Themes

Sustainable cropping systems with a focus on high crop diversity will become possible and more profitable in the near future. These new opportunities need to be investigated, challenged and tested in a cross-disciplinary and end-user-oriented setting, to define new solutions and the full potential of these solutions. 

In our lab-work we will focus on questions such as

• How do we get farmers to use and integrate new cropping systems?
• How do farmers interact with robots and other new technological solutions?
• What are the climate, environmental and biodiversity effects of these systems?
• Are autonomous robots legal, or do we need new types of legislation?
• What crops are suitable for these new cropping systems, and what is the yield?
• Can digital farm solutions be useful in terms of customer relations? 

We need answers to be able to accommodate the co-design of field robots that supports the overall green transition of Danish agricultural production.

 If you want to hear or learn more, please contact:

Jesper Svensgaard

To make a greater extent of plant-based food the new normal, we need to change the way we cook and what we eat, and maybe even how or where we buy food. It is a hard task to change habits, and it can lead to conflicts in everyday life,

Making changes may require a new way of talking about what we eat - and perhaps, even a change in how we understand ourselves as individuals and social beings. A change in our food habits will potentially have a detrimental impact on how we perceive food quality, the good life as well as our personal and collective identities.

For new solutions and habits to be integrated into our daily living, we have to focus momentarily on changes in habits, language, social networks, identity, and structures that are related to the act of making changes towards a more plant-based food consumption pattern. 

In our lab-work we will focus on questions such as:

• How do communities of knowledge share, contribute and support individual and community transitions, and can we scale up the good initiatives?
• Barriers in language – how do we talk about “meat-food” and “plant-based food”, and do we need a new and richer vocabulary?
• If the latter is the case, what would such a language sound like?
• Can we use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze how we talk about the transition to more plant-based food, and to help us make more informed decisions about it?
• What kind of existing and new social technologies (ways of organizing relations) can accelerate a more plant-based food consumption pattern?

We need to answer and put perspectives on these questions and others, in order to accelerate the transition to more plant-based food consumption.

If you want to hear or learn more, please contact:

Internationally, there is a growing focus on school meals as a tool in the green transformation of the food system.

Healthy and green school meals are not just a matter of solid nutrition; it can also support the school's learning efforts in relation to the green transition, food waste and healthy foods in general. Focusing on lunch meals can also help the transition to a more plant-based food system in the long run. In addition, school meals can play a fundamental part in the local food economy by inviting local farmers to the schools and classrooms. 

In our lab-work we will focus on questions such as:

• Are there procurement barriers and regulations for local or national requirements for school meals that follow the dietary guidelines? And do we know of examples to draw from?
• How can school meals be included in the education of children towards a green transition (whole school approach (wsa) and education for sustainable development (esd))?
• How will social practices surrounding school meals change – now and in the new/future scenario related to the production and consumption of a lunch meal?
• How can school meals become part of the local food economy? Models for collaboration and perhaps innovation?
• Nutritionally, what is the most important thing to focus on in school meals?
• Can we learn from historical self-sufficiency cases such as Anneberg Hospital and others?

We need to be able to answer and put focus on these and similar questions, in order to understand the full potential of school meals

 If you want to hear or learn more, please contact:

Bent Egberg Mikkelsen