecological installations Resistance to mega basins 1 Resistance to mega basins 2 Agroecological Transitions for Territorial Food Systems Project Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode and extended shownotes can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus.  Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com. This podcast was a team effort of Tanguy Martin from Terre de Liens, Amelia Veitch from the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Politique (LAP-EHESS) and the University of Lausanne, Hélène Bechet and Alice Martin-Prevel from Terre de Liens, and Claire Lamine from INRAE for her involvement and support through the ATTER project. Georgie Styles (https://www.georgiestyles.uk/) provided production and audio mastering support. With thanks to the ATTER project for funding this podcast. Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

8. 

   3 Aug 2023

   The Where of Law - Nicholas Blomley

   Reforming property for sustainability requires both innovation in the law as well as in how we relate to land. Legal geography is a conceptual project that describes how law and space interact. Frankie McCarthy (lawyer) and Nicholas Blomley (geographer) discuss property through the legal geography lens. Episode Links Frankie McCarthy Nicholas Blomley (https://www.sfu.ca/people/blomley.html) Remember property? Progress in Human Geography (https://doi.org/10.1191/0309132505ph535xx) A Statement of Progressive Property State v Shack case Performing Property: Making The World. Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence The Mystery of Capital. Hernando de Soto Why Are We Allowing the Private Sector to Take Over Our Public Works? The New York Times. Brett Christophers Blomley on housing justice Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus (https://adamcalo.substack.com/).  Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com. Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

9. 

   24 Jul 2023

   Farm Subsidies and the Green Transition - Kai Heron

   Brexit produced a once a generation chance to create a wholesale reform of agricultural subsidies. Kai Heron works through what the England's new farm subsidy plan reveals about the politics of food system transformation. Episode Links Kai Heron on Twitter (https://twitter.com/KaiHeron) You can’t eat profits: A democratic vision for England’s tormented farmlands. The New Statesman. By Kai Heron, Alex Heffron and Rob Booth Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition.  Spectre Journal. Kai Heron and Jodi Dean ELMS description from DEFRA Indonesian farm workers in the UK and debt bondage History of the World in Seven Cheap Things WWF FOI on UK’s climate targets Eric Ross, The Malthus Factor US food policy and Haitian rice Women: The Last Colony: Maria Mies,  Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Claudia von Werlhof The Classical Agrarian Question: Myth, Reality and Relevance Today: Sam Moyo On carbon markets and their overhype: The Value of a Whale, Buller Sustain on ELMs Climate apartheid (https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/06/1041261) Mark Fisher Capitalist Realism Rosa Luxemburg Reform or Revolution Nancy Fraser on Polanyi Maria Mies on subsistence (https://transversal.at/transversal/0805/mies/en) Public Common Partnerships, Commonwealth Kai on the banana discourse Right to Roam campaign England (https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/) Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

10. 

    28 Apr 2023

    Nature's Vote

    Episode Description Rescinding the practice of human-exceptionalism may be required to treat animals and other non-human species with more grace. But it might also be required to re-orient how we understand how the non-human world operates and thus the decisions we make that may disrupt the order of the multi-species communities we are all part of. Dr. Emma Gardner proposes an "ecological permission structure", or a parallel planning process that takes into account the needs and desires of multi-species communities. Episode Notes Dr. Emma Gardner The Animals of Farthing Wood Watership Down Raymond Williams, Problems in Materialism and Culture: Selected Essays Safina, C. (2015). Beyond words: What animals think and feel. Toad Patrol Andrew Balmford's summary of land sparing Land sparers feel their oats Gardner, E., Sheppard, A., & Bullock, J. (2022). Why biodiversity net gain requires an ecological permission system (https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/11918/). Town and Country Planning Association Journal, 391-402. Freedom of Movement: how do animals get around in our modern world? [Online Event] Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus (https://adamcalo.substack.com/).  Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com. Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

11. 

    23 Sept 2022

    Landscapes and Interdisciplinarity (Beth Cole)

    A question of how to advance upon the ecosystem services concept leads to lessons learned about how to work collaboratively across disciplines. Episode Links Lesson’s Learned Writing (a blog by Beth Cole Is interdisciplinarity a mashup? Beth Cole social media (https://twitter.com/drbethcole?lang=en) The Landscapes Decisions Program (https://landscapedecisions.org/) Music: Kilkerrin by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue), Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

12. 

