University of Oxford
11a Mansfield Rd
OX1 3SZ
UK
Valentina Caldart
Background
Research Interests
I’m interested in building a solid knowledge base for developing efficient sustainability policies and improving the food sector. I’ve studied nutrition at university for 5 years, as I wanted to learn as much as possible about the relationship between food and human health. After reading the EAT-Lancet report “Food in the Anthropocene”, I started thinking in terms of planetary health: I was fascinated by the concept of “win-win diets”, which are both healthy and environmentally sustainable, and I started to realize that in most cases the food patterns that are the healthiest for us are also the healthiest for the planet.
By developing the HESTIA platform, I want to consolidate agri-environmental data and facilitate knowledge exchange in the food and agriculture sector, as I think this is the first step to build a food system which promotes the health and wellbeing of the Earth and all its inhabitants.
Current Research
I’m currently working on the HESTIA Farm Sustainability Toolkit Project. In particular, I am contributing to the development of HESTIA, an open-access platform that allows researchers and producers to store data on the productivity and sustainability of agricultural products in a structured and standardized way. My main responsibilities include growing the data volume on the platform (by uploading published and unpublished datasets and supporting other researchers during the upload process), keeping the glossary and schema up-to-date, and integrating existing impact assessment methods (such as ReCiPe and LC-Impact) into HESTIA.
As a personal project, I am working on a global review of the environmental impacts of nuts, to help identify the ones with the most favorable environmental profile.
Brief CV
Professional experience:
2022/03-present
University of Oxford,
Research Assistant – Agri-Environmental Data Lead
2022/01-2022/03:
Beijer Insitute of Ecological Economics,
Consultant for the FORMAS SeaWin project
2021/03-2021/12:
WorldFish,
LCA Consultant
2020/08-2021/01
Refarm’d,
Food scientist intern
Education:
2017-2019
Master’s degree in Human Nutrition, University of Pisa
2013-2016
Bachelor’s degree in Science of Nutrition, University of Urbino
Links to groups/projects/related sites
https://www.hestia.earth/
https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/food-sustainability-analytics/