exploring the world food system through story

Student diversity is key to an exciting learning environment that lasts

December 28, 2022 by Lorena O. Felipe

The World Food System Center’s 10th Summer School took place this summer, exploring several teaching methodologies and bringing prominent experts on stage to speak about cross-disciplinary issues pertaining to the intertwined social and food systems. Aside from the well-designed technical curriculum, the multiculturality of the cohort as well as the choice of the venue of the Summer School, provide a unique chance for participants to embed themselves in a treasure-learning environment with a long-lasting personal experience. One of the Summer School participants explores this idea in an unconventional and personal manner, linking her experience with the picturesque beauty of Rheinau and the intense interaction among its participants.

Swiss wheat – a potential source to cover micronutrients requirements in plant-based diets?

December 22, 2022 by Lisa Konrad und Lorenz Luder

Zinc and iron deficiencies have increasingly come into the focus of health science research, as less developed but also industrialized countries are affected by these micronutrient deficiencies. Such deficiencies can be linked to inadequate intakes of iron and zinc and low dietary bioavailability of these micronutrients. As meat consumption decreases in wealthy societies due to the growing concerns of animal and environmental welfare, alternative zinc and iron sources are required. In contrast to regular meat consumption and the established alternate source through synthetic supplementation, our team focused on the research of wheat-based micronutrient sources. To what extent can the human requirement of iron and zinc be covered by plant-based diets and are they adequate for the substitution of meat as the conventional and proven iron and zinc source?

Can technology help prevent food waste?

December 22, 2022 by Daria Reisch

I was born in Ukraine just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and spent my childhood witnessing the severe crisis of a country transitioning from a planned to a market economy. There was literally no food to buy at the shops as supply chains collapsed. I learned first-hand what a disrupted food system looks like. Fortunately, Ukraine is rich in agriculture. My grandparents had a large garden where we grew fruits and vegetables for our own consumption with zero pesticides or sophisticated technology. That was the beginning of my connection to agriculture.

How heavy rainfalls challenge the sustainability of irrigated agriculture

December 14, 2022 by Sandra Pool and Joaquin Jimenez-Martinez

On October 6, we were in Valencia to present our research on the sustainability of irrigation methods in citrus orchards. It was one of these rare days in the year at which Valencia experiences one of its few, but heavy rainfall events. More than 100 mm fell in one day - this makes up almost 20% of its total rainfall in an entire year! For us, the heavy rain meant that we arrived at the conference with wet feet. For the farmers, it meant that much of the fertilizer they have applied to their citrus orchards in the previous weeks was about to be washed down to the groundwater, compromising groundwater quality and challenging the health of nearby groundwater-related ecosystems. Interestingly, farmers practicing the technologically advanced drip irrigation were likely losing more of their fertilizer than farmers practicing traditional flood irrigation. Why is that? And what does that mean for the sustainability of citrus production?

On the traces of the isotopes from grass to milk – a new workshop for schools

ETH

November 09, 2022 by Sabina Keller

The call for workshops came more than a year ago: To mark the 150th anniversary of Agricultural Sciences at ETH, students from high schools were to be invited to ETH for an “Open Week Education” to get a taste of research in agricultural sciences. I found the idea very appealing of developing a workshop for high school students and giving them an understanding of our group's research. But how to proceed when our research takes place in remote, decentralized fields and mountain forests?

Edible insects: a path towards more sustainable food systems?

ETH

October 06, 2022 by Niko Hilaj

By 2050: our planet will host 9 billion people. To meet the food and nutrition requirements the current food production system needs to alter its orientation and adopt more viable and sustainable options. At the same time, iron deficiency is the most prominent nutritional deficiency worldwide. Meat is generally a viable dietary iron source because of the high iron bioavailablity of heme iron, but increasing its consumption is not desirable if climate and nature conservation targets are to be met. Could insects play a role in providing dietary iron and assist towards transitioning to a lower population meat consumption?

Addressing agroecology through educational farms in the U.S.

August 25, 2022 by Maria de los Angeles Franco

My professional path and intuition guided me through agroecological farms along the U.S. in 2021. My journey started in Florida, then I moved to California, Hawaii, Missouri, Tennessee, to lately go back to Peru. I made this decision to travel to these states intentionally. For three months I worked on different plots, visited many farms, met with wonderful people, drove around 1000 miles and, last but not least, understood that access to healthy food is not a gift but a right.

