Circularity for Resilient Food Systems

From 3-8 March 2022, the World Food System Center collaborated with the Sustainable Agroecosystems and the Agroecological Transitions research groups to host the second short course for food systems professionals on designing for food systems resilience using a circular approach. The program aimed to connect practitioners working in the fields of agriculture, food, and nutrition to the knowledge and methods that have emerged from research at ETH Zurich. The first two days of the course focused on concepts of agroecology, resilience, circularity, systems thinking, power dynamics, and solidarity economy. After a weekend break, the next days had participants delve into the design thinking process.

Online Course as an Opportunity

The course ran online, making use of the interactive platforms Zoom and Miro. What resulted from a necessity last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, proved to be a very effective way to bring professionals together from all over the world. Professionals from Brazil would join from early in the morning, and participants from China stayed on until late in the night. All participated for the whole of the program.

Throughout the program, the participants actively interacted and collaborated, making intensive use of the online tools. The connections made, across the globe and disciplines, by working together on food system challenges were clearly noted by the course organizers. Center staff Toya Bezzola commented, “We found that carefully designed and facilitated online educational programs can bring down barriers and allow for a wider diversity within the participant group.”

A big thank you to all the contributors who made this program such a highly interactive and fun experience for participants!

What some participants had to say about the experience:

"The course allowed me to have a 360^o view of all the issues that hinder the development of resilient food systems today as well as the actions and actors necessary to make a food system resilient. It made me question my diet choices and introspectively look at how my eating habits may be contributing to climate change.

Additionally, the knowledge gained from the experts are very rich and will stay with me for a lifetime. It is indeed a great learning experience and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to contribute positively to the restructuring of the worlds food system."

"Thanks to the ETH World Food System Centre team for this great course. It was so refreshing and thought provoking to look at Food System Transformation needs through a systems dynamic lens. The course was very well organised and the learning journey easily enabled through virtual tools. I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in changing systemic problems within our food sector."