Biodiversity-positive food systems (KB-44)
How can we transform food systems to make them biodiversity-positive? This requires research into many aspects, including genetics, cultivation, harvest, processing, consumer demand and food safety. Wageningen University & Research (WUR) invests in new pathways for innovation and collaboration.
In the past decades, WUR has made a major contribution to the challenging task of adapting our food systems to the increasing demand for healthy, sustainably produced food in a changing world. There are growing concerns, however, that the current unprecedented biodiversity loss is undermining the ecosystem services that are essential for the quality of life, and the food system in particular.
For example, the FAO (2019) states that enhancing biodiversity in the food system is “indispensable to food security and sustainable development”. The warnings from renowned global scientific panels about the negative effects of biodiversity loss on food security call for a reconsideration of the role of biodiversity in the food system.
New pathways
That is why the investment programme 'Biodiversity-Positive Food Systems' (B+FS) aims to provide the fundamental knowledge for innovative pathways that enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services on fields, farms, in landscapes and value chains. WUR is increasingly marrying the domains of biodiversity and food. It has gradually changed its agricultural approach from one that seeks solely to enhance agricultural and economic efficiencies, to one that also includes social-ecological sustainability and enhancing biodiversity as guiding principles. Explicitly, this programme combines feasible production, supply- and demand-side food system efforts with creating opportunities for agrobiodiversity and conservation of natural biodiversity in the landscape.
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Main themes
Overseeing the developments in the domain of biodiversity and food system, three research themes within the WUR food systems framework with high priority for biodiversity-positive food systems were identified:
- Breeding for diversity to broaden the genetic base of the food system
- Scaling up promising biodiversity-positive practices
- Post-harvest implications for diversity and variation in raw materials.
Multidisciplinary research and development teams work on these flagship themes for the duration of the investment programme (2022-2024).
News from the flagship programmes
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What we can learn from nature-inclusive farmers in Thailand and the Netherlands
- To bring about a more sustainable future, we need to drastically change what we eat. Wageningen University & Research (WUR) scientists offer a... -
Putting a price tag on biodiversity loss
- In an effort to underscore the importance of healthy biodiversity for global economies and investment portfolios, economists at Wageningen Economic... -
Biodiversity in the supermarket: is the choice in the consumer's hands?
- Do products fly off the shelves if they have been produced in a way that benefits biodiversity? Or does this make little difference to consumers?... -
Growing tropical crops in the Netherlands: first, a dialogue
- An initial trial has revealed that semi-tropical vegetables and herbs are easy to grow on Dutch soil. This opens up new opportunities for diversifying... -
Strip cropping harvest requires more flexibility from food processing companies
- Does strip cropping create additional challenges for post-harvest food processing? Scientists from Wageningen Food & Biobased Research...
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Wildcard projects
In addition, the investment programme aims to catalyse the creativity of the WUR community by supporting a set of smaller research and outreach projects. These 'wildcard' projects advance scientific frontiers by taking on risky and innovative approaches, forming new collaborations and connecting with key stakeholders. They can be viewed in the overview at the top of this page.
News from the wildcard projects
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Farming crops and livestock together - opportunities for biodiversity-positive food production
- Intercropping is considered to be a biodiversity-positive alternative to monocultures, but comes with several challenges. Some of these challenges can... -
Soil, LIVE!
- Soils host an extremely high diversity of species and have frequently been described as “the poor man’s tropical rainforest”. Soil... -
Using AI to monitor and measure biodiversity and wildlife
- In conservation and ecology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a powerful ally for researchers and professionals tasked with monitoring and... -
Absolutely Amazonian - From Roadmap to Reality
- Interesting initiatives regarding environmentally and socially inclusive economic developments with the help of novel technologies get currently off... -
ERC Starting Grant for research on natural regeneration
- The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the awarding of 400 Starting Grants to young scientists and scholars across Europe. One of them is...
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What is an investment programme?
Every Strategic Plan period, WUR selects new investment themes to expand our fundamental and applied research on priority issues. We invest in these research priorities to strengthen our knowledge base. They are temporary investment programmes, after which the themes will be embedded in our regular research portfolio.