WFSC News

Since 2014, the Center has collaborated with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Sustainable Agroecosystems Group to offer a three-​day course for ETH Zurich Master’s students at the FAO headquarters in Rome.

Our 45 members are full of ideas on how to drive change towards food and nutrition security, environmental health and social well-being for all in our world food system.

We are pleased to share our Annual Report 2023, which highlights our many research, education, and outreach activities focused on food system transformation.

Alumni Stories: 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.

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. The public was able to join in discussions with the consortium at the seminar ‘How do we build sustainable urban food systems?’

Alumni Stories: Future Food Fellow Joan Oñate Narciso shares how her work on kabog millet with communities in Cebu, Philippines has left a lasting impression on her life.

As the RUNRES project enters its second phase of developing and now upscaling innovations for circular economies in the rural-urban nexus, private-public-partnerships will continue to play an important role.

New ways to measure nitrous oxide emissions from soils as well as detect invasive pests in vineyards are the foci of two new interdisciplinary projects starting in 2024. Both projects are funded by the Center’s Smart Sustainable Farming Research Program.

Updates from the Novel Protein for Food and Feed Flagship Project include the development of “calamari” rings made from microalgae and mung bean protein as well as a study on Singaporean consumers’ acceptance of microalgae-based foods.

The Center announces two new projects starting in 2024 focused on understanding how different crop rotation practices affect water and nitrogen balances as well as production. Both projects are funded by the Improving Sustainability of Agricultural and Food Systems across Key Environmental Metrics Research Program.  

Three new projects supported by the Future Food Initiative focus on various topics of health and nutrition. Adipose tissue expandability and probiotic bacteria functional ability will be investigated as well as new innovations for processing plant proteins.

Food Day @ETH brought more than 200 people with different backgrounds together to discuss food system transformation. The networking poster session gave young scientists a stage to present their innovative research on food system topics.

In a new study, an international consortium led by researchers at ETH Zurich, investigated the cascading impacts after two consecutive hurricanes (Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017) on smallholder banana farmers in Dominican Republic.

The World Food System Center along with the Grassland Sciences Group are pleased to announce the return of the public lecture series on agroecology and its role in the transformation of sustainable food systems.

As part of the Open Your Eyes Photo Festival, a panel discussion brought together experts and ETH Zurich students to discuss the sustainability of Swiss food production.  

The Flagship Project Novel Proteins for Food and Feed aims to develop food innovations to provide new sources of sustainable and nutritious protein for a growing world population. Work continues on projects focused on urban food waste management with black soldier fly larvae, in Switzerland and Singapore.

The Flagship Project Enhancing Resilience in Food Systems seeks to directly contribute to food systems resilience by supporting decision-​making in practice through stakeholder participation and academic education. Several projects are ongoing in countries across Africa and in Switzerland.

World Food System Center alumni and friends plant seeds of learning and understanding at Bloom, a community garden project in Zurich. Recent highlights at the garden include permaculture and mushroom workshops and a film series.

Eating insects might make some people squeamish, but they are already part of the diet of millions of people worldwide. Researchers at ETH Zurich explored insects as source of dietary iron. Nikolin Hilaj and Diego Moretti present their findings in our new film.

Insect pests cause major crop damage and yield losses. ETH Zurich researcher Anna Spescha shares her work with beneficial soil organisms to control insect pests.

How might we involve the collective in agroecological projects and ensure long-term application? A group of World Food System Center alumni recently traveled to Colombia to explore answers to this question with local organizations.

A multidisciplinary project, led by researchers at ETH Zurich, explored how organic bean production in North Macedonia can be optimized. Akanksha Singh presents findings from the project in a new video.

Soils can store high quantities of carbon, but erosion can cause these carbon sinks to flip into sources. An international research team is looking to unravel this erosional transfer of carbon in the Kasaï Basin, the largest tributary of the Congo River.

In a new video, ETH Zurich researcher Christian Andres presents how dynamic agroforestry can contribute to healthy, sustainable cocoa farms and the livelihoods of farmers.