    4 May 2022

    Contested GM Worldviews - (Andrew Flachs)

    An article in Scientific American bringing a science and technology studies lens to Genetically Modified Organisms, provoked louder than normal responses from the pro biotech crowd. What can we learn from the exchange? Dr Andrew Flachs, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University, studied the role of seeds on farmer livelihoods in rural India as part of his book, Cultivating Knowledge. We discuss the arguments of the article and its malcontents to try and reach a broader understanding of what this debate is really about. Episode Links Andrew Flachs personal website (http://andrewflachs.com/). On Twitter Cultivating Knowledge: Biotechnology, Sustainability, and the Human Cost of Cotton Capitalism in India, By Andrew Flachs. How Biotech Crops Can Crash and Still Never Fail, by Aniket Aga and Maywa Montenegro de Wit, Scientific American. Is Biotechnology Just New Colonialism? Talking Biotech Podcast, Dr. Kevin Folta. 'Woke' Scientific American Goes Anti-GMO, American Council on Science and Health, Cameron English. Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Sandra Harding. A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Jason Moore and Raj Patel. Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital, Jason Moore Works of Sidney Mintz (http://sidneymintz.net/). R. Vasavi’s work on the Green Revolution: Harbingers of Rain: Land and life in South Asia. Shadow Space: Suicides and the Predicament of Rural India. Paul Robbins’ contributions to the Intended Consequences Rock, J. (2019). “We are not starving:” challenging genetically modified seeds and development in Ghana. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment, 41(1), 15-23. Dowd-Uribe, B. (2014). Engineering yields and inequality? How institutions and agro-ecology shape Bt cotton outcomes in Burkina Faso. Geoforum, 53, 161-171. Andrew Flachs and Paul Richards on the role of performance on agricultural systems. Indian millet hunger reduction program. Learning to Love G.M.O.s, by Jennifer Kahn, The New York Times Montenegro de Wit, M., Kapuscinski, A. R., & Fitting, E. (2020). Democratizing CRISPR? Stories, practices, and politics of science and governance on the agricultural gene editing frontier. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 8. Genetically Modified Democracy, by Aniket Aga. Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resilience and the Black Freedom Movement (http://monicamariewhite.com/freedom-farmers/) Researchers can restore the American chestnut through genetic engineering. But at what cost? The Counter Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus (https://adamcalo.substack.com/).  Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com. Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

13. 

    10 May 2021

    An Agroecological Vision for the United Kingdom - (Jyoti Fernandes)

    Jyoti Fernandes, farmer of Five Penny Farms and Policy Coordinator with the UK based Landworkers’ Alliance, discusses what agroecology means to her and the efforts to shape food policy in the United Kingdom. We also discuss the risk of agroecology being co-opted and the current boycott of the UN Food Systems Summit. Episode Links Five Penny Farms (https://www.fivepennycatering.com/), Dorset Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (https://agra.org/) Scientists Boycott the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit Jyoti testifying at the EU Parliament in 2015 Raj Patel on Normal Borlaug | Interview in PBS American Experience Is Agroecology Being Co-opted by Big Ag? | Civil Eats Article Farm Protests in India Are Writing the Green Revolution’s Obituary | Scientific American Article The Land Workers’ Alliance (https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/) The Dimbleby Report (https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/) | Part One of the National Food Strategy European Coordination Via Campesina (https://www.eurovia.org/) Reframing the land-sparing/land-sharing debate for biodiversity conservation (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/954020b1) | Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Nature Friendly Farming Network (https://www.nffn.org.uk/) Pasture Fed Livestock Association (https://www.pastureforlife.org/) SUSTAIN Alliance for better food and farming (https://www.sustainweb.org/) Agriculture Act 2020 Landscapes is produced by Adam Calo. A complete written transcript of the episode can be found on Adam’s newsletter: Land Food Nexus (https://adamcalo.substack.com/).  Send feedback or questions to adamcalo@substack.com. Music by Blue Dot Sessions: “Kilkerrin” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).

14. 

