Jules is Emeritus Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex. His sole-authored books include The Low-Carbon Good Life (2023), Sea Sagas of the North (2022), The East Country (2017), The Edge of Extinction (2014), This Luminous Coast (2011), The Earth Only Endures (2007), Agri-Culture (2002), The Living Land (1998), and Regenerating Agriculture (1995).

He is a former Deputy-Chair of the UK government’s Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, have served on advisory committees for UK research councils and the Government Office for Science, the Royal Society, Natural England and Academy of Medical Sciences, food companies, the Swiss National Science Federation and China Agricultural University. Jules was appointed A D White Professor-at-Large by Cornell University and the Nat C Robertson Visiting Professor at Emory University, and was Founding and Chief Editor of the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. He received an award from the Indian Ecological Society for contributions to regenerative agriculture.

Jules was presenter of the BBC Radio 4 series Ploughing Eden, a contributor and writer for the BBC TV Correspondent programme The Magic Bean, and was a panellist for Radio 4’s The Moral Maze. He wrote and presented a BBC radio show on Rachel Carson. He is the host of 76 podcasts and films (in the series Louder Than Words and Brighter Futures).

He received an OBE in the UK for services to sustainable agriculture, an honorary degree from Ohio State University, and the British Science Association Presidential Medal (Agriculture and Food). He was appointed President of Essex Wildlife Trust, and is Chair of the Essex Climate Action Commission. He is Chair of the Kansas State University Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, Fellow of the Evergreeing Global Alliance and the WWF-UK, and Senior Associate Scientist at the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Iceland. Jules was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Essex in 2023.

He was formerly a Centre Director, Head of Department, Pro-Vice Chancellor and then Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Essex.

This Luminous Coast was winner of New Angle Prize for Literature, and The East Country was winner of the East Anglian book of the year. Agri-Culture was shortlisted for the US Harry Chapin media awards. Jules write the blog series The Climate Chronicles.

Profile: https://julespretty.com/about/