News

Youth are key actors in shaping the future of food systems. A recent visit by a delegation from the FAO Office of Youth and Women to ETH Zurich provided an opportunity to exchange on youth engagement and empowerment in food systems transformation and explore opportunities for future collaboration.

The EU has introduced new legislation for plants developed using new genomic techniques. If Switzerland were to follow a different path, it would increase red tape and make it harder to exchange plant material for research, breeding and agriculture, says ETH professor Bruno Studer.

A new method allows whole legumes to be converted into tasty products with a fibrous structure. The technique is so simple that it can even be applied at home.

The human microbiome may play a critical role in determining the health impacts of chemical exposure from food, according to new research on the herbicide metazachlor.

The sustainability of tropical products can only be verified using reliable data on production practices. A new study, using cocoa as an example, shows that such data is frequently falsified by the auditing agents. However, a simple change to the way data is collected could significantly reduce manipulation. 

Severe wildfires are raging across Europe. ETH researcher Christine Eriksen argues that destructiveness of wildfires is often determined by social and cultural processes. 

The course Cultivating Knowledge: Collaboration and Communication in Agroecology at ETH Zurich allowed students to designing science communication toolkits to promote a Living Lab in South Africa. 

Over two weeks, 45 participants from 22 countries and representing 33 fields of study came together at ETH Zurich for the 2026 edition of the Summer School organized by the World Food System Center. Working in interdisciplinary teams and alongside external partners, participants applied design thinking to develop solutions to real-world challenges related to sustainable urban food environments, food system governance, and cultivated meat. 

The interactions between microscopic algal cells and bacteria in the oceans play a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now taken an important step towards deciphering the chemical language that brokers these interactions.