    14 Apr 2021

    The Role of the Arts on Landscape Science - (Ewan Allinson)

    Too much expert-led decision making has long been shown to deliver perverse outcomes for the environment and society. What if a more earnest collaboration with artists and the arts is the secret ingredient to unlocking a more egalitarian science and society relationship? Independent sculptor, dry stone waller, and landscape partnership innovator Ewan Allinson, discusses the role of the arts in landscape decision making. Episode Links The Hefted to Hill project, as part of the Northern Heartlands Landscape Partnership (https://northernheartlands.org/hefted-to-hill/) Hill-Farming, Knowledge and Power, Medium article by Ewan Allinson Community Empowerment and Landscape Report by Chris Dalglish Marcel Duchamp, Fountain 1917 Valuing Arts and Arts Research Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire Agnes Denes, Wheatfield, 1982 (http://www.agnesdenesstudio.com/works7.html) Alan Sonfist, Time Landscape, 1965 John Glover landscape paintings (https://www.wikiart.org/en/john-glover) Poetry by Wordsworth Guide to the Lakes by William Wordsworth AALERT 4DM (https://research.reading.ac.uk/aalert/project/) (Arts and Artists and Environmental Research Today for Decision Making Network) Art is Not an Island (https://vimeo.com/508595048) Film, created for AALERT 4DM. Produced by Ewan Allinson and filmed and edited by Maria Rud with oversight by Eirini Saratsi. Taigh-Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre North Uist Uplands Alliance (https://uplandsalliance.com/) Artist-Scholar David Haley (http://davidhaley.uk/)

15. 

    23 Mar 2021

    The Dasgupta Review - (Janet Fisher)

    The past decades have seen the rise to dominance of the ecosystem services framework, a worldview and scientific practice that sees the processes of the biosphere through a lens of how they prop up human activities. Within academic circles, the concept is hotly contested. Some see valuing nature with the language of neoclassical economics as the only way to motivate governments and corporate actors into doing responsible environmental action. Others see concepts of ecosystem services and natural capital as the inevitable deepening of predatory capitalist relations extending into new environmental domains.  Dr Janet Fisher, an environmental social scientist at the University of Edinburgh, joins the podcast to discuss the newly published Dasgupta Report, an independent review of the relationship between the economy and biodiversity commissioned by the UK Treasury. The report made headlines when it asserted that we should treat nature like an asset and manage it like any other financial portfolio. We discuss how the report is evidence of a rise to dominance of applying economic thinking into the domain of ecology and environmental conservation and what that means for scholars working on landscape science. Links to items mentioned in the episode The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (https://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.html) Dempsey, J., & Suarez, D. C. (2016). Arrested development? The promises and paradoxes of “selling nature to save it”. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 106 (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24694452.2016.1140018)(3), 653-671. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24694452.2016.1140018) The Future of Conservation Project (https://www.futureconservation.org/) Westman, W. E. (1977). How much are nature's services worth?.  (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1744285?seq=1)Science,  (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1744285?seq=1)197 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1744285?seq=1)(4307), 960-964 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1744285?seq=1). Ehrlich, P. R. (1968). The population bomb. New York, 72-80. Mark Carney, UN special envoy for climate’s plan for a $100 billion carbon market The Natural Capital Project’s InVEST software Kareiva, P., & Marvier, M. (2012). What is conservation science?. BioScience,  (https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/62/11/962/263056?login=true)62 (https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/62/11/962/263056?login=true)(11), 962-969. (https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/62/11/962/263056?login=true) Final Report - The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review The relationship between ecosystem services and human-wellbeing from the MEA. Norgaard, R. B. (2010). Ecosystem services: From eye-opening metaphor to complexity blinder. Ecological economics, 69 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800909004583)(6), 1219-1227. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800909004583) Fletcher, R., & Büscher, B. (2017). The PES conceit: revisiting the relationship between payments for environmental services and neoliberal conservation. Ecological Economics, 132 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800916308400), 224-231. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800916308400) and response: Van Hecken, G., Kolinjivadi, V., Windey, C., McElwee, P., Shapiro-Garza, E., Huybrechs, F., & Bastiaensen, J. (2018). Silencing agency in payments for ecosystem services (PES) by essentializing a neoliberal ‘monster’into being: a response to Fletcher & Büscher's ‘PES conceit’. Ecological Economics, 144 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800917309667), 314-318. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800917309667) And rejoinder! Fletcher, R., & Büscher, B. (2019). Neoliberalism in Denial in Actor-oriented PES Research? A Rejoinder to Van Hecken et al.(2018) and a Call for Justice. Ecological Economics, 156 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800917315902), 420-423. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800917315902) The UK’s Environmental land management schemes: overview Assetization :Turning Things into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism Fletcher R., (2021) “Review of Partha Dasgupta. 2021. The economics of biodiversity: the Dasgupta review.”, Journal of Political Ecology 28(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.2289 Additional research provided by Scott Herrett for this episode.

