Sustainable Food

We approach the challenge of transforming food systems for people and the planet using a variety of approaches. This includes big data on agri-environmental impacts, food system modelling, scenario analysis to understand pathways to e.g., net zero emissions in food, behavioural science, biodiversity surveys and monitoring, and information communication toolkits.

Our research cuts across outcomes that link with global sustainability targets such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To date, our research has investigated topics such as the climate, biodiversity, human health, and animal welfare impacts of food systems.

A key theme underlying our projects is how to communicate scientific information to food system stakeholders (consumers, producers, civil servants, policy makers, food corporations, etc) to motivate and enable sustainable decision-making. This includes having developed several information communication platforms and toolkits, such as HESTIA, the FoodMetric Tool, and the Farm Sustainability Toolkit.

We work with: farmers, businesses, organisations that interact with food, policy makers, civil servants, consumers.

Here are some publications that represent the breadth of our work. For a more complete list of publications, please see individual researchers’ profiles.

A. Calvo, P. J. G. Henriksson, E. J. Milner-Gulland, H. Travers, and J. Poore, “ The Fragmented Landscape of Shrimp Life Cycle Assessments: Uncovering Methodological Dependence and Analytical Blind Spots,” Reviews in Aquaculture 18, no. 2 (2026): e70132, https://doi.org/10.1111/raq.70132.

Martinić, O., Magrin, L., Poore, J. et al. Environmental impacts of intensive beef fattening: a case study in the Veneto region, Italy. npj Sustain. Agric. 4, 35 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44264-026-00151-y

Martínez-Ramón, V., Bromwich, T., Modernel, P., Poore, J. and Bull, J. (2025), Alternative Life Cycle Impact Assessment Methods for Biodiversity Footprinting Could Motivate Different Strategic Priorities: A Case Study for a Dutch Dairy Multinational. Bus Strat Env, 34: 2128-2138. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.4072

Taylor, I., Bull, J.W., Ashton, B. et al. Nature-positive goals for an organization’s food consumption. Nat Food 4, 96–108 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00660-2

M. Clark, M. Springmann, M. Rayner, P. Scarborough, J. Hill, D. Tilman, J.I. Macdiarmid, J. Fanzo, L. Bandy, & R.A. Harrington, Estimating the environmental impacts of 57,000 food products, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 119 (33) e2120584119, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2120584119 (2022).