Peter Jackson and Duncan Cameron of the University of Sheffield describe the vision behind the university's new Institute for Sustainable Food and how its interdisciplinary approach is impacting the food system .

The COVID‐19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of just‐in‐time food supply chains, the vulnerability of many communities to food insecurity and our reliance on migrant farm workers. But even before this latest crisis, it was clear that our current food system was unsustainable, facing a perfect storm of coinciding risks that demand truly interdisciplinary solutions. That is why we established the University of Sheffield's new ‘flagship’ Institute for Sustainable Food to provide real‐world solutions to some of the most challenging issues of our present times.

Climate breakdown is already impacting farmers’ ability to grow staple crops, as floods, fires, droughts, heatwaves and storms become more frequent and intense.

The soils that support all terrestrial life on Earth are being eroded by deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanisation and the climate crisis far faster than they can regenerate.

At the same time, the world demands more. The global population is estimated to reach 10bn people by 2050. Already, according to the World Health Organisation^[ 1^] , 462m adults are underweight while 600m are obese.

Collaboration in a complex food system

The crisis of food security touches every corner of the world, every part of government and every academic discipline. So at the Institute for Sustainable Food we are pioneering new ways of working together to deliver a more resilient system.

Our aim is to ensure everyone has enough healthy food to eat, produced in ways that restore rather than destroy the natural world. Recognising that this is a socio‐cultural challenge, just as much as it is a technical one, we are bringing together experts from across the natural and social sciences, arts and engineering, to spark holistic and innovative approaches. But we are also stepping outside our labs and lecture halls to collaborate with the food industry and farmers, who know the existing system best, to design practical solutions that work in the real world.

We are bound together by a unique vision that places the health of our environment, the healthiness of our food and the health of the global population at the core of our work. Fundamental to this approach is understanding the complexity of the agri‐food system as a whole – not just in terms of its separate parts. Often, this system is described as ‘farm to fork’ – suggesting growers simply drop their produce off at the supermarket, ready for us to eat. The reality is very different.

Understanding this complexity is critical for building a sustainable food future, as is recognising the sources of pollution generated by our food, sustainability trade‐offs and perverse outcomes embedded in the way we produce and consume our food. Collaborating with colleagues at Sheffield's Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, institute members worked across disciplinary boundaries to measure the environmental costs of our daily loaf for a study published in Nature Plants ^[ 2^] . Perhaps surprisingly, our work showed that it was not the baking or the transport of bread that generated the majority of greenhouse gases – the use of nitrogen fertilisers alone accounted for around 40% of the emissions. Armed with such information, we can begin to reconstruct supply chains to become more sustainable.

What farmers produce is influenced by the climate, their location, the state of their soils, government policies and subsidies, consumer demand, inputs like fertilisers and machinery, and so much more. Then there are connected industries including food processors, distributors, traders, retailers, restaurants and markets involved. And that is before we even consider the need to deal with all the waste – from manure to plastic – that the system creates. We have tried to map this system, in all its complexity, in a paper published in Food Security ^[ 3^] (see Figure 1). It is a distillation of our argument that we need a more integrated, holistic and interdisciplinary approach and that responsibility for change rests with all of us working together whether in government, industry or civil society.

If researchers work in silos, it is easy to overlook the impact seemingly small tweaks – like a new bee‐friendly pesticide – might have on the wider system, let alone to imagine how that innovation might be implemented. But if the chemist developing the pesticide collaborates with a farmer, an industry partner, a policy expert and a social scientist, they are far more likely to achieve real change.

The Institute for Sustainable Food enables researchers to make these connections – and it helps them to see their work in the context of the wider food system, to ensure everything we do moves us towards our shared vision.

The Institute is organised under three ‘research pillars’ focusing on:

• plant production and protection

• translational and transformative research

• food consumption, health and sustainability.

The key aim is to exploit opportunities for collaboration across the pillars, involving colleagues from all five of the University's faculties and stakeholders from government, business and the third sector.

Established just last year, we have already seen some incredible impacts from our collaborative projects here in Sheffield and around the world.

