Center for Sustainable Food Systems (ZNE)

At the "Center for Sustainable Food Systems" (Zentrum für Nachhaltige Ernährungssysteme/ ZNE) at the Justus Liebig University Giessen we carry out systems-based research on food systems that supports the sustainable development of the economy and society. I am the Chairman of the  

Center's Board of Directors. We combine perspectives from the natural and agricultural sciences as well social and economic sciences and mobilise cross-departmental competencies at JLU to analyse and foster the sustainable transformation of food systems. In our work, we pay special attention to transdisciplinary cooperation with various practitioners and the transfer of research results into practice. One example of this is the institutional, economic and educational transformation processes that we have initiated and analyse in various projects in Northern Hesse. The focus here is on the development of organic and regional value chains of vegetables and other food to supply schools, nurseries and other organisations that want to ensure sustainable, seasonal and healthy diets in the out-of-home catering.