PhD Student Profile
Christopher Wilmot
Charles Sturt University
This research explores the relationship between food product labels, consumer markets, and soil stewardship certification. Specifically, it investigates the role that a certification framework could play in recognising and rewarding farmers who employ soil stewardship farm management practices, as part of a wider soil governance framework.
PhD Title: “Certifying Soil Stewardship Management Practices Through the Consumer Market”
PhD start date: March 2022
Supervisors: Professor Mark Morrison (Charles Sturt University), Associate Professor Nicholas Pawsey (Charles Sturt University), Dr Joseph Wenta (University of Newcastle).
What interested you about this research?
Soil is fundamentally important for so many reasons, for food security, ecosystem services, and many current environmental issues. This importance is not recognised in the marketplace, in which soil is treated as a resource that can be exploited.
What do you love about your PhD?
The opportunity to learn, and really ‘dig into’ the ‘field’ of soil governance, and gain insight about the operation of part of Australia’s legal system, with a potential result of rewarding farmers financially for their efforts.
How will your PhD help to make a difference for farmers?
Australian farmers are among the most efficient and least subsidised in the world, and the custodians of over half of Australia’s soil. This research aims to provide policy guidance to stakeholders so that farmers are fairly and equitably rewarded for their contribution to promoting and preserving soil health.
What do you want to do when you finish your PhD?
Ideally, if not an academic, I’d gain employment as a legal/policy advisor within government, working in the natural resource management area.
Outside of by PhD I enjoy
Being a dad to two boys, bushwalks, bird and animal watching, and photography.
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