Fostering Plant-Based Food Value Chains & Nutrition

ETH Zurich and the World Food System Center are launching Plant4Value, a transdisciplinary project aimed at strengthening plant-based value chains "from field to fork." The project is funded by the Mercator Switzerland Foundation, the Seedling Foundation, and the Minerva Foundation. In collaboration with 24 partners, innovative measures for scaling plant-based value chains and nutrition will be tested, focusing on their economic, social, and ecological viability.

The project runs from 2025 until 2030 and tackles key environmental, health, and socio-economic challenges facing the current food system. While there is broad scientific consensus on the benefits of more plant-based diets and agricultural production, transitioning complex agri-food value chains and demand remains difficult due to persistent economic, social, and political barriers. These include high land and labor costs, investment dependencies and infrastructure lock-ins, limited consumer demand for plant-based food, and a polarized public discourse around agricultural and dietary change.

Using a transdisciplinary approach and field experiments, the project team, together with its implementation partners across the value chain, will pilot and evaluate a variety of innovative measures to address existing challenges in the transition process. These include an experimental budget to support farmers in transitioning to more plant-based food production, the application of novel technologies to enable new forms of value creation in plant-based food production and processing, and choice-architectural as well as market-based interventions to foster consumer demand and estimate realistic market potentials.

ETH Zurich will lead the experimental evaluation of the social, economic, and environmental impacts of these measures. This evidence base will provide assessments of the effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability of different innovative policy options for scaling plant-based food value chains and nutrition, providing critical insights to stakeholders and policymakers in the transition process towards more sustainable food systems.

The project is also supported by an advisory group of key stakeholders in the Swiss agricultural and food system.

Project Leadership and Communication: The project is led by Dr. Lukas Fesenfeld (principal scientific investigor) and Dr. Daniela Hoffmann together with a transdisciplinary team at the forthcoming ETH School of Public Policy. The World Food System Center supports the project through stakeholder engagement and communication activities.

Project Funding: The project is funded by a consortium of different foundations: The Mercator Switzerland Foundation, the Seedling Foundation, and the Minerva Foundation.

Contact: Dr. Lukas Fesenfeld,