RETHINKING Urban Agriculture: Dr Iris Haberkorn as panelist at Berlin Science Week 2023

RETHINKING Urban Agriculture demands multi stakeholder discussions to integrate novel solutions and technological advancement while optimising existing value-chains to foster resilience and sustainability and ensure nutritious and affordable food, said SEC’s Dr Iris Haberkorn at the panel on Urban Agriculture hosted by ETH Zurich on 4 November at the Berlin Science Week. Single-cell based value chains such as those relying on microalgae can be part of the solution.

In light of a pressing demand to supply affordable, nutritious food in a more sustainable, resilient way and ensure food security due to global population growth and rapid urbanisation, Dr Haberkorn shared concepts of food production and processing in the context of highly urbanised areas.

Dr Haberkorn is the project leader of SEC’s Urban Microalgae-Based Protein Production project. The project aims to establish solutions for more resilient and sustainable agri-food platforms harnessing microalgae-based food products. Thereby, it contributes to creating more sustainable food systems and fostering food security. The project is part of the Singapore-ETH Centre.

She was speaking at the panel along with Marcel Graf, an urban hunter; Anja Steglich, Technische Universitat Berlin, and moderator Chris Luebkeman, leader of the Strategic Foresight Hub in the Office of the President at ETH Zurich – as part of ETH Zurich’s RETHINKING Living campaign at the Berlin Science Week.