Geography of Food Summer School:
International Exchange for Sustainable
Food Value Chains
Isabel Jaisli, Roman Grüter, Bernadette Oehen, Marina Pintar,
and Umesh Kontrakere Basegowda
1 Introduction
Providing regular access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for a growing population without depleting natural resources is one of the key challenges of the twentyfirst century (Folke et al. 2016; Steffen et al. 2015). The current global food system
has caused serious negative environmental impacts through changes in land use and
intensive production of food and feed. It has contributed to the crossing of several
planetary boundaries that attempt to define a safe operating space for humanity,
including climate change, soil degradation and contamination, the destruction of
natural ecosystems, biodiversity loss, depletion of freshwater resources and water
pollution through excessive fertilizer and pesticide inputs (Campbell et al. 2017;
Springmann et al. 2018; Steffen et al. 2015). At the same time, the different forms
of malnutrition still either persist or are increasing. More than 820 million people
in the world are undernourished and over 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient
deficiencies, while about 2 billion adults are overweight (FAO 2019a).
The strong interlinkages and interdependencies with society, the environment and
the economy (Ericksen 2008) make the food system a key driver of sustainability. The
United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; Rosa 2017) acknowledge
the major importance of our global food system for a sustainable society. Explicitly
I. Jaisli (B) · R. Grüter
Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW, Campus Gruental, 8820 Waedenswil, Switzerland
e-mail: Isabel.jaisli@zhaw.ch
B. Oehen
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland
M. Pintar
Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
U. Kontrakere Basegowda
University of Agricultural Sciences Bangalore, Bangalore, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting
the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63399-8_8
107
International Exchange for Sustainable
Food Value Chains
Isabel Jaisli, Roman Grüter, Bernadette Oehen, Marina Pintar,
and Umesh Kontrakere Basegowda
1 Introduction
Providing regular access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for a growing population without depleting natural resources is one of the key challenges of the twentyfirst century (Folke et al. 2016; Steffen et al. 2015). The current global food system
has caused serious negative environmental impacts through changes in land use and
intensive production of food and feed. It has contributed to the crossing of several
planetary boundaries that attempt to define a safe operating space for humanity,
including climate change, soil degradation and contamination, the destruction of
natural ecosystems, biodiversity loss, depletion of freshwater resources and water
pollution through excessive fertilizer and pesticide inputs (Campbell et al. 2017;
Springmann et al. 2018; Steffen et al. 2015). At the same time, the different forms
of malnutrition still either persist or are increasing. More than 820 million people
in the world are undernourished and over 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient
deficiencies, while about 2 billion adults are overweight (FAO 2019a).
The strong interlinkages and interdependencies with society, the environment and
the economy (Ericksen 2008) make the food system a key driver of sustainability. The
United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; Rosa 2017) acknowledge
the major importance of our global food system for a sustainable society. Explicitly
I. Jaisli (B) · R. Grüter
Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW, Campus Gruental, 8820 Waedenswil, Switzerland
e-mail: Isabel.jaisli@zhaw.ch
B. Oehen
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland
M. Pintar
Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
U. Kontrakere Basegowda
University of Agricultural Sciences Bangalore, Bangalore, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities, Sustainability and Society: Supporting
the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63399-8_8
107