Food Network+

Dr Sonal Choudhary from the University of Sheffield's Management School has recently been awarded £1.2m to lead the second phase of the Science and Technology Facilities Council Food Network+, which will bring together industry experts, academics, farmers, consumers and policymakers to devise innovative ways to address food security challenges. This connection to a global network of experts will help to increase international collaboration and give our researchers access to advanced facilities, including cryogenics and artificial intelligence, on top of our own state‐of‐the‐art controlled environment and mass spectrometry facilities.

Desert Garden

In February, we launched another globally‐focused project with a public fundraising appeal to support our Desert Garden work with the University of Sheffield's Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures^[ 4^] .

Inspired by our scientists’ work to create polyurethane foams that can be used to grow food hydroponically, the team collaborates with Syrian refugees and UN aid workers in a camp in Jordan. The project helps refugees learn the skills to grow fresh herbs and vegetables using discarded foam mattresses from the camp. It has so far delivered training to over 1,000 refugees, helping to improve their mental health and access to fresh food as well as to green the harsh desert environment.

In return, the scientists have learned from the refugees about how to apply their technology in the real world and improve yields sustainably. A team in Sheffield has now applied those lessons to establish a hydroponic farm for our community, working with local charities to deliver training and fresh produce here too.

Desert Garden hydroponic system

The Institute has become a hub of expertise in urban farming – which, with the majority of people now living in cities, has so much potential to enhance food security, transform lives and improve our environment.

Young girl with basil

Urban farming

The Institute has become a hub of expertise in urban farming which, with the majority of people now living in cities, has so much potential to enhance food security, transform lives and improve our environment.

In March, a multidisciplinary team of our academics published a paper in Nature Food ^[ 5^] showing that growing food in just 10% of a city's gardens and other urban green spaces could provide 15% of the local population with their ‘five a day’.

The land suitable for growing fruit and veg includes parks, gardens and even flat roofs – which could theoretically become productive urban farms. But it takes the perspective of social scientists and local communities to realise this potential in a way that does not undermine access to much‐loved neighbourhood nature. The interdisciplinary approach meant the study also looked at how these changes could be made, through mechanisms such as local authority procurement rules.

The Institute makes holistic approaches like this possible – bringing academics designing urban‐scale growing technology together with experts in science communication and tackling food poverty.

Later this year, we will launch an urban minifarm in Sheffield to demonstrate how an old shipping container can help to feed a community with innovative self‐regulating aquaponics systems – where salads grow in fish tanks. Initiatives like this open up invaluable dialogue between academics and the public, generating vital feedback and attracting interest from policymakers.

Influencing food policy

Institute for Sustainable Food members are already directly influencing governments and helping to shape the future of agri‐food. At the request of the European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors, our Co‐Director, Professor Peter Jackson, chaired a European working group of international experts to look at building a sustainable EU food system. Their newly published report demonstrates the need for a transition towards a more circular economy through a combination of taxation, legislation, educational and behaviour change initiatives.

Healthy soil

We have also appointed the artist Anthony Bennett – who has used sculpture to explore the relationship between humans and fungi.

It highlights the challenges of public understanding and consumer acceptance of novel technologies, and the need to address power imbalances and coordinate both top‐down governance and experimental grassroots initiatives. It is designed to give politicians an overview of the latest research in this field, so they can develop evidence‐based policy. The Commission appears to be open to the ideas and arguments in the report, judging by its new strategy for sustainable food, launched as part of the Green Deal initiative.

Professor Jackson is also contributing to the UK's National Food Strategy, while fellow Co‐Director Professor Duncan Cameron has worked with industry to place innovations in soil biology in the hands of farmers and growers, for which he received the World Economic Forum's Young Scientist Award.

Food waste

We have established a strong link with WRAP (the Waste Resources and Action Programme), aiming to reduce food waste at all stages in the supply chain. Our work has included a co‐authored paper which seeks to evaluate ‘what works’ in terms of policies and practices at the household scale to reduce food waste and to encourage more sustainable behaviours. We have also worked with WRAP on a project to reduce single‐use plastic packaging in food retailing and other sectors in an EPSRC‐funded project led by polymer chemist Prof. Tony Ryan.

Public engagement

Engaging members of the public is just as important to the Institute as influencing those in power – and academics from the University of Sheffield's Faculty of Arts and Humanities are at the forefront of this work.

