Sustainable & Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS)

Overview

The project is a multi-partner research consortium led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in partnership with the University of KwaZulu Natal; the University College London; the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); the Centre for Food Policy at City, the University of London; the Food Foundation; the University of Aberdeen; the Royal Veterinary College; and the Centre for Chronic Disease Control in India.

The primary aim of the Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) project is to provide policy makers with novel, interdisciplinary research evidence to shape future food systems policies that deliver nutritious and healthy foods in a sustainable and equitable manner. Overarching research questions of the SHEFS programme are: (1) “What components of the interactions between environment, food systems and health are critical for achieving sustainable and equitable health outcomes, and what sectoral and inter-sectoral policy options are most able to deliver healthy food systems in the face of future environmental and demographic change?”, and (2)“How can evidence-based policies be co-developed with stakeholders to improve access to sustainable and healthy diets for all?”.

People

• Carole Dalin UCL
• Sara Bonetti (UCL ISR)
• UCL CBER: Professor Richard Pearson; Vivienne Groner; Henry Ferguson-Gow
• UCL Statistics: Professor Richard Chandler; Dr Owen Nicholas

Impact

• The SHEFS project has led a range of engagement activities and published a series of policy briefs on sustainable and healthy food systems in the UK, India and South Africa.
• Key contributions are available here  https://shefsglobal.lshtm.ac.uk/get-involved/ 
• https://shefsglobal.lshtm.ac.uk/publications

Collaborators

SHEFS is a global research programme funded by the Wellcome Trust (running from 2017 to 2022) with three country case study sites: the United Kingdom, South Africa and India. The project is a multi-partner research consortium led by:

• The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in partnership with the University of KwaZulu Natal
• The University College London
• The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
• The Centre for Food Policy at City, the University of London
• The Food Foundation
• The University of Aberdeen
• The Royal Veterinary College
• The Centre for Chronic Disease Control in India

Outputs

The UCL ISR team has worked on the environmental sustainability of food production and trade in South Africa and at the global scale, covering notably greenhouse emissions, the sustainability of water resources use and impacts on biodiversity.

• Water sustainability of South African crop production under current and future climatic conditions (in prep.) https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-1659.html
• Impacts of Global Food Systems on Biodiversity and Water: The Vision of Two Reports and Future Aims. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332219301307
• The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32596-6/fulltext
• A review of the interactions between biodiversity, agriculture, climate change, and international trade: research and policy priorities http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucqbca8/Site/Ortiz2021oneearth.pdf
• Trading water: virtual water flows through interstate cereal trade in India https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abc37a/meta
• "More crop per drop": Exploring India's cereal water use since 2005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.304

The SHEFS project has produced a range of scientific publications and other outputs on sustainable and healthy food systems, available at https://shefsglobal.lshtm.ac.uk/publications/

Links

https://shefsglobal.Ishtm.ac.uk