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Zukunft der Landnutzung in der Schweiz unter COP15

An diesem Fireside Chat des Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center und des Franxini Projekt diskutieren wir, was es für die Landnutzung in der Schweiz bedeuten würde, wenn die an der COP15 formulierten Biodiversitätsziele schweizweit umgesetzt werden. Zusammen mit Vertreter*innen aus Wissenschaft, Politik, Verwaltung und Wirtschaft besprechen wir mögliche Lösungen in einem offenen Austausch.

An der 15. UN-Biodiversitätskonferenz (COP15, 2022) in Montreal, Kanada haben sich alle 195 Staaten darauf geeinigt, dass 30% der Land- und Wasserflächen dem Lebensraum- und Artenschutz vorbehalten sein sollen. Der vorgesehene Zeithorizont für die Umsetzung ist 2030.

Spannende Expertenbeiträge geben einen Überblick darüber, wo die Schweiz heute steht. Danach wird in interdisziplinären Kleingruppen diskutiert, wie die Schweiz 2030 aussehen wird, nachdem die Biodiversitätsziele erreicht werden. Unter anderem fragen wir uns: Welche Herausforderungen und Lösungen für die Biodiversitätskrise zeichnen sich ab? Wie können wir Arten und Lebensräume schützen, trotz des steigenden Bedarfs an Flächen für die Nahrungs-, Futtermittel- und Energieproduktion und auch Wohnraum?

Der Franxini Fireside Chat, in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, bietet der Diskussion einen ergebnisoffenen, neutralen Rahmen und bindet vielseitige Interessen und Hintergründe mit ein.

Die Veranstaltung findet im Rahmen von “RESPONSE – to society and policy needs through plant, food and energy sciences” statt und wird über das EU Rahmenprogramm Horizon 2020 (GA 847585) finanziert.

Diversifying and scaling direct air capture for a net-zero future

To meet net-zero targets by mid-century, gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year must be removed through direct air capture and storage (DACS). However, current deployment is low, requiring DACS technologies to be deployed at an unprecedented pace. The ETH Energy Blog post of RESPONSE fellow Katrin Sievert explores the two most advanced capture methods used in DACS, compares their scalability, and stresses the significance of investing in multiple technologies over the next decade instead of solely relying on existing approaches.

Read Katrin Sieverts’ Energy Blog article.

Katrin Sievert is currently a fellow in the RESPONSE Doctoral Programme (DP) «RESPONSE – to society and policy needs through plant, food and energy sciences» funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 847585.

Citation: Sievert, Katrin. “Diversifying and scaling direct air capture for a net-zero future”, Energy Blog @ ETH Zurich, ETH Zurich, February 28, 2022, https://blogs.ethz.ch/energy/diversifying-dacs

Featured photo is owned by Katrin Sievert.

Plant-based proteins: The potential for Swiss agriculture

By Beat Keller, Crop Science at ETH Zurich

The Swiss agriculture is traditionally focused on meat and dairy production. Yet, global warming requires agricultural practices to radically change: without decreasing livestock production, there is no sustainable solution for food production (about 85% of the Swiss agricultural emissions originate from livestock production). Fortunately, the Swiss population is consuming more and more plant-based proteins substituting animal products.

There is increasing demand for legume species such as soybean, faba bean and peas. However, adapted legume varieties for human consumption, local production and supply lines are largely missing. Only soybean has established supply chains and modern varieties thanks to the foreseeing breeding program of Agroscope which started decades ago.

Continue reading Plant-based proteins: The potential for Swiss agriculture

America’s Inflation Reduction Act is asking too much of car manufacturers and electric vehicle supply chains

America’s recently passed climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), provides strong support for accelerated adoption of clean vehicles in the US. Subsidies are generous for consumers looking to go electric, but only for vehicles that meet strict geographic requirements for critical mineral sourcing, battery manufacturing and vehicle assembly. Unabashedly, the US is seeking to shift the EV supply chain from China to North America, but at what cost?

RESPONSE fellow Bessie Noll discusses whether the isolationist IRA is the right move for the US and, more importantly, the climate.

Read Bessie Nolls’ Energy Blog article.

Bessie Noll is currently a fellow in the RESPONSE Doctoral Programme (DP) «RESPONSE – to society and policy needs through plant, food and energy sciences» funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 847585.

