Dr Laurence Smith
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44 (0) 118 378 8152
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Associate Professor in Agricultural Systems
Seminar leader for Global Sustainability: Challenges and Prospects (AP1A25, 20 credits)
Module leader for Agriculture in Practice (AP1A25, 20 credits)
Module leader for Agricultural Field Study Tour (AP2A20, 10 credits)
Sustainability Assessment of Food Systems () Research Group Leader
Areas of interest
- Environmental impact assessment though Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
- Public goods evaluation
- Optimisation modelling for impact assessment
- Leverage points for behaviour change
- Improving sustainability assessment methods
Postgraduate supervision
Laurence is happy to discuss proposals for postdoctoral fellowships or PhD studentships in any area of sustainability assessment, but particularly from those interested in understanding trade-offs between environmental, social, and economic domains, the impacts of farming system innovations on public goods, and “leverage points” for behaviour change.
He currently supervises the following postdoctoral researchers, research associates and PhD students:
- Dr. Nina Röhrig: PATHWAYS – “Pathways for transitions to sustainability in livestock husbandry and food systems”
- Dr Elizabeth Rowe: PATHWAYS – “Pathways for transitions to sustainability in livestock husbandry and food systems”
- Dr Nicholas Davison: RELIVESTOCK – “Facilitating Innovations for Resilient Livestock Farming Systems”
- Dr Tom Staton: REFOREST – “Agroforestry at the forefront of farming sustainably in multifunctional landscapes in Europe”
- Ms Lisa Arguile: GFM – “Global Farm Metric – designing a common framework to understand, measure and monitor the state of farming systems.
- Ms Sally Westaway: (Royal Agricultural University) Ecosystem service provision of trees on farms at a landscape scale. Funded by the John Oldacre Foundation and the Woodland Trust.
- Mr William Barnes: (Aberystwyth University and Cellular Agriculture Ltd) Rethinking cultured meat media formulations. Funded by a BBSRC FoodBioSystems studentship with CASE
Research centres and groups
Sustainability Assessment of Food Systems Research Group:
Background
Laurence’s interdisciplinary research interests cover three cross-cutting themes: Holistic Sustainability Assessment; the Impacts of Upscaling Farming Systems; and Behaviour change in Food Systems. Throughout his work to date Laurence has led and co-led projects and work packages for a range of Government bodies and companies within Europe.
Laurence has worked extensively on assessing the sustainability impacts of upscaling food and farming systems fusing diverse indicators and multi-disciplinary tools to develop novel methodologies revealing the trade-offs between a range of sustainability criteria.
Currently Laurence is investigating the environmental and agronomic impacts of livestock systems as co-coordinator of the 9M EUR Horizon 2020 project , working with farmers and industry to deliver useful policy recommendations for the future of livestock systems.
Laurence is an Editor for Frontiers in Animal Science and reviewer for Nature Communications, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, and the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR).
Professional bodies/affiliations
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).
- Trustee of Biodynamic Agricultural College.
- Research Associate at the Department of Biosystems and Technology (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)
Websites/blogs
Sustainability Assessment of Food Systems (SAFS) Research Group Website:
ORCiD:
ResearchGate:
Selected publications
Goglio, P., Knudsen, M.T., Van Mierlo, K., Röhrig, N., Fossey, M., Maresca, A., Hashemi, F., Waqas, M.A., Yngvesson, J., Nassy, G., Broekema, R., Moakes, S., Pfeifer, C., Borek, R., Yanez-Ruiz, D., Cascante, M.Q., Syp, A., Zylowsky, T., Romero-Huelva, M., Smith, L.G. (2023): Defining common criteria for harmonizing life cycle assessments of livestock systems. Cleaner Production Letters 4, 100035.
Westaway, S., Grange, I., Smith, J., Smith, L.G. (2023): Meeting tree planting targets on the UK's path to net-zero: A review of lessons learnt from 100 years of land use policies. Land Use Policy 125, 106502.
Norton, L., Maskell, L., McVittie, A., Smith, L.G., Wagner, M., Waterton, C., Watson, C., (2022): Learning from innovative practitioners: Evidence for the sustainability and resilience of pasture fed livestock systems. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 6, 1012691.
Smith, L.G., Westaway, S., Mullender, S., Ghaley, B.B., Xu, Y., Lehmann, L.M., Pisanelli, A., Russo, G., Borek, R., Wawer, R. (2022): Assessing the multidimensional elements of sustainability in European agroforestry systems. Agricultural Systems 197, 103357.
Smith, L.G., Kirk, G.J.D., Jones, P.J., Williams, A.G. (2019): The greenhouse gas impacts of converting food production in England and Wales to organic methods. Nature Communications 10, Article No. 4641. .