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Contemporary livestock farming & watercourse pollution: a citizen - WU0112
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Description
Contemporary livestock farming and watercourse pollution - a citizen's jury perspective
The overall aim of this project is to employ a Citizens` Jury technique to come to an independent assessment of the real and perceived risks associated with livestock farming for water quality, with specific reference to the Taw Catchment, North Devon. In particular, the project will involve:
• a staggered programme of debate, presentation and fieldwalking over 3 days in which a representative panel of the general public (a jury) are exposed to the current evidence base surrounding livestock farming and water quality;
• a process of deliberation, in which the public panel form a collective judgement on the issue: “Contemporary livestock farming: are our watercourses at risk from FIOs?”;
• a process of reporting, in which jury convenors communicate the implications and findings of the research for regional and national policy makers;
• a final report assessing the value and potential for applying the Citizens` Jury technique more widely to Defra`s work.
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Objective
Introduction
The Citizens’ Jury approach has been widely recommended as a means of engaging the general public in issues that directly or indirectly impinge upon their quality of life. It reflects trends towards more participatory and deliberative forms of environmental management within processes of policy formation and decision making; one defined by the active inclusion of people and groups with different, often competing, claims over the management of an environmental process/problem. It is argued that a Citizens’ Jury approach is an effective way of: anticipating problems and conflicts with policy visions; diffusing the burden of responsibility over environmental controversies; building trust and consensus among stakeholders groups; as well as minimizing the possibility of ‘losers’. This project will employ a Jury approach in order to connect emerging scientific evidence on the pollution of food chains and water courses by FIOs to public understandings and assessments of environmental risk. It is designed to help inform national and regional policy priorities in a high profile and innovative way and is informed by scientific research currently taking place under the auspices of the BBSRC, ESRC, NERC and Defra Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) funded project ‘Sustainable and holistic food chains for recycling livestock waste to land`, (Project code RES-224-25-0086) and led by researchers at the Institute of Grassland Research, University of Exeter and University of Lancaster.
Jury participants and their roles
The Citizens’ Jury will involve two key sets of participants, Witnesses and Jurors. Securing the participation of witnesses and jurors constitutes our first milestone.
Witnesses are individuals/organisations charged with informing the jury on matters of which they have particular knowledge. They provide the evidence and opinion base upon which deliberations and judgments are made. Witnesses will include representatives of the agricultural community; farmers from across the regional sector; Government departments and regulatory bodies; pressure and interest groups; as well regional policy makers and local authorities; and researchers with specific expertise of FIOs (See Box 1 Below). A significant element of this evidence base will be insights from previously funded Defra work (e.g. Project Code WAO656). The witnesses in this project will perform three tasks:
• First, they will provide a witness statement in advance of the Jury. This is a one page statement that clarifies backgrounds, interests and investments in the issue.
• Second, and where appropriate, they will provide written/numerical/pictorial evidence in advance of the Jury event.
• Third, they will orally present their case/evidence at the jury event.
Jurors are members of an ‘indicative’ public who are responsible for assessing the evidence surrounding the issue at hand. They are responsible for listening to the evidence, interrogating witnesses over the moral and methodological issues that underpin evidence, and ultimately, forming a collective judgment about the stated dilemmas. The oral recommendation/verdict will be communicated at the event; the written within a week of its completion.
We will use the electoral register to secure the participation of Jurors. Positive replies will be progressively sorted to create a balanced demographic profile. Replies will be sorted first according to geography, then according to gender, age and ethnicity.
The Dry Run
In order to ensure that the Citizens’ Jury event will be a success the project team will hold a one day “dry-run” event alongside preparation for the full Jury. This will be a much smaller, internal event, taking place at the University of Exeter and chaired by Professor Michael Winter. Jurors will be drawn from Master students at the University taking the MSc in Sustainable Development. A small number of external witnesses will be invited but this is essentially an ‘in-house’ event. This will be a useful way of testing our methodology and reflecting on good practice for the full Jury. Completing the “dry run” constitutes our second milestone.
The Pre-Jury Event
Jurors will attend a pre-jury event where they are introduced to the process and what expectations the convenors have of them. Jurors will be provided with the witness statements and a summary of their written/numerical/pictorial evidence. Jurors will also be provided with supplementary materials that can guide and contextualise their understanding of the evidence. The pre-jury event constitutes the third milestone.
The Jury Event
The event will take place at IGER’s North Wyke research station and will involve a staggered programme of debate and presentation over 3 days where jurors will be exposed to a range of stakeholder and policy views about the relationship between contemporary livestock farming and water quality. The structure of the event is detailed in Box 2 below. Its completion constitutes our fourth milestone
While this event is specifically concerned with making an assessment of the real and perceived risks associated with livestock farming for water quality in the Taw Catchment, North Devon, we seek to use this project as a ‘test case’ for developing a Citizens’ Jury approach more widely within Defra’s work. Thus, a final report critically assessing the value and implications of the approach is the fifth and final milestone of this project.
General Organisation
The Jury Facilitator takes overall operational responsibility for the event and the steps leading up to it. The facilitator of this event will be Dr Robert Fish of the University of Exeter. He will be supported in his work by Professor Michael Winter (Exeter) Professor Louise Heathwaite (Lancaster) and Dr David Chadwick (IGER).
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Project Documents
• Final Report : Contemporary livestock farming & watercourse pollution: a citizen's jury perspective
(312k)
• Final Report - Annex : Contemporary livestock farming & watercourse pollution: a citizen's jury perspective
(51k)
• Final Report - Annex : Contemporary livestock farming & watercourse pollution: a citizen's jury perspective
(806k)
• Final Report - Annex : Contemporary livestock farming & watercourse pollution: a citizen's jury perspective
(186k)
• Final Report - Annex : Contemporary livestock farming & watercourse pollution: a citizen's jury perspective
(144k)
• Final Report - Annex : Contemporary livestock farming & watercourse pollution: a citizen's jury perspective
(80k)
• Final Report - Annex : Contemporary livestock farming & watercourse pollution: a citizen's jury perspective
(133k)
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Time-Scale and Cost
From:
2007
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To:
2007
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Cost: £19,740 |
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Contractor / Funded Organisations
University - Exeter |
Keywords
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Fields of Study
Water Quality |
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