Projects at the Geography of Food Research Group

Key projects
CONSUS – Spatial decision support tool for strategic agricultural planning

CONSUS is a geographic information system (GIS) tool for the efficient and strategic planning of production and procurement in the agricultural market. It assesses the suitability of locations for specific agricultural products worldwide on the basis of geographical information pertaining to climate and soil as well as socio-economic and political criteria.
Project partner: Geoinformatics Research Group
Project financing: Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture SFSA
Duration: 2014 - 2021
Further information: Project page CONSUS
NOVANIMAL - Innovations for a future-oriented consumption and animal production

People around the world are consuming increasing amounts of meat and dairy products; pressures on the environment and diet-related health risks are on the rise. The Swiss food culture is also characterised by dairy products and meat. The project looks for innovations along the value chains to reduce the undesirable consequences of the production and consumption of animal foodstuffs. In collaboration with various partners, strategies and recommendations for a healthy and sustainable Swiss food culture and for more creativity and diversity on the plate will be developed.
Project partners: EBPI Institut für Epidemiologie, Biostatistik und Prävention, FiBL Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau, FHNW Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, CCRS Center for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, BFH Berner Fachhochschule, Agroscope
Project financing: SNF (NRP 69 Healthy Nutrition and Sustainable Food Production)
Duration: 2016 - 2019
Further information: Project page NOVANIMAL
Foodscape.ch – An educational game on the Swiss nutrition system as a teaching unit

Foodscape.ch is a digital educational game, which is designed to show and make tangible the connections between diet, land use and health. The game is being created for use in the classroom and will be supplemented with additional material. This material will pick up questions from the game and will stimulate discussion. In addition to developing the game and the accompanying material, pilot implementations in schools with project partners are at the centre of the project. The aim of Foodscape.ch is to train young people to make responsible decisions in their professional lives, in their consumption practices and in their political participation.
Project partners: ZHdK, Strickhof, ILGI
Project financing: Stiftung Mercator Schweiz
Duration: 2018 - 2020
Further information: Project page Foodscape.ch, website www.foodscape.ch
The eco-confessional

