Agri-Food Economics and Social Science

Uniting research on agriculture, environment and behavioural economics

The UK’s largest collective of applied economists and social scientists focused on the agri-food sector, the Agri-Food Economics and Social Science Research Division undertakes multidisciplinary research across the broad food chain. This encompasses food and agriculture policy, health and nutrition, and the environment.

Our applied research incorporates agricultural, environmental, and behavioural economics, focusing on issues central to higher and lower-income countries. These include: how to provide sufficient, safe, and nutritious food; the impact of agriculture on the environment; and, managing natural resources such as tropical forests for both livelihood and ecological benefits.

The applied nature of our work, in collaboration with NGOs, community groups, and national and international organisations, ensures that we have real-world impact. On a local level, our research benefits the communities that we work with. Globally, our academics are involved with major groups including the UK’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs; the Food and Agriculture Organisation; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development; and the European Commission.

research highlights

Spurring world action to save bees

Bees and other pollinators are in trouble because of climate change and habitat loss – which is bad news for many reasons, least not because we rely on them for many of our fruit and vegetable crops. Professor Simon Potts and the Reading Bee Team work globally to highlight the value of pollinators, find out which species are in trouble and what's causing them to decline and find solutions to safeguard the future of pollinators. Professor Potts’s work with the UN is driving global action by growers, land managers, beekeepers, government agencies, NGOs and the public, helping to safeguard the sustainability of global food production.

Defining the true value of bees

In the UK, research by Dr Mike Garratt and colleagues has helped discover exactly which pollinators do which jobs, their economic worth, and how farmers can best support them. The team’s work has closed knowledge gaps, shaping DEFRA’s National Pollinator Strategy (NPS) for England from the outset. Companies that supply 70% of the UK’s top fruit market have also made changes to protect and enhance pollinator habitats, based on Dr Garratt’s evidence that better pollination boosts crop yields and quality.

Pioneering prebiotics for improved gut health

Reading food scientists led by Professor Glen Gibson have made great strides in our understanding of prebiotics – fuel for the ‘good’ bacteria in our guts – shaping health policy and benefiting the health of consumers worldwide. The pioneering research, including over 50 studies, has led to the development of BiMuno, now an established prebiotic product used by consumers worldwide for treating traveller’s diarrhoea.

Healthy food for a healthy heart

Researchers led by Professors Jeremy Spencer and Gunter Kuhnle have demonstrated how certain polyphenols, called dietary flavonoids, are absorbed and metabolised by the human body, including how their consumption can improve blood flow and protect against heart disease. This research is being used to develop and optimise the formulation of commercial ‘heart-healthy’ drinks and to improve product labelling in the vitamin and supplement industry.

Healthier milk with a lower carbon footprint

Changes in the purchasing policies of a major milk processor and a major retailer have led to thousands of dairy farmers across the UK and EU changing the ways they farm to produce dairy products that are lower in saturated fats and have a lower carbon footprint, thanks to food science research at Reading led by Professors Julie Lovegrove and Ian Givens.

Extreme heat damaging our health and economy

A Reading researcher was part of a group of leading doctors, academics and policy professionals to have contributed analysis to The Lancet medical journal's landmark report, The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change. The 2018 report showed that rising temperatures as a result of climate change are already exposing us to an unacceptably high health risk and warned, for the first time, that older people in Europe and the East Mediterranean are particularly vulnerable to extremes of heat, markedly higher than in Africa and SE Asia. Read more.

'Polluter pays' food tax would hit poor the hardest

Research from Reading has shown that taxing foods based on the greenhouse gas emissions they produce would hit poorest households the hardest. That is because lower income households spend a larger share of their food budget on emission-intensive foods – such as meat – than their wealthier counterparts. Less well-off households also tend to buy cheaper products which means they would see a greater price hike on their weekly shop if emissions-based food taxes were to be introduced. See the original paper, which won a 2018 Research Outputs Prize for the Food theme, and read a blog post about the work.

Protecting rural livelihoods

A researcher at Reading has been working on forest management and forest tenure reforms in Tanzania for over ten years. Working closely with the NGO Tanzania Forest Conservation Group, the Environment for Development Tanzania Initiative, and the University of Dar es Salaam, this collaborative research into how changes in forest governance affect rural households’ livelihoods and forest ecosystem services has reached a broad audience of policy makers and practitioners.

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Global elite

Agriculture at the University of Reading has been ranked among the global elite and is the top UK institution in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023. Find out more.