PhD Researcher and award‐winning composer Ryan Taylor has collaborated with Institute for Sustainable Food colleagues to produce an innovative multimedia performance, using music and video to challenge public misconceptions and reveal the true environmental impacts of fish farming.

We have also appointed the artist Anthony Bennett – who has used sculpture^[ 7^] to explore the relationship between humans and fungi – as an Honorary Research Fellow for environmental advocacy at the intersection of science and contemporary art. Anthony's work has been recognised internationally through his Refugerminate installation at the prestigious Usagi Gallery's Future of Food exhibition in New York. The Institute for Sustainable Food recognises that artists like Ryan and Anthony have a crucial role to play in bringing the public with us on our journey towards a food system that protects people and the natural world.

Vision

It is clear that 2020 is a watershed moment for our food system. As we emerge from the coronavirus crisis, with public and politicians more aware of its fragile nature and seeking to rebuild our economy, there is enormous potential to create something better. The UK's departure from the EU, opens up new challenges and opportunities where trade deals need to be secured without undermining food quality and safety for all our citizens. There is more scope for change than we have seen for decades.

At the Institute for Sustainable Food, we want to see moves towards more locally‐grown and seasonal food – with high‐tech urban farming systems providing training and job opportunities for communities hit by recession. We want the farmers who will continue to provide the bulk of our calories to be supported to work in partnership with nature, using precision farming technologies to improve the health of our soils and minimise damaging inputs. We want to see foodscapes that promote healthy choices, making them affordable and accessible to all.

Our vision might sound impossibly ambitious, but we believe that by working across disciplines and with a range of partners beyond academia, we can achieve real change.

中文翻译：

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团队合作应对粮食安全危机

谢菲尔德大学的彼得·杰克逊（Peter Jackson）和邓肯·卡梅隆（Duncan Cameron）描述了该大学新的可持续食品研究所的愿景，以及其跨学科方法如何影响食品体系。

COVID-19大流行暴露了实时食品供应链的脆弱性，许多社区对粮食不安全的脆弱性以及我们对移民农场工人的依赖。但是，即使在最近的危机发生之前，很明显，我们当前的粮食系统仍不可持续，正面临着需要真正跨学科解决方案的各种风险的完美风暴。因此，我们建立了谢菲尔德大学新的“旗舰”可持续食品研究所，为当今时代一些最具挑战性的问题提供现实的解决方案。

随着洪水，大火，干旱，热浪和暴风雨变得越来越频繁和加剧，气候崩溃已经在影响农民种植主粮的能力。

毁林，集约化农业，城市化和气候危机正侵蚀着支持地球上所有陆地生命的土壤，其生长速度远远超过了它们的再生速度。

同时，世界要求更多。据估计，到2050年，全球人口将达到100亿。据世界卫生组织^[ 1 ^]称，已经有4.62亿成年人体重不足而6亿肥胖。

复杂食品系统中的合作

粮食安全危机触及世界的每个角落，政府的每个部门和每个学科。因此，在可持续食品研究所，我们正在开拓新的合作方式，以提供更具弹性的系统。

我们的目标是确保每个人都能吃到足够的健康食物，这些食物的生产方式可以恢复而不是破坏自然世界。认识到这既是一种社会文化挑战，又是技术挑战，因此我们召集了来自自然和社会科学，艺术和工程领域的专家，以激发整体和创新方法。但是，我们还走出实验室和演讲厅，与最了解现有系统的食品行业和农民合作，设计在现实世界中可行的实用解决方案。

我们的独特愿景将我们的环境，食品的健康和​​全球人口的健康置于我们工作的核心，这使我们紧密相连。这种方法的基本原理是理解整个农业食品系统的复杂性，而不仅仅是在各个部分上。通常，该系统被称为“从农场到餐桌” –建议种植者只需将产品放到超市就可以吃了。现实是非常不同的。

认识到这种复杂性对于建立可持续食品的未来至关重要，因为认识到我们食品所产生的污染源，可持续性的取舍以及我们生产和消费食品的方式中所含的不良结果。该研究所的成员与谢菲尔德的格兰瑟姆可持续未来中心的同事合作，跨学科开展工作，以测量我们日常面包的环境成本，该研究发表在《自然植物》上^[ 2 ^]。也许令人惊讶的是，我们的工作表明，不是烘烤或面包运输产生了大部分温室气体-仅使用氮肥就占了排放量的40％。有了这些信息，我们就可以开始重建供应链以变得更加可持续。

