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The Future Food Utrecht Hub has awarded seed money grants to five interdisciplinary teams.

The review panel selected the proposals based on:
- the potential contribution to strengthen the research within FFU
- the potential in successfully acquiring external funding
- the extent of interdisciplinary collaboration and new collaboration
- scientific quality and innovativity
- track record of the applicants.

The aim of the seed money grants is to stimulate new food-related collaboration within Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� and UMC Utrecht and to support joint food-related proposals in external calls.

AWARDED PROJECTS

Labor implications of gene editing

Dr. Koen Beumer -Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Dr. Marcel Proveniers -Department of Biology

In this proposal we will combine experimental measurements with computational modeling to unravel this tipping point behavior. Specifically, we will measure oxygen, pH, and energy levels in plants and incorporate these into a computational model of the plant root. Using this model we will investigate how changes in levels of free radicals, energy and pH affect root tip growth via their effects on major plant root transcription factors and hormones. On a similar note, we will study how changes in root growth dynamics, by affecting overall metabolic requirements, affect these factors. Aim is to disseminate how this network of interactions together causes all-or-none tipping point behavior.

Performance of food forests as nature-inclusive business models: trade-offs between socio-economic and ecological benefits, and potential for upscaling

Dr. Pita Verweij - Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Marija Bockarjova, PhD - Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� School of Economics, Dorith Vermunt, MSc- Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Prof. dr. M. Hekkert - Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development

Agricultural production systems have profound negative effects on biodiversity through conversion and fragmentation of natural habitat, and as a result of pollution due to (over)use of inputs. This calls for a radical transformation of how commodities are produced by agricultural sectors, towards more nature-inclusive forms of production. Food forests could be considered the most complex and biodiverse form of nature-inclusive agriculture. In the Netherlands, food forests initiatives are rapidly rising in popularity since the last five years. Food forests are highly diverse, designed ecosystems that closely mimic a natural forest in structure and function and produce a diversity of food products during the year. Food forests are also the least studied type of agroforestry, and large knowledge gaps exist on their performance compared to for instance conventional agricultural systems. Moreover, it is currently understudied what the potential for upscaling of these initiatives is, which could stimulate the transition towards nature-inclusive food systems. To address these knowledge gaps, this project aims to study the performance of food forests. Our RQ is: To what extent do food forest achieve certain key social, ecological and economic goals (ecosystem services), and what is the potential for upscaling of food forest business models? To tackle this research question, we aim to develop an integrated research project, in which the focus will lie on both the micro-level, to understand economic and ecologic benefits and trade-offs, and on a system perspective, to study barriers and enablers for upscaling of food forests business models.

Communities In Transition (CIT): Encouraging Sustainable Food-Related Lifestyles

Dr. Marijn Stok - Social and Behavioural Sciences, Dr. Michèlle Bal - Social and Behavioural Sciences, Prof. dr. John de Wit - Social and Behavioural Sciences, Prof. dr. Eggo Müller - Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICON), Prof. dr. Yvonne van der Schouw - Department of Epidemiology/UMC

More sustainable food chains are essential to feed current and future generations as well as contribute to curbing the climate change crisis. A successful transition to sustainable food-related lifestyles requires that consumers engage with technological innovations and adjust their behaviours, such as reducing animal protein intake, buying local and seasonal products, and avoiding wasting food. We propose that a successful sustainable food transition requires better understanding of the social dynamics of these inherent, broad lifestyle changes. With our research we aim to strengthen the social science and humanities contribution to the emerging field of sustainable food transition. We do this by developing an innovative conceptual approach, the Communities In Transition model, to increase understanding of the complex interplay of environmental justice values and sustainable behavior norms in shaping food-related lifestyle change. The proposed research will specifically focus on how social identities inform sustainable food-related lifestyle change through group-related sustainable behavior norms and environmental justice values. Our main research questions are: 1) How do sustainable behavior norms and environmental justice values interact and how do they affect food-related lifestyle changes; and 2) What is the role of group-based social identities in (changing) food-related lifestyles? The SEED-money will be used to conduct a systematic literature review and three pilot studies. These will help ground the theoretical and empirical grounds for our proposal to conduct further research on this topic.

Social-ecological networks to study the sustainability of food systems in poor rural drylands

Ángeles G. Mayor, Phd - Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Dr. Jerry van Dijk - Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Prof. dr. ir. Vincent Buskens - Social and Behavioral Science

With this seed money grant, the aim is to make a first step in mapping the social-ecological network related to food provisioning in the Ounila watershed as the basis for a NWO proposal on sustainable land management and food provision in subsistence mountain communities. One of the main challenges of working with social-ecological networks is to define what should be included in the network representation of the social and ecological systems as well as the scale of representation3,5, and as such, this will constitute the focus of the seed money research. Being able to outline a first conceptual approach for the analysis of social-ecological networks in mountain farming systems, as well as showing that we have already established a network of local stakeholders will greatly add to the strength of the external proposal.

Mitigating food insecurity induced by human-wildlife conflicts through a social-ecological approach: a pilot study

Dr. Ine Dorresteijn - Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Prof. Dr. Elisabeth H.M. Sterck - Department of Biology, Dr. Marijke van Kuijk - Department of Biology, Prof. Dr. Feyera Senbeta - College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��, Ethiopia

Smallholder farmers depend on their natural environment for their food. However, not everything that flows from nature is desirable and ecosystem disbenefits can worsen food insecurity. A persistent driver of local food insecurity are human-wildlife conflicts and particularly the raiding of crops by wild mammals. Crop-raiding reduces people’s food security directly through the loss of crops, but also indirectly through the high opportunity costs incurred by the need to guard crops. Although crop-raiding is influenced by ecological and social factors, research that analyses crop-raiding from an interdisciplinary perspective is missing. This critically impedes our understanding of crop-raiding, and thus our ability to design counter strategies to reduce crop-raiding and improve food security. The FFU seed funding provides the foundations for a NWO-ENW Klein proposal that uses a social-ecological approach to address crop-raiding in Ethiopia. The proposal aims to co-design, with local communities, and experimentally test social and technological interventions that allow for the harmonization of food security and wildlife conservation. The specific research questions here are: (1) What are current causes and interventions related to crop-raiding? We will address this through a literature review. (2) How can we analyse crop-raiding in smallholder landscapes? To address this, we will test ecological (animal and plant) and social survey methodologies in Ethiopia. (3) Which stakeholders need to be involved to co-create and implement interventions? For this, we will identify stakeholders and build collaborations for the transdisciplinary dimensions of the project. This research aims to improve the design of conflict mitigation strategies.