2023 - Lindau ZH

20th - 21st April 2023, ETH Zurich, AgroVet-Strickhof, Eschikon, Lindau (ZH)

The ecological, social and economic sustainability of the entire agricultural and food system must be substantially increased, and its resilience must be strengthened. Policymakers have set ambitious goals for this, for example outlined in the report on the "Future direction of agricultural policy" by the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture or with the "Farm to Fork Strategy" of the European Union. The social and ecological sustainability of food and agricultural production is also an important goal for companies and is demanded by society. A transformation of agricultural and food systems is necessary because the goals are not being achieved with the existing system. The large global footprint of agricultural and food systems calls for new forms of production, value chains and improved governance of systems across countries and continents. The inclusion of all relevant actors is of great importance. Extreme climatic events, the Corona crisis and, not least, the war in Ukraine have highlighted the lack of resilience of entire value chains, with consequences for global and local food security.

The megatrend of digitalisation is fundamentally changing agricultural and food systems. Both farms directly (for example through new technologies like precision farming), and the processing and trade of food (for example via online platforms and traceability systems within value chains) are affected. At the same time, digital technologies are increasingly becoming part of monitoring and the agricultural policy toolbox. Digitalisation offers new opportunities, but also poses new challenges for all actors.

The positive and negative consequences of these new and far-reaching trends have not yet been sufficiently researched. Considering the necessary transformation processes, agricultural economics and agricultural sociology have a central role to play. It is necessary to assess the economic and social consequences, to develop a basis for decision-makers in politics and industry and to support the process of transformation with innovative methods such as co-creation and participatory research. A methodological toolbox is available for both ex-post and ex-ante assessments, which makes options and alternative courses of action and their consequences visible to actors along the entire value chain. Research in agricultural economics and agricultural sociology here benefits from using a broad methodological toolbox and taking different perspectives, from producers to consumers, on trade and markets and the political framework conditions. Transformation processes require the collaboration of different actors: together with science, representatives from the administration who pilot and implement new approaches, producers and processors who adapt and further develop digital tools for practice, and civil society movements that actively participate in the co-creation of knowledge are central.

The Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Sociology would like to make a contribution to solving these issues and challenges at its 2023 conference, bringing together scientists and representatives from politics, administration and practice.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

• Prof. Dr. Eva-Marie Meemken, Professorin für Ökonomie und Politik von Ernährungssystemen, ETH Zurich
• Prof. Dr. Mutian Niu, Professor für Tierernährung, ETH Zurich
• Nadine Degen, Leiterin Sektion Landwirtschaft Grangeneuve
• Dany Schulthess, Leitung Höhere Berufsbildung Strickhof

At the conference, new scientific findings and practical experiences on the transformation of the agricultural and food sector in the context of more sustainability and digitalisation of value chains will be presented and discussed. In particular, economic, sociological and political analyses of the following questions will be in focus:

• Identifying transformative approaches for sustainable and resilient agricultural and food systems
• Identification and analysis of necessary transformation processes along value chains
• Effect of digitalisation on different actors in agri-food systems (from production to consumption) and on the achievement of sustainability goals
• Role of agri-food policy and upstream and downstream industry
• Innovative methods and examples for co-creation of knowledge
• Methods and examples for shaping transformation processes with the various actors in the agricultural and food sector
• Contribution of agricultural economics and agricultural sociology to agro-ecological transformation
• Decisions of farmers and consumers as a contribution to transformation
• Other relevant agricultural economic or agricultural sociological issues

In addition to the exchange of different actors from Switzerland, international networking is an important goal, which is why we are also very happy to welcome participants from other countries. The conference languages are English, German and French. There will be no translation.

There will be an award for the best poster and the best presentation.
 

Conference fee
CHF 290.- / CHF 230.- for SSA members  (become a member)
 

Accommodation
We have reserved a room contingent at the Hotel Rubus hotel-rubus.ch until mid-March 2023. The promo code (10 % discount) is SGA Schweiz. For other accommodations, we suggest Zürich or Winterthur, from where the conference site can be reached easily with public tansport.
 

Call for Abstracts
Abstracts with a maximum length of 2 pages can be submitted in German, French or English here until 15th of October 2022. To write a contribution, please use this template.

We also offer the possibility for Organised Sessions. A joint proposal for the entire session must be submitted, which consists of abstracts with detailed descriptions of individual contributions (max. 2 pages each) as well as an overall motivation and objective (max. 2 pages). In order to submit an Organised Session, please use this template.

Contact persons of the Board of the Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Sociology (SGA) for questions about the conference:

Prof. Dr. Robert Finger (rofinger(at)ethz.ch), ETH Zurich, Agricultural Economics and Policy Group

Dr. Christian Grovermann (christian.grovermann(at)fibl.org), FiBL, Socioeconomics

Dr. Nadja El Benni (nadja.el-benni(at)agroscope.admin.ch), Agroscope, Research Division Sustainability Assessment and Agricultural Management
 

Additional members of the Local Organizing Comittee:

Prof. Dr. Eva-Marie Meemken, Dr. Robert Huber, ETH Zurich