Third Exeter Food Network Mezze Seminar

You are warmly invited to attend this year’s third Exeter Food Mezze Seminar (a mixed menu of taster talks).

These seminars are designed to allow us to familiarise ourselves with the work of colleagues across the university with shared interests in food, to offer them valuable commentary, and to generate ideas for future collaborations.

The session will be held on Teams from 9:45-11:15 on Tuesday 20th May.

TEAMS LINK  Meeting ID: 380 631 966 692 Passcode: y9BU9kh6

The speakers, their topics, and brief abstracts appear below. Presentations will be short (7-8 minutes), followed by time for discussion of each. Please do join us online.

Lirong You, PhD student in Geography, UoE

Empirical Analysis and Model Evaluation of Winter Wheat Yield Response to Meteorological Factors in the North China Plain

This study evaluates the yield response of winter wheat to meteorological factors (mean temperature, extreme heat days, and precipitation) in the North China Plain using both observational data and multiple global crop models. The results reveal substantial differences among models, particularly in their ability to capture the negative impacts of heat stress. An improved version of the JULES-crop model, which incorporates heat stress into phenology, showed better agreement with observations in this region.

Claire Holleran, Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History, Department of Classics, Ancient History, Religion and Theology, UoE

Food Quality, Fraud, and Adulteration in the Roman World

This paper will consider the quality of the food available to the Roman urban consumer. It will reflect on food quality, examine the evidence for fraudulent sales practices, and explore some examples of the deliberate adulteration of wine and spices. In doing so, it will shed light on the effects of quality variation and food fraud on the daily lives of specific social groups and think about some of the ways in which they might overcome these issues in the marketplace.

Jenny Tunley-Price, Lecturer in Management (Sustainable Futures), UoE; and Director of Tamar Grow Local CIC

Developing resilience in the local food system: Tamar Grow Local CIC

The Good Food Loop: How we have pioneered a zero-waste wholesale food transport network in Devon and Cornwall. 

Grow, Share, Prepare: A new project aimed at people not currently in work or education who are interested working or volunteering in the world of food, farming and hospitality.  Activities will include growing fruit and vegetables, cooking fresh healthy produce to share with our community and gaining skills in relevant work place and well-being training.

Alex Hayward, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Ecology and Conservation, UoE

Mechanistic bioscience approaches to feeding the world

There are growing concerns over food security and our ability to feed an increasing global population. Research into mechanistic biosciences can offer new and more sustainable approaches for integration into agricultural systems. I will discuss ongoing work focussing on the genomics of resistance evolution in major agricultural pests, and technological approaches to sustainable marine and aquaculture food production.