Sustainable Food Production Research Group

Delivering food security sustainably from catchment to coast
A tractor mowing a field in a coastal area
 
Sustainable Food Production is a cross-disciplinary group of academics and their research teams who together study all aspects of food production and its impact on the natural environment. Creating systems for long term food security while maintaining ecosystem services and biodiversity is a key global challenge. We work on productive systems in marine, freshwater and land-based environments taking a data intensive approach to understanding the issues.
We welcome formal and informal enquiries from prospective postgraduate students, post-doctoral researchers, visiting academics and industry or other end-user partners to work with us at Plymouth. Please contact research group leader Dr Jennifer Rowntree for further details.

Research themes

Plant productive systems - cereal field Plant productive systems
 Our research encompasses plant physiology, plant health, secondary metabolites and species interactions. We are interested in how plants respond to stressors, and in the development and use of controlled environments for pharmaceuticals and food.

Mussels Animal productive systems
 We work with terrestrial, freshwater and marine animals researching how movement, behaviour, nutrition and pollution impacts animal welfare, food production and the wider environment.

Infra red photo of a curly horned sheep Automation and sensor technology
 We are developing technology to measure and assess productive environments from catchment to coast. With these tools we are tracking movement, assessing behaviour and health, monitoring environmental conditions and estimating biodiversity.

 
 
 
 
 

Can freshwater crabs be a sustainable food source?

Maintaining food security in India is an ongoing challenge. University of Plymouth research, led by Dr Lucy Turner, investigates the aquaculture potential of freshwater crabs, which are frequently harvested for trade and consumption in the Western Ghats region. Working with collaborators Nitte University and the National Centre for Biological Science, the project hopes to offer a social-economically and ecologically sustainable food which can be resilient to climate change and disease.
 
 
 

Meet our team

Academic staff

Research and technical staff

 
 
 

Further study