Research Focus
Future Food Utrecht offers a platform for scientists and external stakeholders on which they contribute to the transition of the food chain for a sustainable world, by means of unique transdisciplinary research and education. The search is for catalysts of change; small interventions with big effects. Our ambition is to strive for diets that are both good for the planet as for all its inhabitants.
Future Food Utrecht has identified four themes on which we will focus in the coming years, in order to contribute to solutions for current food challenges.
We will invest funds and engage with stakeholders around the following four complementary themes:
If we want to keep the earth liveable, we will have to deal with the earth in a more sustainable way. This includes plants, animals and people, but you cannot view them separately. Everything is connected.
Due to the rapid growth of the World population, food security imposes major challenge for future societies. There is an urgent need to produce more food and waste less, while simultaneously having to consider the effects of climate change on agriculture and also a different perspective on dealing with livestock. In addition, the increasing life expectancy and wealth-related diseases ask for new food concepts in preventing these diseases to facilitate healthy ageing. In doing so, insight into consumer decisions and its context is critical to achieve sustainable behavior and cultural changes regarding food-relates issues.
The fundamental research of the Future Food Utrecht scientists covers a wide spectrum of disciplines needed to understand the mechanisms behind these food-related challenges. Whether it’s unraveling the role of regulatory genes in plants, studying molecules in mothers milk or determining the psychological underpinnings of decisions; the fundamental research of Future Food Utrecht has the ambition to operate at the scientific forefront and develop innovative and sustainable food concepts for the next generations.