Waitrose Collaborative Training Partnership
Waitrose working to encourage sustainable food production
News
The use of insect exclusion mesh to protect soft and stone fruit from damage by SWD (Spotted Wing Drosophila)
Written by: Nick Buck & Michelle Fountain Background SWD is a fruit fly native to south east Asia capable of causing yield reductions by ovipositing in soft and stone fruit increasing fruit susce…
Sowing the Seeds of Society
Written by: Jessica Fostvedt Austin After a tedious number of years processing endless samples at the lab bench, I decided that my talents were best served in scientific writing, teaching, and outreac…
Soil Compaction: Quantifying Penetrative Ability
Written by Patrick Skilleter: In my blog post last year, I gave an overview on how soil compaction inhibits potato root growth and tuber quality by increasing the force required to overcome the soi…
Plant-Pathogen Interactions: How would plants survive amidst an epidemic?
Written by: Miranda Burke During the current crisis, everyone is facing difficulties. Amid a pandemic, the global population are being forced to adjust every part of our lives and undergo a complete a…
A Warm Welcome
Written by Amanda Weston The Waitrose Collaborative Training Partnership Administrator, Roz Wareing, has recently gone on maternity leave and I have taken over the role on a secondment basis fr…
Reflections and Looking Forwards
Written by: Prof Carly Stevens The last academic year was a very strange one, this time last year we had no idea of the challenges we would face. For students in the Waitrose CTP this has been especia…
Training people to provide food for the future
Lancaster University expands its innovative distance-learning postgraduate courses on global food security to welcome full-time students.
Soil Compaction: Why is it a Problem for Potatoes?
Written by Patrick Skilleter Soil is one of the most vital parts of any crop field. It provides crops with nutrients and water, gathered by their roots. A large root system increases the plant’s abi…
Alex Blomfield: Rathlin Island Placement
Rathlin Island supports Northern Ireland’s largest seabird colony and I’ve been lucky enough to do a placement at the RSPB’s Rathlin West Light Seabird Centre this summer. It has been a welcome …
Patrick Skilleter: Summer Training Event
In June of 2019, the second cohort of CTP students undertook their first summer training event, held at the University of Warwick over the course of three days. Dr. Rosemary Collier, director of the W…
Helena Ripley: Finding Joy in Lab work
Lab work is part of my PhD and, as with all aspects of PhDs it has its ups and downs. Some of the stages have been stressful, tedious and exhausting. But working in the lab also allows me to network w…
Megan McKerchar- Fruitful PhD Success
Written by Megan McKerchar, Ex Waitrose PhD Student and current Technical Manager at Worldwide Fruit I am fortunate enough to sit between research and the commercial world where I work for Worldwide F…
Nature’s Dangerous Decline IPBES Report
Staggering statistics released by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Key Statistics and Facts from the Report based on Food and Agriculture I…
Harbingers of Spring
Written by CTP Student, Alex Blomfield To me nothing represents the joy of spring-time like butterflies. With spring approaching I am looking forward to my second field-season studying the pearl-borde…
Attention: FREE LETTUCE
Part of my fieldwork this season involves trying to catch live aphids on lettuce from various parts of the UK. I would provide you with ~30 lettuces to grow in your garden and I would ask if you see a…
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