Dennis Touliatos (Mentor)
I am a plant scientist at Lancaster Environment centre, Lancaster University interested in hydroponics, urban agriculture and vertical farming approaches.
Location Lancaster, UK
Activity
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Adenike Ogunshe
Hi Adenike, I am glad you enjoyed the course - what was your favourite part of it?
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to robert kamau
Hi Robert, thank you sticking out the course!
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Hi Jennifer,
thank you posting this, very interesting! -
Hi Christine and Stephen,
I, too, believe that promoting biodiversity and soil health, and using crop rotations in farming is independent of scale.@Christine, Maybe you could elaborate more on why you say that this approach may not be very useful in the Caribbean?
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Nell Baker
Hi Nell and Hannah,
Cuba is another example of where organic food can be cheaper- because of the high costs of inputs. -
Hi Jose,
this sounds good! could you provide some real world examples? -
Hi Cary, James, Marta and Carol,
some really good points raised here!
The food security – and sovereignty- issue is a very complex one. I believe in a holistic approach in addressing as many challenges as possible simultaneously and taking into account the individual needs and wants of different localities.
For example, producing more food in...
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Kerry Stuart
Hi Cary,
this is a very interesting point! how would you define what is harmful in advertising? -
Hi Robert,
very interesting point! I believe urban agriculture has a significant role to play in tackling these issues in cities. What do you think? -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Jackie Wood
Hi Jackie, Abiud and Cary
you might find these open access papers of interest:
Średnicka-Tober, D., Barański, M., Seal, C.J., Sanderson, R., Benbrook, C., Steinshamn, H., Gromadzka-Ostrowska, J., Rembiałkowska, E., Skwarło-Sońta, K., Eyre, M. and Cozzi, G., 2016. Higher PUFA and n-3 PUFA, conjugated linoleic acid, α-tocopherol and iron, but lower...
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Rex Thomas
Hi Rex, interesting point!
what would you suggest to reverse this trend? -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to John Payne
Hi John, interesting link! thanks for posting.
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to taban lorla
Hi Taban, interesting point! What about other ways to access quality and nutritious foods? for example growing your own - what are the drivers and barriers in this case?
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The Real Junk Food Project has recently opened UK’s first food waste supermarket called the "the warehouse" : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/first-food-waste-supermarket-uk-leeds-real-junk-food-project-a7317906.html
More about the Real Junk Food Project here:...
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Hi Cary,
this link is not working for me - it says the download is not available anymore.
what was it about? Maybe there is an alternative source? -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Cary Louise Clark
Hi Cary,
Here at Lancaster Environment Centre we are interested in all farming systems. For example on week 7 we will be discussing permaculture and local food networks – so watch this space!Also, you might find this video of interest https://youtu.be/ZS6IaLuHPGg in which cutting-edge remote sensing, using drones, is combined with traditional...
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Lorna Robinson
Hi Lorna,
this sounds interesting,
could you elaborate more on how to utilise GM procedures more? -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Ellie Kivneen
Hi Ellie,
good point!
could you provide some examples? -
Hi Jennifer, insecticides are one type of pesticide, specifically designed to kill insects.
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Hi Nyimanu, I will ask the technical team and let you know if it is possible to download the videos
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Hi Horst, according to the Hall Hunter Partnership website http://www.hallhunter.co.uk/GreatFruit.aspx
"The majority of our fruit is protected by polytunnels for at least part of it’s growing season. We use tunnels in order to provide them with the ideal growing environment and to protect the crop from rain damage. This enables us to reduce the amount of... -
Hi Leslie, this is a very good point! I hope you get some answers as the course unfolds
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Hi Ian, we will be discussing alternative food production systems such as permaculture during weeks 6 and 7 - so watchthis space!
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Hi Cary, good point! Week 3 of this course is all about soil - so watch this space!
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Hi Federico, this is a very good point - we will be discussing food waste in week 4 of this course- I am looking forward to hearing your comments and suggestions
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Roger Horne
Hi Roger and Charles, other examples of urban farms in the UK can include the Farm shop in Hackney http://farmlondon.weebly.com/farmshop.html and the Biospheric foundation in Manchester http://biosphericstudio.com/
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Jennifer Powell
Hi Jennifer, interesting article! thanks for posting. I would say ; not necessarily - this is just one approach, there is also a lot of progress, for example, toward agroecology and ecological farming approaches.
