91¸£Àû

, 3rd year (part-time) PhD student in the Centre for the History of Medicine, has just won the Postgraduate Paper Prize for the Social History Society's recent conference in London.

The paper was called 'Producer or consumer? The house, the garden and the sourcing of vegetables in Britain, 1930-1970'. It used women's and gardening magazines to explore the reasons why Britain did not become a nation of domestic vegetable producers, given the importance of nutrition in public health during the 1930s and 40s. The nutritional and hygienic health of the family in mid-twentieth century Britain was portrayed in magazines as the responsibility of women.

Housewives were the main decision makers regarding domestic food procurement. Advertising and articles in magazines encouraged them to purchase food from shops, not to take part in the 'dirty' job of growing it at home. 'Growing your own' was consistently portrayed as a practice for desperate times, due to unemployment or war, not a part of everyday life.

This paper thus provides historical and cultural context to present day efforts to create sustainable food systems. Sophie's PhD research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, is 'Growing well: Dirt, health and the home gardener in Britain, 1930-1970'. The full paper will be available on the Social History Society website shortly:

The 91¸£Àû is advertsing two PhD studentships to start in October 2017. These projects are part of a BBSRC-funded Collaborative Training Partnership (CTP) between the Waitrose Partnership, their international food production and supply companies, the 91¸£Àû, Lancaster University, the University of Reading and Rothamsted Research. Between 2017 and 2023, the CTP will deliver 20 four-year studentships on the themes of sustainable crop production, sustainable soil and water and biodiversity and ecosystem services in agriculture.

Both studentships advertised by 91¸£Àû are in partnership with and one is in partnership with members of the team at Rothamsted Research. Further details are here:

School of Life Sciences/91¸£Àû Crop Centre PhD student Daniel Wilson won first prize for his poster at the Royal Entomological Society Post-Graduate Forum held at Sheffield University on 2nd-3rd February. Daniel's project is funded by the Waitrose Agronomy Group and the 91¸£Àû. Daniel is seen here with fellow 91¸£Àû PhD student Victoria Woolley who also presented a poster.