农民的生产受到气候，地理位置，土壤状况，政府政策和补贴，消费者需求，肥料和机械等投入物的影响。然后是相关行业，包括食品加工商，分销商，贸易商，零售商，饭店和市场。在此之前，我们甚至还没有考虑处理该系统产生的所有废物（从肥料到塑料）的必要性。我们已经在《粮食安全》^[ 3 ^]中发表的论文中尝试绘制了这个系统的所有复杂情况。（请参见图1）。这是我们观点的一种浓缩，即我们需要一种更集成，整体和跨学科的方法，而变革的责任在于我们所有人无论在政府，企业还是民间社会中共同努力。

如果研究人员在筒仓中工作，则很容易忽略似乎细微的调整（例如新型对蜜蜂友好的杀虫剂）可能对更广泛的系统产生的影响，更不用说想像如何实施创新了。但是，如果开发农药的化学家与农民，行业伙伴，政策专家和社会科学家合作，则他们更有可能实现真正的改变。

可持续食品研究所使研究人员能够建立这种联系-并帮助他们在更广泛的食品体系范围内看待他们的工作，以确保我们所做的一切都能使我们朝着共同的愿景迈进。

该研究所由三个“研究支柱”组成，重点是：

•植物生产与保护

•翻译和变革研究

•食品消费，健康和可持续性。

其主要目的是利用各大学各部门的合作机会，让来自大学所有五个系的同事以及来自政府，企业和第三部门的利益相关者参与。

成立于去年，我们已经在谢菲尔德和世界各地的合作项目中看到了令人难以置信的影响。

美食网+

谢菲尔德大学管理学院的Sonal Choudhary博士最近获得了120万英镑的奖金，以领导科学和技术设施委员会食品网络第二阶段的工作，该网络将汇集行业专家，学者，农民，消费者和政策制定者，共同设计创新方法应对粮食安全挑战。与全球专家网络的这种联系将有助于加强国际合作，并使我们的研究人员能够在我们自己先进的可控环境和质谱分析设施之上访问包括低温和人工智能在内的先进设施。

沙漠花园

2月，我们发起了另一个面向全球的项目，呼吁公众筹款，以支持我们与谢菲尔德大学Grantham可持续未来中心的合作^[ 4 ^]。

受我们科学家创造聚氨酯泡沫的启发，该泡沫可用于水培食物，该团队与叙利亚难民和联合国援助人员在约旦的一个营地合作。该项目帮助难民学习使用营地废弃的泡沫床垫种植新鲜草药和蔬菜的技能。迄今为止，它已经为1,000多名难民提供了培训，帮助他们改善了心理健康，获得了新鲜食物，并使绿色的恶劣沙漠环境得以改善。

作为回报，科学家们从难民那里了解了如何在现实世界中应用他们的技术并可持续地提高产量。谢菲尔德的一个团队现在已经运用这些经验教训为我们的社区建立了水培农场，并与当地慈善机构合作在这里提供培训和新鲜农产品。

沙漠花园水培系统

该研究所已成为城市农业专业知识的枢纽–在大多数人现在居住在城市的情况下，该研究所具有增强粮食安全，改变生活和改善环境的巨大潜力。

罗勒的年轻女孩

都市农业

该研究所已成为城市农业专业知识的枢纽，目前大多数人住在城市，该研究所具有增强粮食安全，改变生活和改善环境的巨大潜力。

3月，我们的多学科研究团队在《自然食品》^[ 5 ^]上发表了一篇论文，表明仅在城市花园的10％和其他城市绿地中种植食物就可以为15％的当地人口提供“一日五”的服务。

适合种植水果和蔬菜的土地包括公园，花园甚至平坦的屋顶-从理论上讲，它们可以成为有生产力的城市农场。但是，它以社会科学家和地方社区的观点来实现这一潜能，而不会破坏人们对备受喜爱的邻里自然的获取。跨学科方法意味着该研究还研究了如何通过诸如地方政府采购规则之类的机制来进行这些更改。

