Sophie Chao is Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow and Lecturer in the Discipline of Anthropology at the University of Sydney. Her research investigates the intersections of Indigeneity, ecology, capitalism, health, and justice in the Pacific. Chao is author of In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua and co-editor of The Promise of Multispecies Justice. Chao is Convenor of the Australian Food, Society, and Culture Network, Co-Lead of the Sydney Environment Institute’s Biocultural Diversities Research Theme, and Executive Committee Member of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre. She previously worked for the human rights NGO Forest Peoples Programme in Indonesia.
Food security starts with food sovereignty
The UN's Zero Hunger goal faces challenges in West Papua, where palm oil plantations are erasing Indigenous foodways - could a food sovereignty framework help balance development, culture, and sustainability?