Exeter Food pechakucha seminar

The resources and a recording of this event are available for Exeter Food members on their members sharepoint site.

Natalia Lawrence- Associate Professor in Translational Medicine, Dept of Psychology

Training Emotional and Behavioural Responses to Food to Change Eating Behaviour

Unhealthy and unsustainable diets are a leading cause of premature mortality and environmental destruction. Getting people to eat less junk food and meat, and more fruit and vegetables is hard. Information provision via education campaigns and health or eco-labelling have limited effects. Building on findings from cognitive psychology and neuroscience, we have developed computerised ‘brain-training’ games that directly modify people’s emotional and behavioural responses to food and help them shift to a healthier and more sustainable diet.

Hugh Williamson- Research Fellow in Responsible Innovation for Digital Agriculture, Department of Management and Sarah Hartley- Professor of Technology Governance, Department of Management

Beastly Disruption or Responsible Transformation in Animal Agriculture? Stakeholder perceptions of digital livestock technologies

Digital livestock technologies have been positioned as offering new possibilities for improving the productivity, efficiency and sustainability of animal agriculture, yet they also raise a range of social and ethical issues for both people and non-human animals. Using an anticipatory focus group methodology, this research sought to identify the key hopes and concerns about digital technologies held by a range of stakeholders in UK animal agriculture. Drawing on this research, we have developed a framework for responsible innovation of digital livestock technologies.

John Lidwell-Durnin- Lecturer in History

Explaining Famine: Subsistence crises and the production of agricultural data in eighteenth century Britain

The eighteenth century witnessed periods of famine in Scotland and Ireland, as well as prolonged periods of scarcity and high food prices in England. For most of the century, the British government made no effort to compile agricultural statistics on food production, nor did it conduct a census to establish the population. When fears of famine struck England in the 1790s, a series of heated political debates resulted in the creation of the first 'Board of Agriculture', tasked with producing data on harvest yields and increasing production. My current research is focused upon understanding how this Board-- the first of its kind-- tried to separate and comprehend natural causes of shortages provoked by climate and weather, as well as so-called 'artificial' causes attributable to the food economy, transport networks, and (most importantly), greed. 

Okechukwu Okorie- RAEng Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Manufacturing, Dept of Engineering

Digital Technologies Enabling a Circular Food Supply Chain: The blockchain technology example 

Circular food supply chains are food supply chains that integrate the circular economy, helping to collect waste streams in order to recycle them into new products, a fundamental concept of the bioeconomy. Digital technologies such as, blockchain technologies has been suggested as relevant tools to enable the adoption of these circular food supply chains for food firms. This study shall investigate the barriers mitigating the adoption of blockchain technology in circular food supply chains and assess their impact on the operational effectiveness of the firm.