Sustainable Integration of Low-Carbon Production and Consumption within the Food System

As the world transitions to low carbon systems across all sectors, dramatic changes will be required across our society to reach our net zero targets. The food system, which is currently estimated to be responsible for 20-30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is one where particular urgency is required. Mohareb et al (2018) found that urban areas have strong influence over the majority of emissions in an industrialised food system. For example, decisions around the carbon-intensity of electricity generation can have a substantial impact food system carbon-intensity, given how ubiquitous electricity demand is throughout the supply chain and points of consumption. Further, production practices can be contrasted for their carbon benefits; for example, more labour-intensive agroecological approaches must be compared with more capital intensive precision agriculture. Further, there is limited knowledge on how more sustainable food production systems might be integrated into our current urban systems, and how access to these might improved.

This research project incorporates topics that explore the quantification of food system GHG emissions from both a producer's and consumer's perspective, towards understanding food system configurations that enable triple bottom line sustainability in delivering high-quality nutrition to consumers. Topics to be explored include GHG mitigation from food manufacturers, the role of urban food growing (including peri-urban agroecological approaches, such as forest gardens, agroforestry, silvopastoral systems) in improving food system sustainability performance, as well as topics examining the life cycle implications of dietary choices. Frameworks to be used include life cycle sustainability analysis (i.e. integrating environmental LCA, social LCA, and life cycle costing) and material flow analysis. Fundamentally, this project seeks to explore the sustainability implications of radical reconfigurations of the food system.

For informal enquiries please contact: Dr Eugene Mohareb e.mohareb@reading.ac.uk

Eligibility requirements:

Applicants should hold a minimum of a UK Honours Degree at 2:1 level in a numerate discipline, ideally with a relevant MSc qualification. Quantitative analysis skills, experience on food systems-related research/degree as well as sustainability topics.