Grantham Scholar Dr George Asiamah is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Sheffield working on EU/UK Environmental Policy, International Development and Sustainability. At the Grantham Centre his project assessed the capacity and outlook of UK’s scientific advisory system policy after Brexit.
The Windsor Framework and Agri-food Governance: What is New? In this blog from 2023, George argues that the Windsor framework is a welcome improvement of the #NIProtocol, but there is still more work to be done to address unfair competition and democratic deficit.
We interviewed George about his research and how he came to be in sustainability. In the interview George gives a brilliantly clear explanation of the main issues affecting the agri-food sector because of Brexit. Read: Brexit, Food & Science: Interview with George Asiamah.
Springer publishes pro-poor development strategies by Grantham Scholar. Grantham Scholar George Asiamah has chapter on pro-poor development published by Springer.
George attended the INGSA conference in Japan in 2018. In this blog George reflects on what came out of the conference. And he summarises how it can help us navigate evidence in a post-truth world. Read: Scientific Advice And The SDGs In A Post-truth World: INGSA 2018 by George Asiamah.
Asiamah, G. (2020). Pro-Poor Development Strategies. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) No Poverty. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69625-6_9-1
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Globally, agriculture and the agri-food sector are entangled with complex issues and a range of SDGs. These issues include food security (SDG 2), food safety (SDG 3), environmental protection (SDG 13, 14 & 15), biodiversity conservation (SDG 14 & 15) as well as climate change mitigation (SDG 13).
Growing complexity in the sector has fuelled calls to base policy interventions on scientific evidence so as to ensure optimum policy outcome. In order to be successful, this requires a strong and effective advisory system. Further, this system must be sophisticated enough to provide usable evidence at every stage of the policy-making process.
In the UK, the agri-food sector has long operated within the institutional and regulatory framework of the European Union (EU). For instance, since its inception in the 1960s the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy has controlled almost all major agri-food related activities. This ranges from land use to agronomic practice, through to nutritional quality, food safety, and trade. Further, key institutions and agencies – e.g. European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission – have served as major sources of expertise in the development of agri-food policies and regulations.
Now that the UK is leaving the EU, its access to this expertise may be restricted. Further, the current advisory system – which has been harmonised with the EU advisory framework for decades – will be affected. Does the UK have the capacity to produce credible and usable scientific advice to support the development of a sustainable agri-food sector? More importantly, will there be the political will to organise expertise to support agri-food policy-making, amidst the myriad political and economic challenges?
As a result, this project seeks to assess the capacity and outlook of UK’s scientific advisory system policy after Brexit. As such, the study will take a historical analysis of the interrelationship between the scientific advisory system in the UK and the EU – from sub-national to national and EU level – and agri-food policy-making.
In order to assess the current perspective of policymakers and stakeholders in the agri-food sector on the use of scientific evidence, a semi-structured interview will be conducted. Finally, a framework will be developed to strengthen UK’s science advisory system to support the development of viable agri-food policy that will meet the present sustainability challenges in the sector (SDG 1, 2, 3, 13, 14 & 15) after Brexit.