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Hi Edlira, this sounds very interesting! is it a research project that you are involved with?
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Hi Hussein, these are very good points! I hope you get some answers as the course unfolds.
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Hi Stephanie, it sounds good, what growing methods do you use?
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to the course, I am looking forward to all the interesting discussions.
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Britney Villhauer
Thanks Britney,
very interesting project. -
Hi Anthony,
yes, it was Norman Borlaug http://www.cimmyt.org/en/who-we-are/our-history -
Hi Alloys,
I couldn’t load the page, maybe you could try a different link? -
Hi Sarah,
can you open this one?
http://serenoregis.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/nature11069.pdf -
Hi Astrid,
this sounds like a great project, thanks for posting.
I think I found a video about it : https://vimeo.com/16450772 -
Hi Martin, this is a very good point!
You might find this paper of interest http://www.nature.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/nature/journal/v485/n7397/full/nature11069.html -
Hi Elizabeth, very interesting links.
Did you visit EXPO 2015? -
Hi Eric, thanks for posting this link.
The book can be found online as pdf http://www.appropedia.org/images/d/d3/Onestraw.pdf -
Hi Jan,
thanks for posting the link to Lawton's website, very interesting! -
Hi Susan, I couldn't access the video,
maybe you could post an alternative link? -
Transition groups also organize seed swaps
here is an example http://www.transitionedinburghsouth.org.uk/projects/grow-stronger/about/ -
Hi Ann,
good point,
what changes would you suggest? -
you might find this link of interest:
http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Chair-groups/Plant-Sciences/Laboratory-of-Entomology/Edible-insects.htm -
Hi Rwth,
yes, Incredible Edible Todmorden is great!
So do you suggest that guerilla gardening is a way to make farming more appealing to young people? -
Hi Susan,
you might find of interest this article about farmer Stephen Jones who after a decade of trials he can now grow and sell quinoa in the UK.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/quinoa-is-king-in-shropshire-the-ancient-andean-staple-of-the-incas-has-a-new-home-10515941.html -
Hi Francesca, this is a very good point.
How could farming become more appealing to young people?
Do you think farming in the city could help? -
Hi David,
this is very interesting, thanks for sharing.
it would be interesting to investigate what caused this change. -
Hi Sarah,
this is a very good point!
what type of initiatives do you suggest? -
Hi Elizabeth, it sounds like a great initiative
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Hi Alex,
interesting point, do you think there are ways to overcome this? -
interesting! thanks for posting
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Hi Jane,
there are various companion planting approaches used in many places around the world. -
Hi Mairi,
there is not a universal definition of what is local food and it varies from country to countryHere in Lancaster, UK according to the Growing Our Local Food Economy (GOLFE) project http://www.lessuk.org/page.php?secid=88&page=GOLFE+Project:
The local food definition used is:
Producers of ‘raw’ ingredients within 20 miles of Lancaster Town... -
Hi David,
interesting point, what would you suggest as an alternative? -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Su Masur
Hi Suk-Kyung,
interesting point, some argue that a plant-based diet could be the solution. You might find this article of interest: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/100/Supplement_1/476S.short -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to William Lock
Hi William,
maybe try with hydroponics? they require less physical work -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Steve oxbrow
very interesting, thanks for sharing
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Hi Rosey and Anna,
this is a very good point!
This discussion reminded me of Prof Elizabeth Shove's Extraordinary Lecture http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/shove/lecture/filmedlecture.htm
in particular after 14:09 -
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for posting this video, very interesting!
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Hi Rosamund,
you can control mint by planting it in containers in the ground -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to David Wardrop
Hi David,
sounds good! the Ethical Consumer's scoring takes into account nutritional facts such as high sugar and salt. I agree , in particularly with chocolate and coffee it is important to choose fairtrade. -
good idea!
here is a link with the Top 5 FREE Nutrition Apps for Your Smartphone http://nutritionlately.com/2011/06/13/top-5-free-nutrition-apps-for-your-smartphone/ -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Eunice Abbey
Hi Eunice,
this is a good point!
