University of Oxford: Dr. Monika Zurek’s expert take on transforming global food systems
03 Apr 2026 | University of Oxford, UK
Dr. Monika Zurek, leader of the Food System Transformation Group at the University of Oxford, UK, discusses the urgent transformations needed for sustainable global food systems. Speaking at IFE Manufacturing 2026 in London, she shares insights on balancing climate adaptation, meeting growing food demand, and aligning with policy shifts. Dr. Zurek also highlights promising innovations that can drive food system sustainability and shape resilient business strategies.
Foodprints first, reporting from IFE 2026 in London, and we're joined by Doctor Monica Zurak, who is the, you, you lead the food system transformation group at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, UK.
So welcome to you, Monica.
So my first question, what do you see as the most urgent transformation needed in global food systems to ensure sustainability in the next decade?
Yeah.
So there is overall a huge urgency for really changing the way of how we not just produce but also process and consume food.
And and it's, it's in addition to addressing the big health crisis that we are currently moving towards because of people eating the wrong stuff and too much of it, so we still have hunger problems, but we also are moving towards a really big obesity crisis just because of the way of how people are eating.
And that cheap food actually and in many cases very much processed food comes at a huge environmental and social costs.
So the, the carbon footprint of the system, the water footprint, the biodiversity loss footprint of the system is huge and at the same time we also have very difficult working conditions and those supply chains and.
People along the chain not necessarily getting a fair price for the products that they're producing, so it's, it really, we really have fires on all different sides of the system and and so but what we know is as this is a system.
Moving something on one part of the system without coordination of other parts of the system is in many cases creating more problems than it they actually solve and so we really need new ways of of thinking about ways of change, but also who's paying the cost for that and how do we take basically all the actors in the system with us, , without ignoring some of the hidden costs that that change will bring yeah, so it's just.
The food industry is contending with sort of dual challenges, the need to improve environmental sustainability but also to feed a growing global population.
So, what could some of these new strategies be if you could pinpoint one or two that you think are particularly effective?
Yeah.
The biggest problem is that there's just not one or two, but it, it has to be a combination of different strategies, and, and this is where a lot of stakeholders, we just did a big project talking to a lot of change makers around in Europe, for example, and a lot of change makers were telling us.
We actually have a lot of options on the table.
We know how to change farming practices.
We know how processing can work differently.
People theoretically know what a healthy diet should be, particularly with the latest E E Lancet report that came out and, and pointed to a lot of options of.
You know, more plant-based foods, less environmentally impactful practices with agroecology, so we have a lot of options on the table.
The problem that a lot of change makers see is how to coordinate these so that so that we're actually all going into a similar direction and.
And the other big problem is how do we overcome a lot of the kind of entrenched power relationships we have in the system.
So who drives change with what kind of purpose, as I say, who pays the cost for that change, and in the moment a lot of our cost.
Externalized to the environment or poor people in the system or you know farm workers that are not getting paid and so on and so forth so so it's not a there's not a silver bullet, there's a lot of.
Useful options on the table, but as I say, the biggest issue is how do we coordinate them into transformation pathways.
Yes, exactly.
So you mentioned plant-based eating.
Just how significant do you see dietary change in meeting the Paris Agreement targets and also in terms of feeding with nutritious products, the growing wealth.
Yes, so we definitely know that that the move to more towards more plants.
Based food is one of the key levers of change.
It's not that you, we shouldn't eat no meat at all.
That, that's not the problem, but particularly in the global north and more and more often in the global south, people are definitely eating too much meat.
We know that, different kind of meat products, without even noticing of how many times you might be eating, meat products, and what we know is.
Too much, too much, yeah, meat products, have a big impact on, non-communicable diseases, contribute to things like, heart attacks, diabetes, if you overeat together with, you know, too much salt, fat, and sugar in the diet, yeah, so from a health perspective, there's definitely a good argument for toning down the kind, the amount of meat.
That people eat and we know that in the moment a lot of the environmental impacts that we see of the food system are also driven by livestock agriculture it's the the methane that we can have from ruminant agriculture so cows, sheep, and goats it's the it's the fertilizer that's used.
Where we have NOH emissions, it's the huge deforestation pressure we have because of the agricultural frontier pushing more and more into, into primary forests around the world.
