Research.
My broad interests are centered on the nexus of global sustainability, systems literacy, and food - Agroecology or Ecoalimentology. My current research focuses on sustainable food systems transformation and redesign.
Current food systems have departed from a sustainable niche in terms of planetary boundaries, human health, and animal welfare. My work seeks to reimagine, redesign, and achieve sustainable, equitable, and socially just food systems.
Current food systems have departed from a sustainable niche in terms of planetary boundaries, human health, and animal welfare. My work seeks to reimagine, redesign, and achieve sustainable, equitable, and socially just food systems.
Alternative pathways to sustainable future food systems
Swedish Food Systems in a Globalized World Postdoctoral Researcher Mistra Food Futures - Dr. Line Gordon Stockholm Resilience Centre Stockholm University We are working to develop scenarios of the Swedish food system, with a particular focus on how they are interconnected with changing international systems. We are developing quantitative analyses based on the qualitative scenario work in the Mistra Food Futures program from Food as Industry, Food Tech or Culture, or even Food Forgotten? A report on scenario skeletons of Swedish Food Futures.
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Appetite for Change : Incorporating novel and future foods in sustainable diets and food-based dietary guidelines
PhD E-Thesis Future Sustainable Food Systems - Dr. Hanna Tuomisto Department of Agricultural Sciences University of Helsinki What will our future diets look like? What impacts will future dietary shifts have considering environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability? We are using life cycle assessment data to optimize and model diets which include novel/future foods (e.g., insects, mycoproteins, lab-grown plants/meats), legumes, and High Nature Value livestock products. Such foods are purported to have lower environmental impacts or generate other ecosystem benefits (e.g., biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, soil remediation). We are investigating if these foods can meet nutritional needs while lowering the environmental impacts of whole diets. My PhD thesis aimed to achieve an integrated, evidence-informed, and explicit understanding of protein alternatives in sustainable diets and, ultimately, to contribute to transition to genuine sustainability on a much-contested issue of healthy diets from sustainable food systems. What is the prospect for dietary changes to meet sustainable food systems goals of environmentally-sound, nutritious, culturally-appropriate, and socio-economically just futures? Exploring trade-offs among environmental impacts and diet quality in a population-based study
Leg4Life - Dr. Chiara Lombardini Department of Economics University of Helsinki Working Group 5 - Impact of legume production and consumption on the environment, society and the economy Assessing the performance of High Nature Value (HNV) farming systems to support sustainable, healthy, and climate-neutral
Ph.D. Research Visit, France French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) – Drs. Bertrand Dumont and Ferderic Joly MS-Nutrition – Drs. Rozenn Gazan, Florent Vieux, and Mattieu Maillot |
Sustainability in international food-based dietary guidelines: creation of a systems thinking framework for developing food guidelines and policy
M.Sc. E-thesis Public Health and Urban Nutrition Lab – Dr. Jennifer Black Faculty of Land and Food Systems University of British Columbia Sustainability in food policy and dietary guidelines is increasingly a focus of researchers, international organizations, and governments. A framework is suggested to aid the development of national food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) with sustainability consideration. This study analyzed FBDG or support documents used by fifteen countries from four continents and examined how sustainability was included according to a framework of sustainability in food policy. Health and nutrition dominated the FBDG sustainability concepts included, however, health was included in interconnected and complex ways with other domains through simultaneous consideration of food security, agriculture, markets, or sociocultural and political contexts. This framework can serve as a tool for countries interrogate ways to incorporate sustainable diet considerations in FBDG. Examining the connections between school food programs and the food environment with students’ dietary practices and well-being
Public Health and Urban Nutrition Lab – Drs. Jennifer Black and Sinikka Elliott New Westminster School District Faculty of Land and Food Systems University of British Columbia Evaluating the equity, accessbility, perceptions, and sustainability of a universal, cost-shared school food program. |
Assessing the use of food waste biochar as a biodynamic plant fertilizer
Collaborative Research in Sustainability Research Fellow – Dr. Michael Farris Environmental Studies and Biology Departments Hamline University This project aimed to identify productive uses for food waste to limit the amount added to landfills and the production of greenhouse gasses. Converting food waste into a useful product, biochar, would reduce environmental damage and provide other benefits. Biochar is a charcoal-like substance produced from plant material. Converting food waste into a useful product could mitigate environmental damage through reduced landfill inputs and greenhouse gas production and would provide other benefits to soils. We asked (1) if biochar improved plant growth and (2) if the effects of biochar varied among different samples of mixed food waste (batches) and between different biochar preparation times (treatments). Specifically, this study addressed if using food waste as feedstock for biochar would yield fertilizer equivalent to commercial fertilizers. This process could work toward effective management of waste and reduce human dependence on synthetic fertilizers. The in-home method of producing biochar could promote the reduction of poverty through increased crop yields. |
Short-term effects of nutrient addition and herbivore exclusion on biomass coverage of functional types in tundra grassland ecosystems of Northern Finland
Global Nutrient Network Project – Dr. Risto Virtanen Department of Biology University of Oulu The long-established practice in ecological investigation of isolated, single-site experiments has provided only limited ability for considerable understanding of issues that are essential for the response of ecological systems to global-scale anthropogenic manipulations in an environmental context. In working to address this daunting challenge the Nutrient Network was set up by Borer et al. (2013). This study is an experimental network that is distributed globally and is working in collaboration with more than 75 sites in almost 20 countries. This project is intended to develop the essential ability to integrate local information gathered in individual site studies and unified in a global study to make accurate predictions about how factors affect spatially- and temporally-diverse biological systems. Borer et al. (2013), in setting up and outlining the process for the Nutrient Network, intended their project as a model that works to empower the scientific community members all over the globe to begin to take advantage of implementing widely ambitious and distributed experiments that function to advance the understanding and predictive power of the community in terms of biosphere-level ecological trends and responses. My study focused on a one-site part in this larger network of global investigation. The objective of my study was to examine the immediate effects of various nutrient treatments and herbivore exclusion on biomass functional type coverage. This was done comparing a single study site in Kilpisjärvi, Finland before nutrient addition or herbivore exclusion and after. |
Alumina nanoparticle synthesis for surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Assistant – Dr. Melissa Fierke Chemistry Department Hamline University |
Latent (quiescent) time properties of human colonic crypt cells and development of colon cancer
Research Assistant – Dr. Olaf Runquist Chemistry Department Hamline University |