The Research Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Food (SURF) carries out world-class research into food geographies - with a special attention for the role of cities and regions.
The Research Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Food (SURF) carries out world-class research into food geographies - with a special attention for the role of cities and regions.
It builds on the interdisciplinary expertise of our long–established food research community at the School of Geography and Planning and Sustainable Places Research Institute to promote research, teaching and post-graduate training in the area of sustainable urban and regional food systems.
Aims
- To design and take forward interdisciplinary and path-breaking research on urban and regional food systems.
- To provide a focus for the School’s already extensive policy, advisory and stakeholder engagement activities from global (FAO, European Commission, WFP and UN-HABITAT) to national/local (DEFRA, Scottish and Welsh Government) work.
- To disseminate research that contributes to meet today’s grand challenges about food security, sustainability and justice.
- To support the training, career development and funding of researchers working on sustainable food systems.
We aim to be an international reference point for academic research on (and positive political/practical action for) food and urban and regional development. We integrate and generate new research on governance, development and policy strategies relating to food sustainability, security and justice in both developed and developing countries.
Specifically, our current work focuses on:
- The opportunities for (and barriers to) to food security and sustainability.
- The implications of food policies on the spatial and socio-economic relationships between different actors in the food system and between rural and urban areas.
- The development effects of strategies that address the welfare and health needs of the human and animal population.
Our staff also have expertise and research interests in the relationship between conventional and alternative food networks, food consumption practices, the interplay between global and local food systems, community food growing, food policy and governance, public food procurement, food justice, animal geographies, and the community food sector.
Selected publications
There was an error in processing data returned back from the API: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0.
| Project name | Funded | Investigator(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Enabling the potentials of green growth: Stigma removal from pro-environmental business and consumer behaviour | The Finnish Academy, 2019-2025 | Herman, PI: Minna Kaljonen (Finnish Environment Institute). |
| FOODTRAILS: Building Pathways Towards FOOD 2030-led Urban Food Policies | European Commission, Horizon 2020 Programme, €14 million, 2020-2024 | Sonnino and Milbourne |
| Evaluation of Food Power | Sustain 2018-2021 | Pitt |
| Drafting of the Framework for the Urban Food Agenda | Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, $28,000, 2017-2018 | Sonnino (Expert advisor) |
| FOOD 2030 Expert Group | European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, €12,00, 2017-2018 | Sonnino (Vice-Chair) |
| Transmango: Assessment of the impact of drivers of change on Europe's food and nutrition security | European Union, 2014-2018 | Sonnino, Marsden and Moragues Faus |
| Farmers’ confidence in vaccines for bovine tuberculosis | DEFRA, 2010-2015 | Enticott |
| Assessment of the application of the EU 2010 directive on meat chickens’ welfare | DEFRA, 2012-2014 | Miele |
| An exploration of factors that influence the expansion of the area affected by endemic bTB | DEFRA, 2012-2014 | Enticott |
| Urban, Peri-Urban and Regional Food Dynamics: Towards an Integrated and Territorial Approach to Food (PUREFOOD) | European Commission, 2010-2014 | Sonnino |
| Pilot EU Centre on Animal Welfare and Research Network | EUWelNet’ EU DG-Sanco, 2013 | Miele |
| Biodiversity and Food Security: Developing Collaborative Policy for Seagrass Conservation | Darwin initiative for UK Overseas Territories Challenge Fund, 2012-2013 | Smith (participant) |
| Community action for climate change: Pathfinder learning review | Welsh Government , 2012-2013 | Franklin |
| Assessing Sustainability in the Context of Food Security | Joint Research Centre, European Commission, 2012-13 | Sonnino and Moragues Faus |
| Knowledge Brokerage Activities to Promote Sustainable Food Consumption and Production: Linking Scientists, Policymakers and Civil Society Organizations (FOODLINKS) | European Commission, 2011-2013 | Sonnino and Morgan |
| Growing a Healthy Older Population: Community and allotment gardening amongst older people in South Wales | National Institute for Social Care and Health Research, 2011-2013 | Milbourne |
| Action Research: Solidarity Purchasing Groups in Valencia | Generalitat Valenciana, Spain, 2011-2013 | Moragues Faus |
| Participation of small farmers in fair trade initiatives in Latin America: collective action, governance and social capital | Centre for Cooperation and International Development-UPV, 2011-2013 | Moragues Faus |
| The halal meat market in Wales, potentials and barriers | Welsh Government, 2012 | Miele |
| Sustainable agri-food systems and rural development in the Mediterranean Partner Countries (SUSTAINMED) | European Commission, 2011-2012 | Moragues Faus (participant) |
| Forecast for the Future: Scaling Up the Community Food Sector | Plunkett Foundation, 2010-2012 | Morgan and Sonnino |
| Planting Spaces, Growing Places: Community gardening in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods in the UK | Cardiff University, 2008-2012 | Milbourne |
| Community Grown Food in Wales | Welsh Government, 2010-2011 | Milbourne |
