About RISE

The RISE Project: people and jobs nourished per hectare/kg

The metrics used to evaluate the performance of agriculture have not changed in over 50 years. Today, as we face unprecedented levels of obesity and an economic crisis due to COVID19, there is a pressing need to apply new metrics. The RISE Project aims to co-produce a new metric, ‘number of people and jobs nourished per hectare’, to support our partner organization, Scotland The Bread, and other local SMEs. 

The first part of our research involves analysing the nutrient composition of wheat, flour and bread samples in order to calculate the number of people who can be nourished. The second part of our research, in which we’ll be talking with farmers, millers and bakers in Scotland and the wider UK, aims to understand how much work is involved in producing grain, flour and bread; who is doing that work; and the quality of that work.

This research is funded by the UK Government’s Economic and Social Research Council.