Seona Candy

Research Fellow: Food and Urban Systems, University of Melbourne

Seona Candy is a research fellow with the Victorian Eco-innovation Lab at the University of Melbourne with a particular interest in the integration of food and other urban systems, such as waste, water and energy management, to improve the resilience of cities. Her recent research work used scenario modelling to link land and resource use with food consumption at a national level on an ARC Linkage project, titled 'Modelling policy interventions to protect Australia's food security in the face of environmental sustainability challenges’ (LP120100168), and at a city level with the Foodprint Melbourne Project funded by the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation. Both of these projects looked at all aspects of the food system, from production to distribution and consumption including food waste. She is a co-investigator on the Foodprint Melbourne project.

She is currently working on two projects funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living. Visions and Pathways 2040 is concerned with developing visions, scenarios and pathways for transitioning to low-carbon in Australian cities. The Future Cities Node Project aims to identify opportunities across Melbourne where critical infrastructure services like energy, food, water and waste can be delivered in a way that is more distributed and investigates the impacts on carbon emissions and urban resilience.

She has a background in engineering, renewable energy and international development, and completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne, in conjunction with Engineers without Borders, investigating the use of appropriate technology to improve food security and nutrition in remote mountain regions of Nepal. She also works with Co-Design Studio in an ongoing capacity, but most recently on a project using participatory design to develop floating vegetable gardens to improve food availability and nutrition for impoverished communities living on Lake Ton Le Sap in Cambodia.