Citation: Noll, Bessie. “America’s Inflation Reduction Act is asking too much of car manufacturers and electric vehicle supply chains”, Energy Blog @ ETH Zurich, ETH Zurich, December 6, 2022, https://blogs.ethz.ch/energy/inflation-reduction-act/

Featured photo is ETH-licensed from Adobe Stock.

RESPONSE Mentoring Workshop – Getting Your Message Across: How to Make Yourself and Your Research Visible  

In this workshop, participants will learn how to reach a wider audience with your topics and texts and how to prepare and convey your content in an understandable and attractive way in the digital age. They will work on a popular science blog post, learn about graphic tools to support the text in a multimedia and interactive way, learn about the pitfalls and strengths of social media and how to create and manage your own web presence for yourself and your research. Another focus is on visibility: How do I build and manage a community? How can I communicate the importance of my research for politics, economy and society – and actually reach them?

Continue reading RESPONSE Mentoring Workshop – Getting Your Message Across: How to Make Yourself and Your Research Visible  

Response Doctoral Program: Unlock valuable protein sources in the pseudocereal buckwheat

by Fabian Hess, ETH Zurich

Pseudocereals such as buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) are under-utilized as sources for plant-based proteins in current times, where the world is searching for a diversification of agricultural cropping systems. Buckwheat was an important crop in recent times in Western Europe including Switzerland and has several qualities:

  • It is a valuable source of proteins for human nutrition. Buckwheat contains all nine essential amino acids which makes it a high-quality, complete protein. It is rich in limiting amino acids like lysine and arginine, which are in shortest supply in plant-based diets.
  • It became popular in satisfying the increasing demand for gluten-free foods.
  • It has a unique taste – in contrast to rice or wheat – and can be made into deliciously tart pancakes or pasta.
  • So far, it is little affected by pests and diseases in the field that could reduce its yield.
  • As a cover crop, it contributes to soil protection and soil improvement as part of a crop rotation.
  • It is good for pollinators and a rich source of nectar while contributing to a biologically diverse agriculture.

Despite all these positive qualities, buckwheat cultivation suffers from low and unstable yields, and in comparison to wheat, the baking quality is inferior. Potentially, this bottleneck can be overcome with breeding. Here, the screening of genetic resources could unlock undiscovered potential and the cultivation of buckwheat on Swiss farms may experience a renaissance!

Continue reading Response Doctoral Program: Unlock valuable protein sources in the pseudocereal buckwheat

Plant-based proteins: Peas as a source of necessary amino acids for human nutrition

In a series of articles, we introduce research from the PSC network that support increases of ecological plant-based protein production for human nutrition in Switzerland and worldwide.

Peas, for example the yellow pea, have a high concentration of almost all essential amino acids. Compared to soy, they have no allergenic potential. They are particularly interesting for human nutrition, both in cooking and as a basis in the food industry for meat substitutes or protein-rich drinks.

A challenge, however, is their cultivation. Here it is necessary to maintain a crop rotation that allows up to 8 years break between cultivation on the same land. Why? Soil legume fatigue is caused by various harmful soil organisms and affects pea roots to the point of total crop failure.

Resistant and high-yielding peas were the focus of a collaboration between ETH Zurich and FIBL. Research was conducted to see if peas resistant to soil legume fatigue could be grown with shorter crop rotations. In fact, resistant pea plants were found whose roots were heavily colonized by helpful soil organisms. Do these soil organisms help repel the harmful organisms?

With a newly established resistance screening reproducible distinction between susceptible and resistant pea lines is possible. The screening system allows to predict PRRC resistance for a given field site and offers a tool for selection at the seedling stage in breeding nurseries.

Citation

Lukas Wille, Mario Kurmann, Monika M. Messmer, Bruno Studer and Pierre Hohmann (2021). Untangling the Pea Root Rot Complex Reveals Microbial Markers for Plant Health. Front. Plant Sci.: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.737820

Some of the researchers

Dr. Lukas Wille, researcher at FiBL, Switzerland and former researcher at ETH Zurich is working on complexes of root rot pathogens, resistance of pea against root rot disease and the role that microbial diversity and plant-microbe interactions play in shaping the pathobiome and plant resistance. Bruno Studer is professor for Molecular Plant Breeding at ETH Zurich