Come along for a bite to eat and to hear from Dr Kathrin Lauber about corporate power in the food system and from Dr Jay Burns about biodiversity policy. Also, find out about SCAF activities and opportunities.

Venue: In person at the Edinburgh Futures Institute or online (zoom)

Date & Time: Thursday 24th April 2025, 12.30 - 13.45 pm, with networking lunch at 12pm.

12.00 - 12.30pm - Networking Lunch
12.30 - 12.40pm - What can SCAF do for you?
12.40 - 13.45pm - Seminar

This event is linked with the SCAF Open Day - drop in anytime between 10 and 5pm to network, discuss emerging opportunities, find out about SCAF activities, and explore the SCAF Food Lens Exhibition. The day is designed to encourage making connections and to foster collaboration and creativity. All are welcome - researchers, practitioners and members of the public! 

Register here

 

Dr Kathrin Lauber: Corporate power and the challenge of creating healthy, sustainable food systems 

Dr Kathrin Lauber is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow based at the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Policy Unit. She is interested in the forces that shape public policy at the intersection of public health and climate, with food as a focal topic. Since receiving her PhD from the University of Bath in 2022, Kathrin’s interdisciplinary research has explored commercial influence, power and the role of evidence in policymaking, as well as the ways in which decision-making processes shape these dynamics.

Kathrin’s talk will illustrate why corporate power presents a core challenge to food systems transformation. After briefly introducing different ways in which we can understand power within the food system, she will concentrate on animal agriculture for a deep-dive into these dynamics. To do so, she will draw on examples from global and European contexts. Focusing in particular on power within political spaces, Kathrin will explore key actors, their strategies, and how these interact with wider political tensions about the mitigation of negative impacts of animal agriculture.

 

Dr Jay Burns: What is nature to you? And why that shapes our future?

Jay is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Edinburgh with an interest in food systems. He’s spent the past year developing new knowledge on scenarios and modelling for achieving global biodiversity goals and targets, including to model drivers and impacts of land use and land use change, with substantial links to the food system. 

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) targets were established to guide country-parties (e.g., UK) to a nature positive future. KMGBF targets include, for example, the protection of 30% of land and sea by 2030 (30x30). However, the implementation of these targets depends on the values underpinning their interpretation; what nature should be protected and how? Using narrative scenarios, Jay's talk will demonstrate inherent trade-offs when interpreting the KMGBF using distinct value perspectives of the Nature Futures Framework (NFF): Nature for Nature, Nature for Society and Nature as Culture. But how does it shape our future? This talk will also present scenario modelling of the global land system based on NFF interpretations of the KMGBF, with outcomes that include global impacts on biodiversity patterns, food security, human health and ecosystem processes. 

 

First published: 26 February 2025

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