Agriculture and food research at the Centre for Sustainability includes investigations into:
- Agricultural sustainability
- Agri-food dynamics
- AgriTech
- Food and farming systems
- Māori food systems
Lead researchers' interests and projects
Professor Hugh Campbell
Professor of Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology, School of Social Sciences
Professor Hugh Campbell has research interests in the social and economic dynamics of ‘greening’ food systems, the politics of sustainability under neoliberal governance, achieving sustainability via audits, food waste, transitions in agriculture and food systems in New Zealand, and theories of global food regimes.
Email hugh.campbell@otago.ac.nz
Projects
- Good Animal
- Protein 2.0
Dr Karly Burch
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Sustainability
Dr Karly Burch has research interests in the fields of science and technology studies (STS), environmental sociology, and the sociology of agriculture and food. She has a deep passion for collaborative, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, and strives to enact research which opens up discussions on food, technology and the environment in ways that attend to the complex social and material heterogeneity imbued within these intersecting topics.
Email karly.burch@otago.ac.nz
Projects
Professor Merata Kawharu
Research Professor, Centre for Sustainability
Professor Merata Kawharu (Ngāti Whatua, Ngāpuhi), has research interests that have over-arching themes of supporting Māori leadership, community and education. She has focused in areas such as land and water, capability building, climate change resilience, and connections to ancestral marae by young Māori.
Email merata.kawharu@otago.ac.nz
Current postgraduate agriculture and food research projects
Postgraduate students research projects contribute hugely to the advancement of sustainability research. Read more about their work:
- Developing sustainable Hokiana Kai Systems (Barnes)
- Food Waste at the production stage of the food value chain. (Croad)
- MaaraTech: Artificial Intelligence in Orchards and Vineyards (Ndaka)
- The political nature of food banks. (Cresswell Riol)
- The relationships between kainga, kura, food production and sustainability in the face of a changing environment (Davies)
- To See the City for the Weeds: exploring urban foraging in Dunedin/Ōtepoti (Virens)
Recently completed agriculture and food research
Recent work from both our researchers and postgraduates.
- Agriculture and Energy (Fitzgerald)
- Fighting for Food Safety in Post-Fukushima Japan. (Burch)
- Maori Women and Food sovereignty (Stein)
- New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard
- Social Capital and Small holder Dairy Farming resilience(Kresna)
