Brooke doing her thing at the NB-LL meeting in Jan, 2024
Today’s blog post comes from PDF Brooke McWherter based on her recent trip to NB
The annual New Brunswick Living Lab (NB-LL) meeting and workshop brought together government, industry, NGO, and producer stakeholders to discuss the year’s progress in the development and running of the NB-LL. Before the start of the event, Atlantic representatives from other living labs in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and PEI, came together to discuss their progress in measuring the socio-economic impacts of the program. The different representatives highlighted the strong bond among the Atlantic provinces and their commitment to collaborating and continuing to support each other as the living labs continue to evolve and grow. At the event talks included discussions on current trials measuring the impact of various BMPs on soil health, and carbon sequestration.
Our MREM intern Patrick James presented his work, funded by the SSHRC Engage Program, examining co-production and engagement of LL producers and federal scientists. Patrick’s talk highlighted how challenging co-production can be for all sides, but also the steps members are taking to be flexible including working with farmers to collect data that doesn’t deter from their harvesting schedules. I then ran a workshop defining co-production and providing some tips for enhancing engagement moving forward which then led to developing logic models (an objective-oriented planning tool) around the five BMP foci of the program. Producers, government staff, site contractors from various watershed and conservation organizations, and industry reps discussed the outcome form the program they wanted and identified activities and capacities they may need to develop to achieve those objectives.
Patrick James (centre) with the NB Living Labs team, including FaRM Program collaborator and CFGA ED Cedric MacLeod
