person

Dr Michael Clark

Senior Research Associate in Food

Profile

Michael Clark is a Senior Researcher of Sustainable Food Solutions at the University of Oxford. He is a founding and current director of the Smith School’s Sustainable Food Solutions Programme, and is also a member of the Livestock, Environment, and People programme, the Oxford Martin School Biodiversity and Society Programme, the Oxford Martin School AGILE initiative, and the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery.

Mike’s research examines the role of food and food systems in meeting the Triple Challenge of climate, biodiversity, and human wellbeing. His work combines quantitative methods (big data, food system modeling) with behavioral experiments (e.g. on ecolabelling), working to identify the capacity for food systems to transform and meet targets on environment and human wellbeing. His work has been published in Nature, Science, PNAS, BMJ, and the Lancet, and has been featured in media around the world, including Financial Times, BBC, The Guardian, and New Scientist.

Before joining the Smith School, Mike was a researcher at Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health, working on the Livestock, Environment, and People program. He did his PhD at the University of Minnesota, focusing on the environmental impacts of food systems.

Publications

Journal (19)

Open

Allen B, Hill D, Burke A, and others, ‘Projected Future Climatic Forcing on the Global Distribution of Vegetation Types.’ (2024) 379 Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 20230011

Bunge A, Mazac R, Clark M, and others, ‘Sustainability Benefits of Transitioning from Current Diets to Plant-Based Alternatives or Whole-Food Diets in Sweden.’ (2024) 15 Nature communications 951

Scarborough P, Clark M, Cobiac L, and others, ‘Vegans, Vegetarians, Fish-Eaters and Meat-Eaters in the UK Show Discrepant Environmental Impacts.’ (2023) 4 Nature food 565

Clark M, Springmann M, Rayner M, and others, ‘Reply to Muzzioli et al.: Communicating Nutrition and Environmental Information to Food System Stakeholders.’ (2023) 120 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America e2302165120

Kimmel K, Clark M and Tilman D, ‘Impact of Multiple Small and Persistent Threats on Extinction Risk.’ (2022) 36 Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology e13901

Clark M, Scarborough P, Springmann M, and others, ‘Estimating the Environmental Impacts of 57,000 Food Products’ (2022) 119 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Springmann M, Clark M, Rayner M, and others, ‘The Global and Regional Costs of Healthy and Sustainable Dietary Patterns: A Modelling Study (vol 5, Pg e797, 2021)’ (2021) 5 LANCET PLANETARY HEALTH E861

Balasubramanian S, Domingo N, Hunt N, and others, ‘The Food We Eat, the Air We Breathe: A Review of the Fine Particulate Matter-Induced Air Quality Health Impacts of the Global Food System’ (2021) 16 ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS

Clark M, Williams D, Buchanan G, and others, ‘Proactive Conservation to Prevent Habitat Losses to Agricultural Expansion’ (2020) 4 Nature Sustainability 314

Clark M, Lynch J, Domingo N, and others, ‘Global Food System Emissions Could Preclude Achieving the 1.5° and 2°C Climate Change Targets’ (2020) 370 Science 705

Clark M, Springmann M, Hill J, and others, ‘Multiple Health and Environmental Impacts of Foods’ (2019) 116 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 23357

Ray D, West P, Clark M, and others, ‘Climate Change Has Likely Already Affected Global Food Production’ (2019) 14 PLoS ONE

Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, and others, ‘Food in the Anthropocene: The EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems’ (2019) 393 Lancet 447

Springmann M, Clark M and Willett W, ‘Feedlot Diet for Americans That Results from a Misspecified Optimization Algorithm’ (2018) 115 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences E1704

Springmann M, Clark M, Mason-D’Croz D, and others, ‘Options for Keeping the Food System Within Environmental Limits’ (2018) 562 Nature 519

Clark M and Tilman D, ‘Comparative Analysis of Environmental Impacts of Agricultural Production Systems, Agricultural Input Efficiency, and Food Choice’ (2017) 12 Environmental Research Letters

Tilman D, Clark M, Kimmel K, and others, ‘Future Threats to Biodiversity and Pathways to Their Prevention’ (2017) 546 Nature 73

Tilman D and Clark M, ‘Food, Agriculture & the Environment: Can We Feed the World &Amp; Save the Earth?’ (2015) 144 Daedalus 8

Tilman D and Clark M, ‘Global Diets Link Environmental Sustainability and Human Health.’ (2014) 515 Nature 518

Dataset (1)

Open

Clark M, Bandy L, Scarborough P, and others, ‘Supplemental Data for ’Estimating the Environmental Impacts of 57,000 Food products’’