Oli is an environmental economist studying the sustainability of global food systems with a focus on transitions of diets, food trade, and farmer livelihoods.

More information about Oliver Taherzadeh

Professional experience

After working as a researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute, I completed my PhD at Cambridge University on a Vice-Chancellor’s scholarship, investigating resource insecurity of global supply chains. After completing my PhD, I worked in Kyoto as a Senior Researcher at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, advancing environmental footprint assessment of diets, households, and global food systems.

I teach the Socio-Economic Policy Evaluation course of the BSc Sustainable Societies programme and lecture on macroeconomic footprinting methods.

Research topic

My current research integrates global food system models with microdata on consumers, farmers, and food companies to assess their roles in sustainable food transitions. I coordinate this work within the Horizon Europe GreenGrocer project, development of MATILDA (Micro-Macro Assessment Tool to Identify Low-impact Dietary Actions), and actor-level modelling of farming systems.

My work has been featured in the UN FAO 2025 State of Food and Agriculture report, media outlets (The Guardian, The Ecologist, The Conversation), PNAS, Nature Food, Nature Sustainability, Global Environmental Change, and Environmental Research Letters. I have also contributed to several expert consultations (UNEP, OECD and Defra) on applying environmental data to sustainability policy.

Publications