Research centres
The Centre for Food Policy
  1. PhD students
Food Policy

Rosalind Sharpe

PhD

The social dimension of sustainability, as it is being interpreted and implemented in food supply chains

Education & work

  • Currently PhD research student, Centre for Food Policy, City University, London
  • MA Food Policy, Thames Valley University
  • MA (Hons) English Language and Literature, Oxford University

I worked in journalism and publishing for 20 years between my first and second degrees; I then worked at Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, and as a researcher at the Centre for Food Policy and at nef (the new economics foundation) before embarking on my PhD.   

The study

Rosalind SharpeThe notion of sustainability emerged in policy circles in the 1980s and was so swiftly and widely adopted that some commentators now see it as a hopelessly ambiguous or subverted term. But it remains a dominant idea - not least in food policy, where a slew of strategies attest to government, corporate and civil society determination to achieve a more sustainable food system. Since at least the appearance of the Brundtland report in 1987, sustainability has been understood to involve environmental, economic and social aspects, of which the social is the most ambiguous. My research investigates  how 'social sustainability' is being interpreted and put into practice in the food supply.

Why it matters to food policy

Food policies from all sources almost invariably now include sustainability as a goal. (For example Food 2030, published in 2010 as the then government's 'vision' for the food system, used the words 'sustainable' 'sustainability' and 'sustainably' 191 times in 84 pages.) The social dimension is usually explicitly mentioned, and seen as integral to efforts to improve sustainability, despite the fact that there is very little clarity or agreement about what it means, or how it might be attained or measured. My research aims to shed light in this area.

Publications

Sharpe, R. (2010) An Inconvenient Sandwich: The throwaway economics of takeaway food. London: the new economics foundation.

Barling, D., Lang, T. & Sharpe, R. (2010) "The re-emergence of UK National Food Security on the policy agenda: sustainability challenges and the politics of food supply", in Lawrence, G, Lyons, K. & Wallington, T. (eds.) Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability: New Challenges, Future Options, Earthscan: London, pp 61-78.

Barling, D., Sharpe, R. & Lang, T. (2009) "Traceability and ethical concerns in the UK wheat-bread chain: from food safety to provenance to transparency", International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 7 (4): 261-278.

Barling, D., Lang, T. & Sharpe, R. (2008) "Addressing the challenges of UK national food security", Living Earth, 234: 14-19

Barling, D.,Lang T, and Sharpe R (2008) "Food Capacity: the root of the problem", Royal Society of Arts Journal, CLIV (5533): 22-27

Sharpe, R., Barling, D., Lang, T. (2008) "Ethical Traceability in the UK Wheat-Flour-Bread Chain" in Coff, C., Barling, D., Korthals, M. & Nielson, T. (eds.) Ethical Traceability and Communicating Food. Dordrecht: Springer, pp 125-165.

D. Barling, Sharpe, R. & Lang T. (2008) Re-thinking Britain's Food Security: report for the Soil Association.

D. Barling, Sharpe, R. & Lang T. (2008) Towards a National Sustainable Food Security Policy:  A project to map the policy interface between Food Security and Sustainable Food Supply: report for the Esmée Fairburn Foundation.

R. Sharpe, Barling, D. & Lang, T. (2006) Final report on the investigation into ethical traceability in the UK wheat-flour-bread supply chain: report for DG Research, European Commission, Framework V1: Science in Society.

Research projects

National sustainable food security in the UK. Esmée Fairburn Foundation 2007-8 (research assistant).

Ethical Traceability and informed food choice (5 nation collaboration): Study of traceability and ethics in the UK wheat-into-bread supply chains. EU 6th framework research programme (Science and Society - 4 Deepening the Understanding of Ethical Issues) 2004-7 (research assistant).

Research interests

Food sustainability, ethics, equity, governance and standards.