16. 

    17 Feb 2021

    A Human Rights Approach to Land - (Kirsteen Shields)

    The second episode of Landscapes features an interview with Dr Kirsteen Shields, Lecturer in International Law and Food Security at the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security at the University of Edinburgh. Kirsteen was the first person to introduce me to the Land Reform debate happening in Scotland and has played a role in informing high level thinking on the Acts themselves. Particularly, we talk about the fundamental balancing act between rights to property and rights to pretty much everything else. Episode Links Human Rights and the Work of the Scottish Land Commission, a discussion paper by Dr Kirsteen Shields An article from the Guardian in 2020 about the House of Commons debates on free school meals over holiday periods

17. 

    9 Feb 2021

    The Parable of Portobello - (Malcolm Combe)

    Notions of Land Reform, especially when looking historically, bring forth images of mass upheaval and unrest associated with nationalization and redistribution of resources—as it should. Yet, as the favored option to shift land use, where property entitlements are left unchallenged, continues to deliver watered down results, it seems to me it’s worth willing to experiment with reshaping the concept of property, while still respecting deeply entrenched social and legal norms of property. There may be no better case to critically think this through than by looking at what’s happening in Scotland, where a set of fairly recent Land Reform Acts have come into force. And I can’t think of a better person to discuss this with in detail than Malcolm Combe, a senior lecturer in Scots private law at the University of Strathclyde. Malcolm has long been writing on Scottish Land reform, including a new book, "Land Reform in Scotland" edited with Jayne Glass and Annie Tindley. In this episode, we`ll talk about the Scottish Land Reform Acts, but also why they may have been started, and how they operate in the law. We end up focusing on a really interesting case of these new legal entitlements in action—when a local church was put up for sale in a place called Portobello, just outside Edinburgh, the local community attempted to use the new powers available to try and bring the asset into their control. Episode Links Lovett, J. A., & Combe, M. M. (2019). The Parable of Portobello: Lessons and Questions from the First Urban Acquisition Under the Scottish Community Right-to-Buy Regime. Mont. L. Rev., 80 (https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/montlr80&div=12&id=&page=), 211 (https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/montlr80&div=12&id=&page=). BBC Documentary Series on the potential for a community buy out at the Bays of Harris (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gnzl) Land Reform in Scotland: History, Law and Policy The Morven Woods buyout story *Since recording of interview, Andy Wightman no longer serves as MSP for the Scottish Green Party This episode of Landscapes is supported by the UKRI Landscapes Decisions Programme Get in touch at https://adamcalo.substack.com/about

18. 

    9 Feb 2021

    Landscapes Podcast Trailer

    As part of the work I’m doing with the Landscape Decisions Programme (https://landscapedecisions.org/), I’m producing a series of interview style podcasts about land. The motivation of the Landscapes podcast is a trend I have been observing where scientific explorations of root causes of social and environmental problems end up focusing on land, landscapes, and land governance. This occurs in a variety of domains … those concerned with affordable housing end up looking at land taxation policy, food system scholars point out the crucial role of farmland tenure, and climate scientists target property rights as a key “lock-in” that prevents deep mitigation or adaptation. This type of thinking, the scaling up of research questions to landscape level, is what the Landscapes podcast will explore. The first “season” of episodes will focus on learning from researchers from the humanities, law, social and biophysical sciences about how their thinking on how to study and intervene on landscapes. This might be considered the “theory” season, where I’ll try to tease out key logics underpinning land use and land use change. The second season will concern the stories from differing forms of contested landscapes in flux, in threat, and in reform. Landscapes aims to share stories about how re-imagining land is a precursor to delivering the types of social and ecological change required to address the most pressing problems of our time. Full show notes, relevant links and transcripts can be found on the podcast website or at https://adamcalo.substack.com I hope you enjoy listening to the podcast, I’d love to hear your feedback.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

12 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 42 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

53

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

77

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.