Oliver Taherzadeh
Assistant professor
- Name
- Dr. O.A. Taherzadeh
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2727
- o.a.taherzadeh@cml.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-6144-9483
Oli is an environmental economist studying the sustainability of global food systems with a focus on transitions of diets, food trade, and farmer livelihoods.
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.
Assistant professor
- Faculty of Science
- Institute of Environmental Sciences
- CML/Industrial ecology
- Taherzadeh O., Schoorlemmer A.A.M., Behrens P.A., Bruckner M. & Caik H. (2025), Mapping high-impact groups across dietary sustainability and nutrition. Research Square. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. [working paper].
- Kortleve A.J., Behrens P.A., Taherzadeh O.A. & Mogollón J.M. (2025), Dietary shifts reshape land use and farm economics in Europe. Research Square. [working paper].
- Taherzadeh O.A. & Mogollón J.M. (2024), The hidden role of small-scale farmers in global food security. [working paper].
- Payró C.O.M., Taherzadah O.A., Oorschot M. van, Koch J. & Marselis S.M. (2024), Consumer resistance diminishes environmental gains of dietary change, Environmental Research Letters 19: 054033.
- Hoang Nguyen T., Taherzadeh O.A., Ohashi H., Yonekura Y., Nishijima S., Yamabe M., Matsui T., Matsuda H., Moran D. & Kanemoto K. (2023), Mapping potential conflicts between global agriculture and terrestrial conservation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(23): e2208376120.
- Payró C.O.M. Taherzadeh O. Oorschot M. van Koch J. Marselis S. Koch J. (2023), Consumer resistance diminishes environmental gains of dietary change. [working paper].
- Hoang Nguyen T., Taherzadeh O.A., Ohashi H., Yonekura Y., Nishijima S., Yamabe M., Matsui T., Matsuda H., Moran D. & Kanemoto K. (2023), Reply to Bawa and Liu: Want sustainable food? : Embrace complexity, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(48): e2317233120.
- Aguilar-Hernandez G.A., Taherzadeh O.A. & Tukker A. (2023), Lessons from micro- and macro-modelling linkages: example of linking LCA/DMFA and CGE model for developing Circular Economy scenarios. Leiden: Leiden University.
- Taherzadeh O.A. & Kanemoto K. (2022), Differentiated responsibilities of US citizens in the country’s sustainable dietary transition, Environmental Research Letters 17(7): 074037.
- McGreevy S.R., Rupprecht C.D.D., Niles D., Wiek A., Carolan M., Kallis G., Kantamaturapoj K., Mangnus A., Jehlička P., Taherzadeh O.A., Sahakian M., Chabay I., Colby A., Vivero-Pol J.-L., Chaudhuri R., Spiegelberg M., Kobayashi M., Balázs B., Tsuchiya K., Nicholls C. & et al. (2022), Sustainable agrifood systems for a post-growth world, Nature Sustainability 5: 1011-1017.
- Lee J., Taherzadeh O.A. & Kanemoto K. (2021), The scale and drivers of carbon footprints in households, cities and regions across India, Global Environmental Change 66: 102205.
- Taherzadeh O.A., Bithell M. & Richards K. (2021), Water, energy and land insecurity in global supply chains, Global Environmental Change 67: 102158.
- Taherzadeh O.A. (2021), Promise of a green economic recovery post-Covid: trojan horse or turning point?, Global Sustainability 4: e2.
- Taherzadeh O.A. (2021), Locating pressures on water, energy and land resources across global supply chains, Journal of Cleaner Production 321: 128701.
- Sporchia F., Taherzadeh O. & Caro D. (2021), Stimulating environmental degradation: a global study of resource use in cocoa, coffee, tea and tobacco supply chains, Current Research in Environmental Sustainability 3: 100029.
- Taherzadeh O.A. (8 July 2020), Tracing Pathways of Resource Use in the World Economy: An Analysis of National and Sectoral Influence across the Global Water-Energy-Land System (Dissertatie, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge). Supervisor(s): Bithell M. & Richards K.
- Taherzadeh O.A. & Caro D. (2019), Drivers of water and land use embodied in international soybean trade, Journal of Cleaner Production 223: 83-93.
- Taherzadeh O. & Howley P. (2018), No net loss of what, for whom?: stakeholder perspectives to Biodiversity Offsetting in England, Environment, Development and Sustainability 20: 1807-1830.
- Taherzadeh O.A., Bithell M. & Richards K. (2018), When defining boundaries for nexus analysis, let the data speak, Resources, Conservation and Recycling 137: 314-315.