Discussing the future of agriculture

The Swiss Agritech & Food Industry Event, organized by digitalswitzerland and hosted by ETH Zurich, provided a great opportunity for people directly involved in policy development, innovation, and implementation of digital approaches within the AgroFood sector to meet and discuss. The public part of the event held on 18 October 2018, allowed visitors the chance to take part in the discussion.

Federal Councilor Johann Schneider-Ammann gave a keynote presentation entitled “The future of Swiss agriculture in a digitized world.” After the presentation, an interesting discussion took place about the challenges and opportunities for Swiss agritech, food, and retail industries in a digitized world. The panelists included farmers, representatives of local start-ups, as well as established companies such as Bühler, Syngenta, Nestlé, and Fenaco.

Several informational stands were set up during the networking reception that followed. The ETH Studio AgroFood, a project of the World Food System Center, was invited to have a stand and enjoyed the chance to meet representatives from companies, startups, and farmer associations. The stand, led by Project Manager Dr. Eduardo Pérez, displayed various aspects of the vision of ETH Zurich on the topic of Smart Farming. Visitors to the stand were introduced to the different projects on Smart Farming currently occurring at the ETH Zurich Plant Science Research Station.