| Cultures of veterinary regulation | ESRC, 2008-2010 | Enticott |
| Veterinary Capacity in Wales | Welsh Government, 2008-2010 | Enticott |
| Framework of Action for the Urban Food Agenda | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, £21,727.00 | Sonnino |
| Implementing healthy and sustainable catering in Scotland's public sector | Scottish Government, £22,510 | Sonnino |
| CERTAIN: Certification evaluation toolkit and methods for inspiring consumer trust in food producers | British Academy, £9,540 Cardiff University Seedcorn Funding £6,640 | Sanderson Bellamy, Baker, Herman |
| Study on food in cities – innovation for a sustainable and healthy production, delivery and consumption of food in cities | Commission of the European Communities £7,804 | Sonnino |
| The power of Fairtrade: Resilience, ethical development and wine networks | The Leverhulme Trust | Herman |
| Knowing to Grow: Increasing the Resilience of Plant-centred Food Production Skills | European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government, £120,000 | Pitt |
| The role and interplay between private and public governance within the land-coastal zone-sea interface and the impact on food security | British Academy, £311.371 | Baker, Sanderson Bellamy and Cullen-Unsworth |
Director
Academic staff
Professor Kevin Morgan
Professor of Governance and Development
- morgankj@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6090
Dr Andrew Williams
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, PhD Admissions Tutor
- williamsapj@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2068 8680
Visit the School of Geography and Planning Events page if you're interested in related topics.
Food Mapping
The Cardiff University Food Research Collective, together with partners, is running a series of workshops to collaboratively transform the Welsh food system and launch the Wales Sustainable and Just Food System Network Survey. This work aims to support a better understanding of the people, organisations and partnerships across Wales, who are working towards a sustainable and just food system, as well as highlighting where there are well-linked activities and where gaps might exist (geographically, in policy terms and with respect to resources). The results of an online survey will inform the development of a Wales Sustainable and Just Food System Network Map, which will be an open resource that anyone can interact with to support their activities.
This first workshop marks the start of a 12-month period of collaboration between food system stakeholders to create and enact an action plan for building a just and sustainable food system in Wales. After participating in this first workshop, we hope that you will join us in this process. This will include a further three workshops, occurring every three months, with some ongoing activities between workshops to continue to progress decided objectives. As a key stakeholder working towards food sustainability, health and/or food justice in the Welsh Food System, we would value your collaboration. The workshops will cultivate discussion and collaboration on topics such as: partnership building across the food system network; developing action plans according to collectively identified priority themes; applying for funding to support these action plans; and enacting action.
Past events
Appetite for Change
In October 2019 WISERD co-hosted a collaborative workshop with the Sustainable Places Research Institute and the Wales Governance Centre to discuss the environmental and social justice considerations of food systems in Wales. The event brought together a range of experts – including policy makers, civil society activists and other stakeholders to assess the major challenges facing current food systems, and to identify pathways towards creating a more sustainable and socially just system in Wales and beyond. The event was recorded by our fantastic visual facilitator Laura Sorvala.
Brexit and the future of food and farming
This event examined the impacts and possible future scenarios arising from Brexit in the food and farming sectors.
Since June 2016, the process of leaving the EU has highlighted the complex ways the farming and food sectors are connected to Europe through markets, regulation and policy. Brexit will require new systems of rural development, agricultural subsidies and ecosystem services, and new rules to address the sector's reliance on overseas labour.
Based on research with key stakeholders within the food and farming sectors over the last year, School of Geography and Planning's Professor Paul Milbourne, Professor Kevin Morgan and Dr Gareth Enticott and Dr Rebecca Sandover (University of Exeter) examined the key challenges facing food and farming, the potential future directions for food and farming and the views of overseas labour on Brexit currently working in the UK.
Big Hunger
In Big Hunger, author Andrew Fisher argued that many key anti-hunger advocates are missing an essential element of the problem: economic inequality driven by low wages. His research finds that efforts to end hunger, reduce obesity, and reform farm subsidies are compromised by corporate interests.
Andrew Fisher has worked in the anti-hunger field for twenty-five years, as the executive director of national and local food groups, and as a researcher, organizer, policy advocate, and coalition builder. He has led successful efforts to gain passage of multiple pieces of federal food and nutrition legislation. Andrew Fisher was joined by a panel of practitioners and academic experts, including Katie Palmer, Food Cardiff, and Eleanor Sanders, Trussell Trust Cardiff, to discuss the challenges facing the anti-hunger movement in the UK and the opportunities for building a progressive food justice movement.
