Foresight
Context
Within the coming decades, global, national and local food systems are projected to face enormous and unprecedented challenges. These challenges are influenced by environmental, social, political, and economic changes taking place across geographical scales, which will affect core food systems outcomes such as food security, environmental health and social welfare. Research and policy strategies that take into account these changes and future projections are needed to address these challenges and to establish resilient food systems.
The ETH Zurich World Food System Center, chaired by Prof. Nina Buchmann, was commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture to conduct a foresight study that considers the implications of global trends and projections for the Swiss food system, and informs the development of a research strategy to ensure a sustainable Swiss food system in the next twenty years.
Find the final report Downloadhere (PDF, 1.7 MB)vertical_align_bottom.
Objectives
The two-stage project focused around four main objectives.
The first stage (1) synthesized current literature on global trends and drivers affecting the world food system today and in the future and (2) identified major research questions that need to be addressed to achieve food and nutrition security, environmental health, and social welfare.
The second stage (3) analyzed key implications of the global macro-trends for Switzerland (as identified in Stage 1); and (4) identified major research themes for the Swiss food system that are critical in building a sustainable Swiss food system and are relevant based on stakeholder perspectives.