Biography
My research examines whether "wild foods", including bushmeat, insects, wild fruits and vegetables, can contribute safely to food and nutritional security and human health in rural communities, whilst supporting conservation efforts. Based in the tribal districts of Eastern India, this research speaks to the concerns of the "One Health" research approach, a growing body of work that recognises the complex entanglement of the environment, human and animal health in issues of public health concern, including zoonotic spillover. My PhD is jointly supervised by academics in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Geography.
Career
- October 2019-present: PhD Student in Epidemiology and Geography, University of Cambridge.
- October 2018-September 2019: MPhil Epidemiology, University of Cambridge.
- July 2018: Research Intern, University of Cambridge Conservation Institute.
- August 2017: Field assistant, University of Cambridge Department of Zoology.
- October 2015-June 2018: BA Cambridge, University of Cambridge.
Research
Wild Foods, Hunger and Nutrition – harnessing knowledge for sustainable food security.
Forest and tree-based systems are a significant source of micronutrient-rich uncultivated foods, including bush-meat, insects, fruits, leaves and seeds, for millions of people worldwide. Supporting the consumption of uncultivated foods in forest-proximate communities could help achieve food security and nutritionally-diverse diets, but data are scarce on the nutritional and epidemiological effects of such diets. My PhD research uses insights from geography and epidemiology to examine possible alternative nutritional strategies that build on locally appropriate knowledge systems in relation to uncultivated foods, and that might inform effective food security and health interventions that exist in harmony with conservation efforts.
Publications
Papers
- Milbank, C., Drumright, L., and Lester, J. (in press). Working title: Elucidating risk factors for healthcare associated norovirus infection.
- Milbank, C., Coomes, D., and Vira, B. (2018). Assessing the Progress of REDD+ Projects towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Forests, 9(10), 589. Online at: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/9/10/589
- Cox, S., Payne, C., Badolo, A., Attenborough, R., and Milbank, C. (2018). The nutritional role of insects as food: A case study of 'chitoumou' (Cirina butyrospermi), an edible caterpillar in rural Burkina Faso. Journal of Insects as Food and Feed. Online at: https://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/abs/10.3920/JIFF2018.0030
- Payne, C., Cox, S., Milbank, C., Badolo, A., Dobermann, D. What is the nutritional role of edible insects in human diets? Keynote address, Insects to Feed the World Second Conference, Wuhan, China 2018. Invited paper, Journal of Insects as Food and Feed.
- Payne, C., Badolo, A., Cox, S., Sagnon, B., Dobermann, D., Milbank, C., Scarborough, P., Sanon, A., Bationo, F., Balmford, A. (in press). Working title: The contribution of 'chitoumou', the edible caterpillar Cirina butyrospermi, to the food security of smallholder farmers in southwestern Burkina Faso. Food Security.
Other Academic Writing
- Milbank, C. (2020) "Can Healthy Ecosystems prevent Future Pandemics" (2020). https://forestsnews.cifor.org/67260/can-healthy-ecosystems-prevent-pandemics?fnl=en
- Milbank, C. & Goodman, L., (2020) "Coronavirus and Conservation: An Interdisciplinary Conversation" https://www.conservation.cam.ac.uk/news/coronavirus-and-conservation-interdisciplinary-conversation
Conference Presentations
- '"Wild foods" for nutrition security'. Oral presentation and poster at the 'Interdisciplinarity – Beyond Boundaries' conference of the Economic and Social Research Council, October 2019, Cambridge, UK.
- 'Wild Foods, Hunger and Nutrition – harnessing knowledge for sustainable food security'. Oral presentation and poster at the 'Future of Conservation' conference of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, September 2019, Cambridge, UK.
- 'Wild foods: consumption practices and knowledge systems in rural Burkina Faso'. Poster presented at the Cambridge Global Food Security Annual Symposium, March 2019, Cambridge, UK.
