Micro-plastics research project MINAGRIS now one year old.
MINAGRIS is one year old, and what a year it has been! The team have been busy working on a number of activities, from developing and launching our multiscale experiment protocol, to completing a Europe-wide sampling campaign across 11 case study sites.
Partners in the project have presented at seminars, conferences, and public events, and we have co-hosted two joint stakeholder forums with our sister project PAPILLONS. Team members have published the first papers affiliated with MINAGRIS. Meanwhile, we have produced several key deliverables, including developing the SoilPlastic citizen science app (available on Apple and Android).
We rounded up year one with our annual plenary, this year hosted by the Slovenian partners in Ljubljana. This was a fantastic opportunity to check in with each other, establish where we stand and plan next steps for a productive year ahead!
New blog post: Farmers give up using municipal compost due to high plastic content
We have a new blog post out from UK MINAGRIS partners at the CCRI. It shines a light on the problem of plastics in municipal compost, and the impacts of this on farmers and their soils. Seemingly well known in the agricultural community, in the wider public this issue is far from as well known as the issue of ocean plastics, yet it is likely to contribute to them. Read more here...
Minagris Featured in Swiss Independent Newspaper 'WOZ'.
"Snow does not often fall on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. But when it snows, it snows plastics. Together with the flakes, tiny microplastics fall out of the clouds - 4000 kilometers from civilization. It's a gift from the wind".
Independent swiss newspaper WOZ has visited Minagris partners at the University of Bern and FiBL. They have written an illustrative piece on the work of Minagris and microplastics situation globally. Click here for the original German language version, or here for an English tanslation.
Papillons x Minagris Joint Stakeholder Forum
Today we co-hosted the Minagris x Papillons' joint stakeholder forum on "Plasticulture: An International Perspective on Environmental Sustainability". This was a joint effort from our partnership with Papillons, another EU Horizon2020 funded research programme focussed on agri-plastics and soils.
Here, partners, stakeholders and organisations presented in Greece and online from across the world, including the FAO, UNEP, and European Bioplatics. They discussed plastics in agriculture, specifically in acricultural soils, both intentional and unintentional. There was talk of where these plastics come from, how they get there, why they are useful in food security, what harm they can do to plants, animals & microbes, and what the ramifications of this might be now and into the future.
We look forward to a thriving partnership with Papillions going forwards, and excited to read their findings as they emerge!