So it's a, we have problems on both the environmental and the health side, and we know a plant-based diet, we've just had the latest Eat Lancet report tell us that yet one more time.
It definitely would definitely get us into the right direction and also give signals to the rest of the system, of how to change in which direction change in farming practices and so on and so forth.
Yeah, so you mentioned deforestation.
Of course we, we've now seen the EU introduce a delayed implementation of the EU's deforestation regulation.
So what's your opinion about this regulation?
Do you see it as pioneering and effective in its current form?
Oh, you're asking a really big policy question here.
OK, here I have to rely on research that colleagues in the Environmental Change Institute.
Are currently undertaking looking into different supply chains, you know, food supply chains, what we know is or what what seems to emerge is that so to say the intention of the policy is definitely going in the right direction, but we also see that it puts a lot of the sort of say hidden costs of the change.
Into producer countries that don't necessarily have a lot of the either policy incentives or the right market incentives in place to support producers in that transition yeah so so you know a lot of the the producing countries for products.
Yeah, as I say, I'm not, not necessarily supporting the the farming community to move in that direction, and that makes it really difficult for a particular smaller farming, farming, farming entities to to know what to do, but also to monitor the effect of their policies and again there is, there is a lot of research currently going on.
It's not my particular field of research, but I know that it's.
Not yet a silver bullet as far as I know from colleagues in my.
OK, so, what innovations do you find most promising in advancing food system sustainability and how can they be integrated into mainstream markets?
So, in that research project that we just mentioned, working with change makers across Europe, to, to understand what they see as sort of say the current levers for change in the current environment, yeah, so the move towards more.
Plant-based diet is definitely, as I say, really up on the agenda, also because we have a lot of options of how this could work in terms of education, different kinds of marketing, you know.
Different procurement, options, particularly for, you know, public institutions, so, so we have a lot of these options on the table unfortunately are not yet really brought up to scale in many cases, yeah, but, so, so we think coming out of, out of this investigation, basically people identified 7 big levers of change towards more dietary shifts.
Including, yeah, really investigating how public procurement systems could be harnessed to really enable that shift towards some healthier and more sustainable diets, but also on the table again, a change to the common agricultural Policy and what kind of incentives are given around that, but we know that this is difficult and messy.
There's also the, of course, the question of what local food system and procuring more locally bring to the table, and, and there's, you know, good examples of how local supply chains could help with better procurement systems, for example, but also the whole issue of marketing and, and how we market and, and, , basically consumer education around different.
Type of foods, what's available, how they are processed, we know that that can be an important lever of change.
And so there are a number of things that can be done.
The biggest problem though, a lot of change makers came back to us over and over again, as I said, are these uncoordinated set of actions.
So if only one part of the system moves, it makes it tricky and really how to overcome a lot of the political economy and inertia.
Have and really moving the system, so it's more the how of instigating change, not that the what rules change these days.
OK, so as a final question, I'm interested to hear your views on budding technologies within food ingredients, so particularly cell cultured meats, but also the proliferation of insect protein.
Do you think they will play an important role in the diversification of protein into mainstream markets?
And have sustainability benefits, nutrition benefits for consumers.
Yeah, so actually we're, we're, we're hoping to get new funding in to exactly look at a portfolio of different protein options for, for Europe and the world.
So I do think that they will have to play a really important role, yeah, and, and the question of, you know, precision fermentation, cultured meat, there's still a lot of hurdles to overcome.
But, but I do think in terms of helping us with a different kind of, protein sources, I think they're important.
Will there be the protein sources?
I doubt it.
I think it will really be a mix.
We currently finished a larger project here for the UK on, you know, the role of legumes and, really understanding how we can incentivize really a move.
Towards more legume-based systems here in the UK, there's a lot of difficult, basically a lot of incentives for farmers to move into growing more legumes that we could grow here, lentils and fava beans, because there's not really a consumer demand for these at the moment.
Yeah, so, so I do think the new technologies will have a role to play.
Very dependent also on so to say the food cultures within which they will be used, but I don't think that there will be just one of these technologies.
I think we really need a mix of all of them and we yeah we need to incentivize really of.
Consumer behavior might change around that because I think without the shift in demand we think it will be very difficult to move the production end.
That makes sense.
Thanks so much for your time today.
It's very interesting.
Thank you very much for having me.
Thank you.