We are pleased to share with you our Annual Report 2022, which highlights various research, education, and outreach activities focused on food system transformation.

A multidisciplinary project led by the AgroEcological Transition Group at ETH Zurich aims to understand the links between collective decision-​making and ecological footprints in coffee and soybean value chains.

The program funds interdisciplinary projects that together lay the foundation to better understand the sustainability of relevant European cropping systems and improve their environmental footprint.

Our public lecture series focusing on agroecology is back! Join us to discuss this holistic and integrated approach with experts from across the food system.

Professors and senior researchers at ETH Zurich are invited to submit research projects involving at least two research groups and, ideally, combine an agronomic perspective with a technical, computational, data-​based, or socio-​economic perspective.

Eaten directly or in plant-based meat alternatives, incorporating pulses into diets offers a source of more sustainable protein for human nutrition. New research at ETH Zurich aims to speed up the breeding of new varieties of dry peas for different Swiss climates.

Projects continued across Africa to improve the resilience of the city region food systems. Here are some highlights from 2022.

In collaboration with the Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Sociology, the World Food System Center held a webinar discussing the needs but also the challenges of implementing social sustainability standards in our food systems.

The Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research awards focused on little animals that make big impact in agriculture. Adrian Fuhrmann from ETH Zurich won the Masters Award for his research on black soldier fly rearing.

The World Food System Center of ETH Zurich and Bayer launch a partnership focused on sustainable agricultural systems and production practices. Bayer is supporting several interdisciplinary research projects of the World Food System Center with a total donation of 1.1 million Swiss francs over the next four years.

Cassava-maize intercropping is a traditional crop production system in southern Nigeria. Yields from both crops, however, are low compared with potential yields. New collaborative research looked at planting densities and nutrient management to create a site-specific decision support tool for farmers.

Years of field research is showing the potential of dynamic agroforestry to help create diverse, healthy cocoa farms. A recent workshop brought local stakeholders in Ghana together to propose solutions to increase the adoption of agroforestry on farms.

An evening of open discussion about sustainable pest management systems led to lively exchange amoung the guests and interdisciplinary experts from agronomy, agroecology, human toxicology, ecotoxicology and agricultural economics and policy.

The 10th World Food System Summer School organized by the Center recently started. Michelle Grant and Monika Piessens reflect on what has led to the longevity and success of the program.

A newly funded interdisciplinary project will focus on using smartphone images of fields to create visualizations of past and future crop development. This project is the first funded through the research initiative launched by the World Food System Center and fenaco cooperative on the topic of Smart Sustainable Farming.

Announcing a discussion event at ETH Zurich. Join to openly exchange with an expert consortium on how agriculture can transform to include sustainable pest management systems.

Nina Buchmann and Michael Siegrist look back on their time as Chair of the World Food System Center. From it founding with 25 members and subsequent growth, both reflect on the relevance of the food system research.

Mélanie Surchat recently spent three months in Rwanda, seeking to understand the potential of the biowaste economy to create decent work opportunities, from the workers’ perspective. Her work provides insights into often ignored impacts associated with the circular bioeconomy.

The exhibition “Science on Your Plate” is now open at the Mühlerama Museum for Food Culture in Zurich. Come along and discover forward-​looking research that helps us find ways to eat that are healthy for us and the planet.

An upcoming seminar with food systems expert Chris Barrett will focus on how successful transformation of our food system will require the combination of accelerated technological change with a range of policy, institutional and cultural innovations.

The new exhibition “Science on Your Plate” at the Mühlerama Museum in Zurich takes visitors on the journey of our food. And it seeks answers to one of the most difficult questions: How do we feed a growing world population?

In an upcoming course, participants will learn how to use systemic and transdisciplinary approaches to transform waste into resources, close loops, create shared value, and leverage interconnections to design interventions that build resilience.

To assess new industry policies aimed at dramatically decreasing deforestation, the Environmental Policy Lab at ETH Zurich developed a new research approach that connects social and ecological data across many scales.