Nutrition, human health and natural resources

We seek to resolve the conflict that results from the competing demands of human food production and ecological sustainability. While much research has been devoted to each of these, a new cross-disciplinary approach will focus on the delicate balance between the two.

Our research aims to:

• explore competition between humans and wildlife for grazing land
• balance the human nutritional and economic benefits of intensive aquaculture with the need to protect vulnerable marine resources.

Our work applies a systems approach to understanding the complex trade-offs that arise when human nutritional needs impinge on the needs of the natural environment, and vice versa. Our diverse research group includes agriculturalists, global health nutritionists, legal experts, nutritional ecologists, specialists in systems theory, veterinarians, and wildlife biologists.

Our work will offer management strategies that balance the conflicting, but crucially important needs of humans and ecological sustainability.  

Our work will have a local, national and global impact. It has particular relevance to developing countries, where rapidly growing populations are placing unprecedented pressures on natural resources

Internal collaborators

• Dr Sinead Boylan
• Dr Gabriel Machovsky-Capuska
• Professor Phillip Leong
• Associate Professor Bronwyn McAllan
• Professor David Raubenheimer (Project Node Leader)
• Professor Stephen Simpson
• Dr Hayley Stannard

External collaborator

• Dr Scott Carver, University of Tasmania