Improving onion shelf life – A transdisciplinary approach for technology creation and dissemination

IIT Bombay

August 23, 2022 by Nilesh Vadgave

India with a population of 1.35 billion is the second largest producer of onion in the world (~25 Million MT in 2021). Over 70% of the onions are grown in the western and southern parts of the country. However, they are consumed across the country throughout the year. The imbalance in supply chain along with the high perishability of onions make the value chain inefficient. For the year-round consumption, onion is stored in traditional open ventilated storage structures where reported storage losses are in the range between 40 to 60%. The government is investing a large sum of money to stabilize the market prices through the construction of large sized open storage structures. Still, due to huge losses in traditional open structures, there is urgent need of affordable as well as scientific solution to this complex problem. With our research group at IIT Bombay, India, we addressed this issue by developing a storage technology with a transdisciplinary approach and came to very promising results.

The beauty of diversity – and its agro-ecological benefit

August 02, 2022 by Christina Vaccaro

As you look over the field, the first thing that catches your eyes is the varying heights of the wheat plants. There are giants standing out and dwarfs somewhat hidden in-between. Then you notice different colours, shades of green and yellow. You detect ears (the grain-bearing tip parts of the stem of a cereal plant) with awns (bristle-like appendages) and without, long ones and short ones – awns, that is to say, and also ears. Everything varies to certain degrees in this wheat field. Because this is not a “normal” wheat field. It is something very special with a particular name: a composite cross population. A composite cross population (CCP) is a genetic pool of descendants from a multitude of varieties. Do you think it could perform better in a more natural, heterogeneous environment like in an agroforestry system?

Building sustainable agroecosystems in western Kenya

August 02, 2022 by Maryam Cisse

When I arrived in Kenya and mostly in Sidada, the region where I was about to start the field work, one of the things that aroused my curiosity was the omnipresence of micro agricultural fields. While spending more time in the region, exchanging, and connecting with its community, I learned that it was common for each family to own a field and produce most of its daily food. While I shared with them the approach of Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) to mitigate climate change, I also learned a lot about the challenges they were facing.

Improving Early Nutrition and Health in South Africa through Capacity Building

June 30, 2022 by Jeannine Baumgartner & Estelle Strydom

Ensuring adequate intake of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) during the first 1000 days of life – the period from conception to the age of two years – is critical, as it is a period of rapid growth and brain development. The body’s requirements of key micronutrients increase markedly during this period but are often not met in low- and middle-income countries due to poor quality diets (e.g. lack of dietary diversity) or poor micronutrient absorption. Micronutrient deficiencies during the first 1000 days of life are associated with premature birth, low birth weight, stunting and impairments in brain development, with potential long-term health effects. In South Africa, an estimated 15% of infants are born with low birth weight and 27% of children under five years are stunted, a prevalence rate that has remained unchanged for almost 20 years.

Tiny larvae - huge potential

Zurich

April 13, 2022 by Maike Heuel

Eww larvae - that's certainly the first thing many of you might have thought when looking at the cover picture. And disgust is a good thing. It triggers a biological protective function, originally intended to prevent us from eating spoiled food. The fear of insects, on the other hand, is usually instilled. If our parents have a problem with them, we also develop a strong aversion. But actually, insects are a miracle of nature - really fascinating creatures. I was able to learn this during my doctorate at ETH, where we successfully used insect larvae as an alternative feed in poultry nutrition. Larvae suddenly became an essential part of my life and led me to my current job – and somehow my own aversion has turned into a passion!

Can feeding pomegranate peel to cows reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Zurich

February 23, 2022 by Puchun Niu

Is climate change real? A couple of years ago, when I first came to Norway, winter was a fun season. In winter, much of Norway usually transformed into a snow-clad paradise. This meant I could go skiing nearly every day in the snow-covered field right next to the campus. However, it is oddly enough that there has not been much snow falling in the last few years. It has got me thinking whether this climate phenomenon is a result of global warming due to the increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As an animal nutritionist, I have been thinking about what we can do to reduce the GHG emissions from large animals such as dairy cows. Would feeding pomegranate peel to cows reduce greenhouse gas emissions and valorize a food industry by-product?

Environmental knowledge and consumer communication

Zurich

February 14, 2022 by Marius Dihr

It is no secret, that we are in the middle of an environmental crisis. Natural habitats are lost all over the world, species become extinct at tremendous speed and the signs of climate change are more visible than ever. But to induce change and reduce the dimension of the already inevitable disaster, everyone has to take responsibility.

