Third Exeter Food Network Mezze Seminar
Tuesday, 05 May 2026 at 09:45
An Exeter Food Seminar
Event details
You are warmly invited to attend this year’s third Exeter Food Mezze seminar (a mixed menu of taster talks).
These seminars are designed to allow us to familiarise ourselves with the work of colleagues across the university with shared interests in food, to offer them valuable commentary, and to generate ideas for future collaborations.
The session will be held on TEAMS LINK on Tuesday 5th May 2026 from 9:45-11:15.
The speakers, their topics, and brief abstracts appear below. Presentations will be short (7-8 minutes), followed by time for discussion of each.
Please do join us online.
Best wishes
Harry
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Raquel Revuelta Iniesta, Registered Dietician and Senior Lecturer in Nutrition, Dept of Public Health and Sport Sciences
Prehabilitation in Childhood Cancer: Are We Missing the Window?
Prehabilitation combines exercise, nutrition and psychological support to prepare individuals for cancer treatment and improve outcomes and recovery. While evidence from adult oncology supports this approach, its application in childhood cancer remains limited, with interventions often delivered as single components and introduced after treatment-related decline has occurred. This talk will briefly explore the current landscape of prehabilitation in paediatric oncology and discuss emerging research aiming to enable earlier, proactive care.
Skylar Collins, PhD Researcher in Geography
Mental Health and Mental Wellbeing Among Commercial Fishermen in England: A Complete State Approach
Current literature on mental health and wellbeing in commercial fisheries offers a conflicting narrative. Research suggests that fishing can be deeply rewarding, offering life satisfaction through challenging, skilled, and autonomous work. Yet commercial fishers also face a distinct set of pressures, from coping with increasing regulations at sea to financial uncertainty on shore, that appear to contribute to higher-than-average rates of mental illness. In the present study, mental health is viewed through the complete state paradigm, considering both the negative (mental illness) and positive (mental wellbeing) aspects of complete mental health, as well as fishers' access to mental health support, in the context of England’s commercial fishing fleet.
Wim van Daele, Associate Professor in Nutrition and Public Health, University of Agder (Norway), and sabbatical visitor in the Centre for Rural Policy Research
EATWELL: socio-ecological environments, food and gut microbiomes in Laya in northern Bhutan
This brief presentation introduces the EATWELL project and some of its work in northern Bhutan, Laya, among a semi-nomadic community of yak herders, cordyceps collectors, traders and farmers. I will do so by sketching some key entanglements of food-related practices and seasonal migrations, and discuss (possible) implications on nutrient intake and the human gut microbiome. In so doing, I will elicit the synergistic dynamics between the social, nutritional and microbiological sciences involved in this radically interdisciplinary research.
Suchith Anand, Professor of Practice in Science Policy, and Kate Bailey, Professor of Practice in Research Governance Partnerships
How digital feudalism hurts farmers
This presentation will look into rise of digital feudalism, in which a few powerful actors control access to data and technology. This raises important concerns around power imbalances as well as resulting data asymmetries and their impact on society. More details in the article at https://www.data4sdgs.org/blog/how-digital-feudalism-hurts-farmers
Organiser
Exeter Food
Location
Remote via Teams