Professor Mark Reed’s new post is part of the N8 Agri-Food Resilience Programme (N8 AgriFood) which is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) catalyst fund and by the N8 universities – the eight key research intensive universities across the North of England. 

This interdisciplinary research programme combines world-leading crop and livestock research with extensive expertise in social sciences in a single research initiative. The programme is focused on ensuring the stability and integrity of national and global agri-food supply chains in the face of environmental and socioeconomic challenges.

Feeding a growing population in an era of environmental change

Professor Reed said: “Feeding a growing population in an era of environmental change is a huge task for the people that manage our land, both here in the UK and across the globe.  Technical innovation is one vital element – but how we use that innovation is also key in ensuring we can produce the food we need in a way that maintains resilience across the whole range of functions we take from our landscapes including clean water, flood control, carbon storage, biodiversity and the green spaces that are essential for human physical and mental health.”

Professor Reed is already developing a programme of research on climate change with colleagues at the N8 AgriFood team at Leeds, and builds on existing research collaborations in seven out of the eight N8 universities.  His research focuses particularly on sustainable food production and resilient food chains.

He explained: “I believe that much of the current work on sustainable food production under-emphasises the potential trade-offs with other services that landscapes provide for us, and would like to redress this through my research for the N8. 

“I have a lot of experience in research that integrates local and scientific knowledge to come up with new ways of dealing with problems. This might include rediscovering historic ways of doing things, such as rain-water harvesting for irrigation, or scientific technical solutions that are co-produced with stakeholders, such as simple vegetation survey protocols for monitoring Greenhouse Gas fluxes after peatland restoration.  The latter can give hill farming communities access to carbon markets and provide new sources of income.

“I’m also interested in the whole range of potential for public-private partnerships involving payments for farmers and landowners who are delivering not only food but other vital services from their land such as clean water.  The challenges and the possibilities are immense and I’m very much looking forward to working with colleagues across a range of natural and social sciences on these kinds of approaches.”

Professor Reed joins a high profile team of agri-food researchers at Newcastle University and Fera’s Institute for Agri-Food Research and Innovation. He will also be part of Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy in the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.