Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)

Food systems and agriculture

3 July 2024

plate with fishbone

Impacts of the soy–meat complex in Santarém, Brazil

Studies on soy production in Brazil often focus on environmental degradation. However, the soy sector also jeopardizes local access to sufficient healthy food – and raises questions of justice, as research results from the CDE and the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro show.

23 February 2023

“Further loss of soil fertility and biodiversity will cause yields to decline”

In spring, the Swiss parliament will likely postpone the environmental and climate targets in agricultural policy. A scientific panel called for a very different course of action. Bettina Scharrer of CDE was one of the main authors of the relevant scientific report.

8 December 2022

“Diverse and regional nutrition makes us more resilient”

Crises also threaten the supply of food. Sabin Bieri and Theresa Tribaldos of CDE therefore call for a move away from standardized food production and processing. They say: “If agrobiodiversity declines massively and fewer and fewer crop varieties are cultivated globally – that’s dangerous.”

8 November 2022

In search of sustainable fish

Fish is widely considered healthy and tasty. If only there were no reports of overfishing, antibiotic-saturated aquacultures, and fishing methods that destroy marine ecosystems. As a result, many Swiss consumers rely on private eco-labels, guides, or goods labelled “regional” or “Swiss”. But is it enough? A CDE study finds that it is not – and highlights what is needed.

1 June 2021

“We have to move back away from promoting industrial logic”

Bettina Scharrer, historian of agriculture at CDE, explains how use of synthetic pesticides became widely established in Switzerland and why the country today has the third highest animal density in Europe.

25 May 2021

“We are outsourcing many of the problems of our food system”

Finland is striving to make its entire food system climate-friendly. Could this approach work in Switzerland? CDE researcher Theresa Tribaldos discusses the importance of looking beyond our own borders as well as addressing questions of justice.

19 May 2021

“Right now, Switzerland has a chance to formulate a food policy”

Industrial agriculture requires use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides. But what would happen if it were discontinued? CDE researcher Johanna Jacobi discusses viable alternatives and the necessary transformation to a sustainable food system.

9 March 2021

Meaty insights: How our language promotes meat consumption

In 2020, meat products hit a new sales record of over five billion Swiss francs as a result of the pandemic. But the fact that people are eating so much meat is not just to do with Covid-19 and low meat prices.

15.8.2018

Researchers in Bolivia recommend reining in pesticides

In CDE’s project “Towards Food Sustainability”, scientists investigated the relationship between soya production and pesticide use in Bolivia. Their findings have led them to recommend urgent action to the Bolivian Ministry of Agriculture.