Summary
This 2020 commentary in Nature Food, authored by an international consortium of agricultural and food systems researchers, calls for greater sustainability in the organisation and conduct of research meetings and conferences. The authors argue that the research community must examine and reduce the environmental impact of its own practices, positioning institutional and behavioural change in how conferences are held as a legitimate policy and governance concern. The paper contributes to broader discourse on the responsibility of the research enterprise to align its operational practices with its stated environmental and sustainability goals.
UK applicability
UK agricultural research institutions and learned societies could apply these findings to review the carbon footprint of their own conference and meeting practices, and to develop institutional policies supporting lower-impact alternatives such as hybrid or virtual meetings. The arguments are directly relevant to UK research governance and the alignment of research institution practices with net-zero commitments.
Key measures
Not specified in available metadata; likely carbon emissions, travel intensity, or environmental impact metrics of conferences (inferred from title)
Outcomes reported
The paper advocates for systemic changes to how agricultural research meetings are organised and conducted to reduce their environmental footprint. As suggested by the title, the work examines the carbon intensity and sustainability practices of the research enterprise itself rather than agricultural production systems.
Topic tags
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