This webinar and coffee hour is part of the Microbes and Social Equity 2026 Speaker Series.
The Nexus of Food Systems, Ecosystems and Human Health: Considering the More-Than-Humans who Co-produce Health
What if health is not produced by humans alone, but co-created with the ecosystems, organisms, and food systems we depend on?
This talk explores the interconnected relationships between food systems, ecosystems, and human health, emphasizing the often-overlooked roles of nonhuman actors in shaping health outcomes. Drawing on qualitative research, food systems scholarship, and planetary health perspectives, Dr. Sarah Elton will examine how health is co-produced through interactions among humans, microbes, plants, animals, and environments. The session will challenge anthropocentric models of health by considering food not only as nutrition or commodity, but as an ecological process shaped by labor, biodiversity, culture, and place. Through examples ranging from local food movements to global supply chains, the talk will highlight how decisions about what we grow, distribute, and eat reverberate across ecosystems and bodies. This framing invites reflection on responsibility, equity, and care in food systems, and on how more inclusive conceptions of health might inform policy, practice, and research.
After the talk, we continue the conversation with an informal social hour. Join us as we chat with the speaker, MSE members, and attendees about research, teaching, our pets, and more!
Programme (Timings are EST)
11:00 Welcome and introduction - Professor Sue Ishaq, Founder and Lead, MSE
11:05 Guest speaker - Dr Sarah Elton PhD
11:45 Audience question and answer session
12:00 Informal coffee and chat
13:00 Close
