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| April 2024 |
For the vision of sustainable food systems to become a reality, existing structures, established practices, and cultural habits must be courageously changed. Applications of smart combinations of local knowledge and science-driven innovations in farming, industry, and policy are paramount. Furthermore, appropriate policy measures are needed to create incentives that promote awareness and willingness to adopt new behaviors in production and consumption.
These poignant words from Robert Finger and Martijn Sonnevelt, from the Welcome section of the Center’s Annual Report, particularly resonate in these times when challenges in our food system are more pressing than ever.
We hope you join us in driving transformation in our food system, and we look forward to seeing what collaborative efforts we can achieve together in 2024.
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| Center News |
| Annual Report 2023 |
We are pleased to share with you our Annual Report for 2023.
Turn the pages to meet the new members who joined the Center in 2023. Learn more about how ETH students gained science-policy experience at the FAO in Rome, participating in both the FAO Course in spring and the World Food Forum in fall. Discover how our numerous outreach and dialogue events, including Food Day @ETH, workshops, and public lectures and fairs, engaged well over 2,000 participants in 2023.
We thank everyone who contributed quotes and images. With our ongoing activities, we are committed to developing, in partnership with you and all stakeholders in the food system, promising pathways to create sustainable food systems. |
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| New Members |
 Prof. Marc Müller is the Group Leader of Coupled Human-Water Systems at Eawag. His group studies the relationships between social and hydrological systems within the nexus of food, water, energy and environmental security. They have investigated the effect of transnational land acquisitions and irrigation infrastructure expansion on local food security, water competition, and biodiversity losses.
Visit the Group Website |  Prof. Randall Platt heads the Laboratory of Biological Engineering in the ETH Zurich Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering. His group works on characterizing mechanisms by which nutritional interventions influence the establishment and functional ability of probiotic bacteria in the gut, with the long-term goal of engineering better synbiotics.
Visit the Group Website |
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| Research |
| Project Booklet |
The Center's 45 member groups bring together a diverse range of expertise, enabling innovative solutions throughout the food system at various levels and disciplines. Check out their ideas to support food systems transformation in our new Project Booklet 2024.
Prof. Dr. Christian Wolfrum, Vice President for Research at ETH Zurich, comments, "Across these pages, we endeavoured to showcase the passion of our researchers, the depth of their insights, and the real-world impact that their work delivers. It is our hope that this booklet serves as an inspiration to kindle your enthusiasm and propel you to join us to help create sustainable food systems for all.” |
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| Research Programs |
This quarter, the Center opened a call for the Improving Sustainability of Agricultural and Food Systems across Key Environmental Metrics Research Program. This call is intended to fund interdisciplinary projects aimed at reducing the environmental impact of agricultural systems, specifically of relevant European cropping systems, while supporting food production as well as economic and social sustainability of all actors.
The results generated from these projects will have direct value for society, policy, and industry.
Deadline: 15 May 2024 |
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| Education |
| Food Security Course at FAO |
This year’s course for ETH Zurich Master's students at the FAO headquarters in Rome took place in early April. In the course, students discover and explore how true cost of food accounting could be a supportive concept to redefine policies and measures to increase sustainability of food systems locally and globally.
In Rome, the students met and discussed with experts from the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to United Nations organizations and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). |
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| Alumni Stories: Empowering farmers to build resilience to climate change |
Benjamin Gräub shares struggles and insights from his learning journey while developing a new app for farmers in Kenya in times of Covid, a project supported by a Center Ambassador Grant.
He comments that farmers in Central Kenya are clearly in need of simple, easily accessible courses on agroecological practices. However, reaching a large number of farmers willing to pay for these courses proved to be challenging. Most importantly, courses need to be extremely easy to share and rate. Using testimonials and co-creating courses with farmers increases success. |
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| Outreach |
| NICE project team visits ETH Zurich |
Over a week in March, NICE country teams and representatives from six cities in Rwanda, Kenya, and Bangladesh joined in peer-learning visits to Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland.
One day of the visit was held at ETH Zurich, where the NICE cities representatives met and exchanged with Zurich city representatives. The public was then able to discuss with the consortium in the evening at the seminar ‘How do we build sustainable urban food systems?’ At the event, inputs and discussions highlighted that using a coordinated food system approach in urban food systems provides opportunities for livelihoods, improved diets especially for women and youth, and an increased agency of all food system actors. |
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| Science on Your Plate at Food Zurich |
This June, the Center again joins Food Zurich to create an interactive dinner, Science on Your Plate – Fine Dining of the Future.
Enjoy a delicious dinner created by Marmite Youngster award winning chefs. And lend an ear between bites to researchers from ETH Zurich sharing exciting insights from their own work focused on the ingredients. Tickets on sale soon!
Dates: 12 & 14 June 2024
Location: Food Zurich Festival Tent, Europaallee, Zurich |
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| Food Day @ETH |
30 October 2024
ETH Zurich
Join us for this year’s Food Day @ETH. We look forward to see our members, partners, and friends at our yearly public symposium. Take part in interactive discussions, presentations on new research findings, and workshops on food system related research and innovation. Registration starts in September.
Interested in creating a workshop with us?
Contact us at wfsc@ethz.ch. |
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