What type of information you would be interested to see on food labels? -
Hi Heather,
in Youtube videos you can have subtitles by clicking the subtitle choice at the bottom right corner of the screen.
Transcripts for future learn videos can be found under the video
by clicking on the View transcript link
here is an example https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-security/2/steps/27526#transcript-enHope this helps
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Organic food can be expensive but there are ways around this. For example here in Lancaster there is a community farm called Claver Hill where anyone can help if they want to and get "paid" in fresh organic veg. I usually spend a couple of hours there on Sundays and get all the veg I need for the week.
As Suk-Kyung mentioned , to do this it's key to have the... -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Martina R. Jones
Hi Ruth,
good point! we always we need to take a critical approach towards these sources -
One of the Keynote speakers was Rob Hopkins founder of the Transition Towns movement and the title of his talk was:" the 10 year transition experiment"
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Hi Ruby,
I changed the subtitles on Settings from French to English so I could understand it.
Very interesting video thanks for posting it -
Very interesting review, thanks for posting it
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very interesting link,thanks for sharing it
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Martina R. Jones
Hi Martina,
I agree you can learn so much from youtube videos. -
Very interesting! thanks for posting these links.
I was amazed that transition has been going for 10 years now. -
Hi David,
this is very interesting, thanks for sharing.
How could this trend be reversed? -
Hi Anthony,
Interesting point!
which crop could replace rice? -
Hi Lilian,
no, according to this recent paper http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=EN11084.pdf :
"By using different binding agents the range of
determinands has been extended from trace metals to include other cations, oxyanions and targeted species, for example sulfide, uranium, radium and technetium." -
Thanks Elizabeth, interesting link
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Katie Honea
Good point Katie,
I absolutely agree, also very interesting link. -
Thanks Eric,
very interesting! -
Hi Giovann,
Week 2 is about producing more food. It is important to take into account the environmental impacts of increased food production as it can have many adverse effects for the environment. -
Hi Elizabeth and Steve,
Who should do the monitoring?
What do you suggest? -
Interesting link, thanks for sharing
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Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Alex Dow
very interesting link! thanks for sharing.
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Hi Anthony, this is a good point!
Would you like to tell us more about the E.Coli incident and maybe post some links about it? -
Hi Ann,
very interesting, thanks for posting. -
Hi Tara, there is still time to catch up,
good points! -
Hi Anthony,
yes AD produces a biogas which is a mixture of methane, CO2 and traces of hydrogen sulfide and it can be used directly as fuel. -
Hi Miriam,
this is an interesting observation,
why would you say this happens? and I wonder what kind of research has been done on this? -
Hi Gifford,
This sounds interesting, could you present some of the limitations? -
Thanks Alexandra, very interesting links!
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Hi Stephen,
this sounds very interesting, could you provide a link? -
Hi Felix,
this is the focus of Professor Martin Parry's work.
CO2 enrichment is a common practise in greenhouses. You might find this link of interest: http://www.crophouse.co.nz/crophouse/pdf/CO2%20&%20Plant%20Growth%20-Nederhof-PH&G-may04-proofs.pdf -
Hi Iro,
there are very interesting points!
what do you suggest? -
Hi Arni,
you might find this link of interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWh8siDFgvo -
Hi Arni and Bronwyn,
it would be great if you could post some simple -open source- technologies to improve yield on this forum -
Hi Arni,
thanks for sharing this information, very interesting!
I assume many people - including me- on this course would very interested to hear more about the IPC UK 2015. -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Arni Janssen
Hi Arni,
the course is designed to provide a wide range of information in regards to food security. So in the following weeks we are discussing agroecology, permaculture, urban farming, reducing food waste and genetic engineering approaches, just to name a few. -
Dennis Touliatos (Mentor) replied to Winnie Aisha
Hi Winnie,
not only GMO's but also management manipulations such as agroecology for example. -
Hi Sisouvanh and welcome to the course,
we are just finishing Week 4 so there is time to catch up, I hope you enjoy the course. -
Hi Thomas,
I think you are referring to Ethylene Oxide which is definitely a carcinogen.Ethylene -which is what Jane is referring to in the audio- on the other hand is not carcinogen and it is a natural plant hormone. Almost all plants emit ethylene to the surrounding atmosphere.
You might find this book of interest:...
