Professor Carol Richards

Biography

Prof Carol Richards is a food and agricultural sociologist specialising in sustainable food systems. She is a member of staff at the School of Management, QUT Faculty of Business and Law. Her work is informed by a systems approach that ‘joins the dots’ between the complex interplay of society, economy and climate/environment as they relate to climate change, natural resources, agriculture and food.

Key Research Interests:

Food Security – Recent food system shocks such as bushfires, floods and drought, and the impact of Covid-19 on the harvesting and distribution of agricultural products, have drawn attention to Australia’s vulnerability to food insecurity. Carol is interested in the global and local dimensions of food security, including these ‘climate shocks’ but also the impacts of social inequalities, poverty, excessive market speculation on food and land and the practices of major supermarket chains.

Professor Richards was awarded $256,000AUD by the Australian Research Council Discovery Program grant to examine food system shocks in Australia’s horticultural sector, commencing November 2023.

Digital Agriculture - Emerging digital technological developments are shaping the way food is produced on farm, yet the implications of these changes over the longer term are less understood. Carol is interested in the roll out of digital technology and what this may mean for the future of the industry, farmer livelihoods and food security. Whilst these technologies may appear benign, early research findings highlight how large volumes of farm data, collected by satellites and analysed by algorithms, informs off-farm business decisions such as loan-call ins. Whilst this style of decision making might seem efficient, data are abstracted representations of components of the farm enterprise and calculations that flag 'risks' are removed from the environmental practices and management of the property. These changes have the potential to reorganise agriculture in ways that are not optimal for food production or sustainable rural livelihoods.

Food Governance - The governance of food safety, food quality, on-farm environmental management and animal welfare has been shifting from the realm of ‘the government’ to that of the private sector. Corporate entities have responded to neoliberal forms of governance by instituting private standards for food, backed by processes of certification and managed through systems of third-party auditing or multi-stakeholder initiatives. The realm of private governance presents a rich area for research on the social, economic and environmental impacts of corporate power and the privatisation of regulation along the food supply chain.

New Food Paradigms -  There has been much emphasis on building new food paradigms that are socially just, environmentally sustainable or regenerative, foster and build local economies and livelihoods and provide clean, healthy food to households and communities. Food sovereignty, alternative food networks and a re-localised food and agricultural systems are commonly viewed as central to fair food systems. Carol has contributed to this work through her research, teaching and civil society engagement. She has held committee positions such as the Vice-President of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance.

Professor Richards was awarded $719,000 by the Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre to work with Lendlease to develop a prototype for a digital ‘circular food economy’ that addresses the connected issues of food insecurity, food waste, climate change and community engagement.

Qualifications 2007 PhD (Sociology), The University of Queensland, Australia 2001 Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) Honours, Class 1, The University of Queensland, Australia (2001 John Western Prize for Honours degree) 1997 Bachelor of Arts (Sociology), The University of Queensland, Australia