With an extensive portfolio of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and presentations, Bellow’s research interests include food and nutrition systems and economies; linkages between sustainable agriculture, development and livelihoods; human rights and the right to adequate food and nutrition, including food and nutrition security; civil society, social movements, and food sovereignty; community public health; urban-rural food linkages in terms of production for trade and household consumption, migration, nutritional health, biodiversity, food safety, food practices and praxis, cultural integrity and identity, social justice, gender, and children.

Bellows has been recognized for teaching and research excellence, receiving funding support for her work from diverse agencies and foundations including the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Research and Exchanges Board, Open Society Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, U.S. Agency for International Development, Johnson and Johnson Foundation, Robert Bosch Foundation, Foundation fiat panis, Misereor, Heinrich Böll Foundation, and the European Union-supported EcoFair Trade Dialogue Projects.

Previously, Bellows was a University Professor (2007-2012) at Hohenheim University. She also served as the Chair of the Department of Gender and Nutrition and Deputy Director of the Institute for Social Sciences in Agriculture in the Faculty of Agriculture and was the Director of the Research Center for Gender and Nutrition, a think tank for the university.