In the eye-catching, walk-in box, visitors are warmly welcomed by a voice. In a dialogue, a range of environmentally damaging acts is presented on a touch screen. Visitors select one, whereupon various ways of rectifying this are suggested. A controller shows the magnitude of the environmental impact in different areas. All necessary calculations are based on scientific life cycle assessments.
Project partners: Atelier KreativKonsum, balthasarillustration, VAMOS! Film Gmbh, Roy Gablinger, Forschungsgruppe Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation, Life Cycle Assessment Research Group, Econcept AG
Project financing: Stiftung Mercator Schweiz, Gebert Rüf Stiftung
Duration: 2015 - 2017
Further information: Project page eco-confessional (German only)
All projects
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MOVING – Mountain Valorization through Interconnectedness and Green Growth
MOVING aims to build capacities and co-develop policy frameworks across Europe for the establishment of new or upgraded and upscaled value chains, contributing to resilience and sustainability of mountain areas, valorising local assets, and delivering private and public goods. In this framework, the ZHAW team treats ...
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Cocoa in Numbers - from data to knowledge
Nowadays consumers of cocoa and chocolate products are not only interested in safe high-quality products but also in products which are sustainable and produced under fair ecological and social conditions. The demand for transparency of information on the condition of cultivation, production and trade as well as on ...
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WWF Standards Evaluations
In 2015, the NGOs PUSCH, WWF and others published a comparison of food standards on the Swiss market in order to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions. This comparison is based on a multi-dimensional evaluation through indicators in environmental, social and governance aspects (Herrmann et al., 2015). ...
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Virtual Summer School - tackling climate change through global learning
Global challenges require international cooperation at eye level and innovative solution strategies. The ZHAW's virtual summer school "Tackling Climate Change through Global Learning" with partners in Brazil and India aims to train students to become global change makers. Global learning, intercultural communication ...
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Agrobiodiversity Summer School
Agrobiodiversity includes the diversity of crops and livestock species and varieties, the diversity of production and food supply systems, different agricultural practices and intensities and the biodiversity that indirectly supports agriculture through provisioning ecosystem services. Agrobiodiversity is therefore ...
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Acceptance study in the Regional Parks ELa and Beverin
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MyFoodChoice: Personal values for sustainable consumption
Consumption decisions are personal and based on one's own preferences, possibilities and values. Everyone has his or her own consumer ethical values and ideas according to which he or she wishes to act. But are they being implemented? A large proportion of Swiss people state that they also pay attention to ...
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Eco Missions
Escape Rooms and Outdoor Missions are booming: Electronic scavenger hunts, foxtrails, geocaching, or mobile phone trails are a popular leisure activity among young families or young people. Our new "Eco Missions" offer is designed to do justice to these new leisure activities. In an eco mission, the various aspects ...
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Foodscape.ch
Agricultural production, consumption, trade of food, etc -- the Swiss food system is as complex as it is central to our daily lives. Our food supply has a greater impact on the environment, economy and society than almost any other area of life. And yet we are not very familiar with the structures and mechanisms ...
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Regionalised Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment
The start-up financed project is a research cooperation of the research groups Life Cycle Assessment, Geography of Food and Geoinformatics for the development of a competence focus "Regionalised Agricultural LCA". The feasibility of a regionalised life cycle assessment will be examined with regard to technical and ...
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TRANSFOOD: IMPROVING SUSTAINABILITY IMPACTS OF TRANSNATIONAL FOOD VALUE CHAINS
Globalisation of the food trade leads to various impacts on the economy, the environment, and society. Emerging economies that have expanded their agricultural trade and have become net agricultural exporters are particularly affected. The proposed research collaboration aims at combining interdisciplinary research ...
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Food from Wood
Food from Wood is a research project about edible insects, which do not feed on staple food of humans. Rhinoceros beetles and flower chafers stand in focus. The larvae spend their development inside the soil until pupation and they feed on dead wood. After pupation, the larvae can be sieved out of the substrate and ...
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The potential for ecologically sustainable agricultural production and ethologically responsible animal husbandry in Switzerland
Food is responsible for a large proportion of global consumption of natural resources and for many environmental impacts. The focus is on animal foods in particular. The high and growing consumption of meat and milk is a global challenge. Switzerland must also participate in the search for ways of achieving ...
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AgroInnoTool
Swiss agriculture is under increasing pressure due to international competition, changing consumer needs, declining margins and a changing environment. Although the competitiveness of traditional agricultural production is declining, examples of innovative farmers show that niche products and diversification ...
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Pearls of Sustainability
Sustainability can be experienced directly on Campus Grüental. Here you can discover "the Pearls of Sustainability" and learn more about our research Projects. Study our treasure map and track down the individual pearls. With a little luck, you will not only learn a lot about the 17 sustainability goals of the ...
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NOVANIMAL Innovations in nutrition
Abstract People around the world are consuming increasing amounts of meat and dairy products, nutrition-related health risks and pressures on the environment are on the rise. This project aims to identify innovations along the value chains that would reduce the negative impacts of producing and consuming ...
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Sustainable and healthy diets: Trade-offs and synergies
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Global site assessment for hazelnut production
Currently, 64% of the world's hazelnut production comes from Turkey. A further 13% is produced in Italy. This concentration on a small number of countries poses a risk for the long-term safeguarding of the hazelnut supply. In order to ensure the procurement of hazelnuts in the long term, hazelnut production must be ...
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Eco-confession-chair
Life holds temptations ready, which make each one of us to be carried away to a greater or lesser sin. But what are the truly ecologically relevant sins, what are they doing, and what can each individual do to avoid them and thus contribute to a more sustainable society? The "Ökobeichtstuhl" is an innovative ...
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CONSUS
The Institute for Environment and Natural Resources (IUNR) has developed a tool for the efficiently and strategically planning of production and procurement in the agricultural market. It assesses the suitability of sites worldwide for specific agricultural products on the basis of geographic information on climate ...