Wild food and health, with Charlotte Milbank


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Jun 13 2022 28 mins   2

Charlotte is a PhD student in Epidemiology and Geography at the University of Cambridge. Her research explores the ways in which “wild foods”, such as bushmeat, insects, wild fruits and vegetables, can be used to support the health and nutritional security of rural communities. In particular, she is looking at the use of wild foods by indigenous peoples in northeastern India.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Charlotte was actively involved in epidemiology-related science communication. She has written multiple articles on zoonotic diseases, how they are linked to human behaviour and how we might mitigate their spread. She produced an incredibly popular Instagram page, “epidummyology” which has nearly 400 posts simplifying COVID-19 science and research, and what it means for the UK population. The page closed recently with almost 60K followers, but off the back of this, Charlotte now works with some NHS regional teams on their COVID-19 communications.

You can find find out more about Charlotte, and her research, at:

https://www.globalfood.cam.ac.uk/memberdirectory/charlotte-milbank

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(22)00064-X/fulltext

https://theconversation.com/banning-wild-meat-is-not-the-solution-to-reducing-future-disease-outbreaks-181647

https://forestsnews.cifor.org/67260/can-healthy-ecosystems-prevent-pandemics?fnl=en

https://www.conservation.cam.ac.uk/news/coronavirus-and-conservation-interdisciplinary-conversation

Episode thumbnail image provided by Charlotte Milbank.

The BlueSci Podcast is run by the Cambridge University Science Magazine. This episode was hosted by Georgia Nixon and Mark Grimes. Visit www.bluesci.co.uk to access our free magazine, and find out how to get involved. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review or rating! We welcome your feedback and suggestions via email: podcast(at)bluesci.co.uk. You can also follow us on Twitter on @bluescipod or Instagram @bluescicam.