Blog

Promoting more healthful food practices is a central goal for policy makers and health professionals in many high-income countries, but it isn’t easy to achieve.

Here at SEFARI, we strive to make the world more sustainable, greener, and equal and we’ve got an amazing team of people who make this possible. As its International Women’s Day, we’ve decided to highlight some of the work done by our female researchers and/or our research that is addressing key issues affecting women.

Over the centuries women have led the way in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) making life changing discoveries, especially here in Scotland. This International Women’s Day we’re shining a light on some of the inspiring women we have working with us at Gateway.

There is a well-known saying: "We are what we eat". But do we really know what we are eating? This is a difficult question to answer as in our interconnected and rapidly globalising world, getting food from farm to fork has become a complex and tangled web.

The rising cost of food is an issue that concerns and affects everyone. Recent food inflation figures indicate food prices have started to fall, however, prices remain high and particularly for certain foods.

The Scottish Government aims to become a global leader in sustainable agriculture, deliver high quality, nutritious food while minimizing impact on climate and our environment. This will clearly require a collaborative and inclusive approach to enable understanding of the competing issues and where different sectors can work more effectively together to achieve the required goals.

Overconsumption and high levels of resource use are challenges contributing significantly to the climate and biodiversity crises. Scotland is currently only 1.3% circular, meaning that over 98% of the products consumed in Scotland come from newly extracted materials, and only a small proportion of these materials are ‘cycled back’ into use in the economy.

To help a group of scientists and experts across Scotland’s Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutions (SEFARI) build their skills around media engagement, SEFARI Gateway recently funded two media training sessions with former senior editors who now specialise in media training and strategic content at Second City Creative.

We are well into the summer holidays and you might be dreaming of a desert island getaway. Well, look no further. It’s time to pack your bags and join us on Solarpunk Island!

One important and often overlooked aspect of PhD training is the chance to meet other researchers in the same or similar field as you, allowing for knowledge exchange and the forging of new connections.

Therefore, when the opportunity to visit other institutes across SEFARI arose, Karen wanted to capitalize on this. In this blog, find out about Karen’s experience as part of the SEFARI Gateway PhD Exchange Scheme - SEFARI’s second student to make the most of this opportunity.