该研究所使这种整体方法成为可能，使设计城市规模的增长技术的学者与科学传播专家一起解决粮食贫困问题。

今年晚些时候，我们将在谢菲尔德启动一个城市小型农场，以展示一个旧的运输集装箱如何通过创新的自调节共养系统来养活社区-鱼缸中种有沙拉。诸如此类的举措在学术界与公众之间开启了宝贵的对话，产生了重要的反馈并吸引了决策者的兴趣。

影响粮食政策

可持续食品研究所的成员已经在直接影响政府，并帮助塑造农业食品的未来。应欧洲委员会首席科学顾问小组的要求，我们的联合主任彼得·杰克逊教授主持了一个由国际专家组成的欧洲工作组，以研究建立可持续的欧盟食品体系。他们最新发表的报告表明，需要通过税收，立法，教育和行为改变计划相结合，实现向循环经济的过渡。

健康土壤

我们还任命了艺术家安东尼·本内特（Anthony Bennett）–他使用雕塑探索人类与真菌之间的关系。

它强调了公众对新颖技术的理解和消费者接受的挑战，以及解决权力不平衡，协调自上而下的治理和试验性基层倡议的需求。它旨在为政客提供有关该领域最新研究的概述，以便他们可以制定基于证据的政策。根据其作为绿色交易倡议一部分推出的可持续粮食新战略，该委员会似乎对报告中的想法和论点持开放态度。

杰克逊教授还为英国的《国家食品战略》做出了贡献，而共同主任邓肯·卡梅伦教授则与工业界合作，将土壤生物学的创新推向了农民和种植者手中，为此他获得了世界经济论坛的青年科学家奖。

食物浪费

我们与WRAP（废物资源和行动计划）建立了牢固的联系，旨在减少供应链各个阶段的食物浪费。我们的工作包括共同撰写的论文，该论文力求根据家庭规模的政策和实践来评估“有效的方法”，以减少食物浪费并鼓励更可持续的行为。在聚合物化学家Tony Ryan教授领导的EPSRC资助的项目中，我们还与WRAP合作开展了一个旨在减少食品零售和其他领域的一次性塑料包装的项目。

公众参与

公众的参与对研究所的影响与影响当权者同样重要-谢菲尔德大学艺术与人文学院的学者处于这项工作的最前沿。

博士研究员兼获奖作曲家赖安·泰勒（Ryan Taylor）与可持续食品研究所（Institute for Sustainable Food）的同事合作制作了创新的多媒体表演，利用音乐和视频挑战了公众的误解并揭示了养鱼业的真正环境影响。

我们还任命了艺术家安东尼·本内特（Anthony Bennett）–他是一名雕塑家^[ 7 ^]来探索人类与真菌之间的关系–作为科学与当代艺术交汇处的环境倡导名誉研究员。安东尼的作品在著名的纽约Usagi画廊的“未来食品”展览中通过他的Refugerminate装置获得了国际认可。可持续食品研究所认识到，像瑞安（Ryan）和安东尼（Anthony）这样的艺术家在将公众带入我们保护人类和自然世界的食品体系的旅程中可以发挥至关重要的作用。

视力

显然，2020年是我们粮食系统的分水岭。随着我们从冠状病毒危机中崛起，公众和政界人士更加意识到其脆弱的性质并寻求重建我们的经济，创造出更好的东西具有巨大的潜力。英国脱离欧盟，带来了新的挑战和机遇，需要在不损害我们全体公民的食品质量和安全的情况下确保贸易交易。比几十年来我们看到的变化空间更大。

在可持续食品研究所，我们希望看到转向更多本地生产和时令食品的趋势–高科技的城市农业系统为受衰退影响的社区提供培训和就业机会。我们希望将继续提供大部分卡路里的农民与自然界一起工作，并使用精确的耕作技术改善土壤的健康状况并减少破坏性投入。我们希望看到可以促进健康选择的美食景致，使所有人都能负担得起和使用。

我们的愿景听起来似乎不太抱负，但我们相信，通过跨学科并与学术界以外的众多合作伙伴合作，我们可以实现真正的变革。