Geoff Cockfield
Institute for Resilient Regions and the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Areas of research & interest:
- Agriculture & food
- Behaviour change
- Carbon offsets & markets
- Circular economy
- Climate change
- Emissions reduction
- Land use & planning
- Policy & regulation
- Social issues
- Agriculture & environment
- Carbon & environmental markets
- Emissions reduction & sequestration
- Policy & regulation
- Technology solutions
- Land Use & Regional Planning
BIO
Professor Geoff Cockfield is an Honorary Professor in both the Institute for Resilient Regions and the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems at USQ. Before starting an academic career he worked in agricultural industries and rural journalism. His scholarly research has largely been about agricultural policy and natural resources management and policy. Externally funded research projects have included: evaluating the prospects for increasing rice and cotton production in northern Australia; climate change adaptation for farmers in southern Queensland and northern NSW; financing wild dog exclusion fences in western Queensland; the financial implications of carbon sequestration projects on grazing properties in western NSW; and improving forestry policies in the Lao PDR and Vietnam. He also has an on-going academic interest in the National Party of Australia and its fortunes and the ideas and life of Adam Smith. He was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Agriculture and Life Sciences (2018-19) at Kansas State University, where he conducted a study of comparative agricultural policy in the US and Australia. He has also undertaken two studies of farmer decision-making in the dairy industry, using some of the concepts and findings from behavioural economics and related cognitive sciences.
