On Wednesday Ruth Segal and Rachael Taylor gave the weekly SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex) Seminar, introducing BSUFN and the innovative way we work to foster community and academic collaborations.
In line with the collaborative and participatory nature of BSUFN, the seminar began by asking attendees to tell us what they think ‘food research’ is and what topics it covers.
This is some of the topics the seminar-attendees listed:
- Food allergies, health and nutrition
- Global and local value chains
- Social policies e.g. community gardens
- Sustainability
- Food security
- Interdisciplinarity
- Food as a way to tackle other issues e.g. health, poverty
- Concentration of ownership; social enterprise and different organisational forms
- Spatial and social environments – including obesogenic dynamics
- Waste management
- Power
- Land, water and energy – nexus issues
- Meanings attributed to foods, advertising and marketing, culture and control
This list identifies many highly diverse topics which are related to food. Despite this diversity, many of the interest areas of current BSUFN members were not raised by seminar attendees. This word cloud presents a selection of key-words taken from BSUFN members’ areas of interest.
Brighton and Sussex Universities Food Network 