A Clear and Present Danger: Climate Change and Disrupted Lives

Cebu, Philippines

February 07, 2022 by Joan Oñate Narciso

When we were younger, I remember our parents telling us not to bathe in the first rain of the rainy season, for the simple reason that the first rain would be polluted. Back then, summer was strictly from January to June, and rainy season was from July to December. Even the sky, the clouds, and the weather respected this. Summer meant mangoes and month-long school breaks, whilst the rainy season meant the coming of typhoons and the start of school. I remember that the Philippines once had an alphabetical list of female names to call the annual typhoons: Auring (from Aurora), Juaning (from Juana), Rosing (from Rosa)... According to practice, the names for particularly destructive and deadly typhoons were retired from use to prevent psychological trauma for typhoon survivors. As the years passed, however, the delineation between summer and rainy season became more obscure. Typhoons started appearing even during the summer months, and places and regions in the Philippines where the annual typhoons did not normally visit, such as in the Southern Philippines, were now not spared from the brunt of the annual typhoons. What is worse, the annual typhoons became stronger, much stronger. And more destructive. The culprit? Climate change.

How to sustainably adapt to climatic changes?

Suryalila Retreat Centre

January 27, 2022 by Anna Siegert

It is summer 2021. A hot time of the year to be in the south of Spain. Especially this year. Record-breaking high temperatures of more than 45 degrees Celsius are expected in the Andalusian region. The state recommends staying inside as much as possible. This is nothing new for its inhabitants. They are used to dry and hot summers. And it seems that nature is, too. Brown hills as far as the eye can see. Green colors only appear in winter and spring, just as the first rains arrive. But they do appear, even if this seems impossible that time of the year.

Behavioral economic aspects of agricultural climate change mitigation

Zurich

November 24, 2021 by Cordelia Kreft

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production (mainly methane and nitrous oxide) is crucial for achieving international mitigation targets. Many studies have shown that agriculture indeed has large potential for effective emissions reduction. However, quite some uncertainty remains as to the exact reduction potential of single mitigation measures in crop production and livestock farming. This is partly due to the fact that agriculture is dependent on natural conditions and there can be many (sometimes not foreseeable) interactions within the ecosystems involved. Some mitigation measures can also lead to a conflict of different policy goals, e.g. in terms of other pollutants or animal welfare. Moreover, there is large heterogeneity of mitigation costs and reduction potential of single farms and consequently of farmers’ adoption of measures. Here is where my doctoral thesis in the Agricultural Economics and Policy Group (AECP) at ETH Zurich comes in.

When your holidays become a learning experience!

Las Corchuelas, Spain

October 05, 2021 by Christian Schöb

We all go to school, to work or follow our daily routine. But for some days (or weeks) per year we don’t. We are on holiday. As tourists we lie on the beach, we climb mountains or stroll through a beautiful old town. However, my point is not that we like to, at least mentally, relax and step away from our daily life during our holidays, but that we are actually often learning many new things during holidays, learning through new experiences in a new environment.

Indigenous Farming Practices in the Philippines: Old Ways of Doing, New Ways of Thinking for our Food Systems

Philippines

August 26, 2021 by Joan Oñate Narciso

Indigenous farming practices are local knowledge developed in a community that accumulated from farmers’ experiences and practices through time. No communities practice exactly the same farming strategies because indigenous knowledge arose from a community’s unique history of survival. Before modern agriculture, early farmers adopted practices they learnt from doing farming themselves. Some of these techniques, such as pruning of grapes, became the foundation of modern agricultural technologies. One of the reasons for their adoption in modern agriculture is that these approaches can be explained by science. Pruning, for example, helps balance the partitioning of photosynthates between the vine and the fruits, reducing the number of fruiting sites and the size of the vegetative system, and resulting in bigger clusters. Sustainable farming technologies derived from indigenous knowledge can provide solutions to the challenges of our modern food systems; however, scientific explanations behind these practices are often lacking, which limits their widespread use. A few indigenous farming practices from the Philippines are presented in this blog article, including an attempt to provide scientific explanations behind these approaches.

Exploring different Natural Plant Extracts based Biopesticides - Could they possibly expand the toolkit of organic farmers?

Bengaluru, India

August 12, 2021 by Naveen Hiremath

With the above question in mind, I started my journey on this project. It was during the initial Covid lockdown time in India when I was looking to work on something that resonates in my life. Because of my past experience with organic farming and as part of my current job, organic farmers always ask me to recommend something different than neem based (Azadirachta indica) pesticides to control pests and diseases. Therefore, I decided to work on plant extracts that could be used as Biopesticides. I then remembered the WFSC Ambassador Program which supports this kind of projects. That’s how this fabulous journey started and now led to this blog post!