Who we are
TABLE is run by a small core team, with one full-time researcher and one research director based at each of the three partner universities.
We are grateful for the extended Table community that includes LEAP, SLU-Future Food, and WUR-Dialogue Centre.
Core Table staff
Helen Breewood,
University of Oxford
Helen Breewood is a Research and Communications Officer at Table. Helen holds an MEng and BA in Chemical Engineering via Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge. During her MPhil at the University of Manchester, she used life cycle assessment to calculate the environmental impacts of meals prepared in a canteen. She also worked on Maastricht University's project to create the world's first lab-grown burger. Helen blogs about global sustainability problems and solutions at The Progress Motive.
Walter Fraanje,
Wageningen University & Research
Walter Fraanje is the Research and Communications Officer for Foodsource. He holds an MSc in Environmental Policy (cum laude) from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and a BA in Philosophy and a BSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from the University of Groningen. Before joining FCRN, Walter was the content coordinator of an EDx MOOC on ‘Co-creating Sustainable Cities’ (Wageningen University and AMS-Institute). As an environmental sociologist, he is interested in sustainable consumption studies and social and political questions underlying food system sustainability. He aims to understand if and how changes in people’s day-to-day lifestyles and (collaborative) consumption practices can contribute to sustainable development.
Matthew Kessler, Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences
Matthew Kessler grew up in New York, USA disconnected from agriculture and how food ended up on his plate. After five years of working on and managing farms, a BSc in Environmental Sciences with concentrations in forestry and sustainable agriculture from Warren Wilson College and a MSc in Agroecology from Norwegian University of Life Sciences, he pays a bit more attention to where food comes from! Matthew is a Research and Communications officer at Table and currently sits in the Department of Energy and Technology at Swedish University of Life Sciences. He has a particular interest in what catalyses food system transformations (e.g. policy, climate, markets, movements, etc.) and who is being served by those changes.
Table's research directors
Dr Tara Garnett,
University of Oxford
Tara has worked on food for over 25 years within both the NGO and academic sectors. Since 2012 she has been a researcher at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, a fellow of the Oxford Martin School and part of the Wellcome Trust-funded LEAP project. In 2005 she founded the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN), Table’s precursor. During the 15 years of its life, the FCRN conducted, synthesised, and communicated research at the intersection of food, climate, and broader sustainability issues.
Tara has a degree in English Literature (University of Oxford), a Masters in Development Studies (School of Oriental and African Studies) and a PhD from the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey. In 2015 she was awarded the Premio Daniel Carasso for her work.
Dr Jeroen Candel,
Wageningen University & Research
Jeroen Candel works as assistant professor in the Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen University & Research. He holds a bachelor in Public Administration and Organisational Science and a master in Public Governance (cum laude) from Utrecht University as well as a PhD in 'Putting food on the table: the European Union governance of the wicked problem of food security'. He is interested in emerging forms of food and agricultural policy and studies these by using public policy and governance theories. Beside his research, Jeroen coordinates and teaches introductory courses on Public Policy and Governance and European Union politics. Furthermore, he is a columnist for Foodlog and member of the Dutch Council on Animal Affairs.
Dr Elin Röös, Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences
Elin Röös researches and teaches about sustainable food production and sustainable land use from many different angles. These include assessing the environmental impact of different foods using life cycle assessment (LCA), calculating the climate impact and land use associated with different types of diets and comparing environmental impacts of different farming and food systems. She also works on many interdisciplinary projects looking at the economic and information policy instruments for more sustainable dietary patterns and how more sustainable and healthy food ingredients can be produced and processed.
Other Table collaborators
Dr Annsofie Wahlström is the Programme Director of SLU Future Food, which funds Table. She holds a PhD in Animal Nutrition and Management. She has worked on research and development in cooperative and commercial settings both nationally and internationally for several years before joining Future Food at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Prof Gert Spaargaren is Professor of Environmental Policy for Sustainable Lifestyles and Consumption in the Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University. His main research interests are in environmental sociology, sustainable consumption and behaviour, and globalisation of environmental reform.
Prof Jamie Lorimer is Professor of Environmental Geography at the University of Oxford. He is an environmental geographer whose research examines the production of environmental knowledge, and how this knowledge comes to shape the world around us. He focuses on powerful understandings of nature and their consequences for human and nonhuman life across different spatial scales. Recent research projects have explored these questions in relation to rewilding, the microbiome and the rise of plant-based eating.
Samara Brock is pursuing her PhD at Yale’s School of Environment. She holds a master's in Community and Regional Planning from the University of British Columbia, and a master’s in Food Culture from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. Since the 2008 “food crisis” a number of organisations have emerged with a similar agenda of transforming the future of the global food system but with different approaches to achieving this goal. Her dissertation research project engages with organisations attempting to influence the trajectory of the global food system as a way to understand how they comprehend this system and how they prioritise strategies to transform it.
Dr Kelly Reed is an archaeobotanist with interests in food systems, agricultural development and cultural adaptations to environmental change in the past. She is currently the programme manager for the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and the Wellcome Trust funded Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) project based at Oxford University.
Prof Ken Giller is Professor of Plant Production Systems, within WaCASA (the Wageningen Centre for Agroecology and Systems Analysis) at Wageningen University. Ken’s research has focused on smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa, and in particular problems of soil fertility and the role of nitrogen fixation in tropical legumes, with emphasis on the temporal and spatial dynamics of resources within crop/livestock farming systems and their interactions. He is co-chair of the Thematic Network 7 on Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Honorary Senior Research Fellow with the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), Cambridge, UK.
Prof Tiny van Boekel is Emeritus Professor at the Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University and Research. He has expertise in food quality and safety, food processing and novel proteins.
Prof Imke de Boer is Professor of Animal Production Systems in the Department of Animal Sciences at Wageningen University and Research. Her research examines what role animal-source food could play in a sustainable diet.
Dr Karin Jonsell is a communications officer at SLU Future Food, a platform that develops research and collaboration for ecologically, economically and socially sustainable food systems. She has a background in communication and coordination both in Sweden and abroad, and has a PhD in Astrophysics.
Morgan Farl studied Graphic Design and Advertising at Drake University, earning a BA in Creative Advertising. He currently works as a Freelance Graphic Designer on the island of Maui.
