My research and teaching is based around three main areas:

Investigating sustainable systems, including whole farm systems and measuring environmental, economic and social impacts, in particular the sustainability of alternative management practices, especially organic farming. Within farming systems I am researching particular agroecological interactions between farming operations, plant growth and soil ecological function. I am completing a 10 year project comparing the sustainability of organic and conventional wheat farming in Australia. Across wider agricultural systems operations I am investigating farmer's ecological behaviour and its relationship to the development of regulatory frameworks for national and international sustainable agriculture. Within urban systems I am involved in the application of sustainability criteria for planning and construction of human scale communities. 

I am developing the role of transdisciplinary studies in environmental research and teaching. This involves collaboration with graduate students in the investigation of the foundations and methods of interdisciplinary science, the development of transdisciplinary methodologies and their application to postnormal science and the development of policy. These studies include the development of human ecology as an approach to understanding social and ecological linkages.

Thirdly I have maintained a strong interest in environmental philosophy, in particular in the ethics of eating including the relationship between ecologically and ethically sound consumption. Other ethical issues of concern include the development of transgenics and the ownership of life.