I am a researcher based at the Oxford Martin School and Department of Biology at the University of Oxford. My research focuses on building solutions to reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture. I also work on the intersection of environment, animal welfare, and human health; issues which motivate me personally and present scientifically and morally important questions.
I started HESTIA at the Oxford Martin School to provide the fundamental science and data to scale up outcome‑based environmental management in agriculture.
Outcome‑based management focuses on quantifying and reducing environmental impact indicators (such as greenhouse gas emissions or biodiversity) rather than encouraging farmers to adopt or cease certain practices. It represents a major change in how we manage food’s environmental impacts today. We are testing the effects of HESTIA with farmers using randomised controlled trials in countries worldwide.
I am indebted to our amazing team, to all of our international collaborators, and to our funders who make HESTIA possible.
For all my published research, see Google Scholar. You can read my D.Phil (PhD) thesis here.
Data S1: the land spared by synthetic alternatives to cotton, caffeine, and vanilla flavour; data on the land use of protein-rich foods; and the cultivated meat cost curve.
Data S1: included and excluded studies.
Data S2: results.
Full database: the full database underlying Poore & Nemecek (2018) containing all the original and recalculated data for each study and all original formulas. When you open the file, expand the rows and columns to see the data using the + icons to the left and top.
The Guardian; BBC (interactive); New York Times (interactive); Carbon Brief; The Economist; Tages‑Anzeiger (de); Altmetric Top 100.
Channel 4 Food Unwrapped; Kurzgesagt; Vox; CBC; Naked Scientists; Science podcast; Science Vs; BBC Radio 4.
Our World in Data; UN; OECD; UK National Food Strategy; Planet Earth 3; WRI: Cool Food Pledge; WRAP: Scope 3 Database; Mondra; Foodsteps; and many other governments, NGOs, and businesses working in the food system.
Poore (2016) Call for conservation: Abandoned pasture. Science.
Supporting data: global pasture abandonment estimates and ruminant production data from FAOSTAT.
Poore (2022) How can we cut soaring demand for meat? Try a hybrid burger. The Guardian.
Supporting data: greenhouse gas emission and land use benefits of blended burgers.
Poore (2017) Back to the wild: How nature is reclaiming farmland. New Scientist.
Supporting data: global farmland abandonment estimates and wool production data from FAOSTAT.
I give talks on the food system and its effects on climate change, biodiversity loss, and other environmental issues. I also give talks on the power of diet change to transform global sustainability; on the changing landscape of corporate environmental reporting; and on the links between animal welfare and food. I have also interviewed for films in these areas (see here).
I undertake freelance consulting work advising on Life Cycle Assessment methods, including for Mondra and Altruistiq. I also undertake freelance work on projects involving human health, animal welfare, and corporate disclosure. Below are some recent projects I worked on.
World Animal Protection (forthcoming) Factory Farming Index.
Here I contributed to building the database behind the Factory Farming Index: a first attempt to quantify the harms of factory farming on human health, animal welfare, and the environment.
Here I contributed to building a dataset which brought together data on individual dietary patterns in countries worldwide to explore linkages between human dietary health and food's environmental impacts.
Climate Bonds (2024) Agriculture and Alternative Proteins Standards.
Here I supported the Climate Bonds team to define how to certify farms and alternative protein producers as 1.5 degrees of warming compliant. I created the carbon intensity pathways that producers must adhere to unlock preferential finance.
WWF (2020) Planet Based Diets.
Here I created country-specific environmental impact estimates for all major agricultural products based on the data from Poore & Nemecek (2018). We then built a tool to calculate the effects of diet change in different countries.
Model: country-specific environmental impact data for major agricultural commodities and a tool to quantify the effects of diet change in different countries.
The loss of nature, the unnecessary damage caused by humans to the environment, and the effects humans have on the welfare of non-human animals are some of the biggest problems of our time.
In 2014, I left my job in management consulting in London and used my savings to start researching the causes of these problems. It quickly became clear to me that the food system was the single biggest driver of almost all of our environmental problems, but that there were also many promising solutions.
My vision is a radically transformed world food system that is secure, provides safe and high-quality food for everyone, and:
- uses 50% less land by the year 2050 relative to 2000;
- creates 40% less emissions by the year 2050 relative to 2000 (this is 1.5 degrees of warming compliant if other sectors follow their decarbonisation pathways); and
- has dramatically reduced its animal‑welfare burden.
I am primarily working towards this vision by scaling up outcome-based approaches to environmental and animal-welfare management in the global food system. These approaches can be highly effective if implemented well (see Chapter 4 of my D.Phil thesis for evidence).
If you are interested in working with me, supporting my work, or supporting HESTIA, please don't hesitate to get in touch by email or on LinkedIn.