Future Food Lab's Biodiversity exhibition
Ever feel disconnected from how Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 researchers are contributing to global knowledge? Come visit the Biodiversity exhibition, which illustrates the relationship between food production and biodiversity. You will find this exhibition between the two wooden houses in the Educatorium Restaurant, on your left-hand side, at the far end.
What is this exhibition?
As an extension of Future Food Lab, this exhibition allows you to examine lots of recent findings from university researchers regarding the link between biodiversity and food, as presented by the Green Office. Since this exhibition will likely disappear soon, you should catch it before it's gone, so that you can be aware of what important biodiversity researchers such as Merel Soons are currently focusing their efforts on.
A little thought experiment
Contained within the exhibition, is a little thought experiment that anybody can take part in. There are two different species of grass on display: one which is greener, more dense, and more lush, while the other is more sparse, and less green. The question you should then ask yourself is "which type of grass would be better for a farm?".
Most people would automatically answer that they would plant the denser, lusher, and greener species of grass on their land if they were a farmer, but this focus on the aesthetic qualities of species, along with our wanting to only use a single isolated species, is precisely what is damaging biodiversity and our future ability to produce food.
In fact, the most beneficial solution for the farm would be to plant multiple species of grass, to improve the resilience of the farm by offering an adequate environment to multiple sorts of insects and bacteria. Instead, our current focus on monocultures keeps us on a path of short-term results, while we are essentially sabotaging our future food-production capabilities. To learn more about this, check out our article on the link & gap between biodiversity and agriculture here.
The Biodiversity exhibition is part of Future Food Lab, a Green Office project.
The Green Office is where fresh hearts and minds come together to support Utrecht 木瓜福利影视's sustainable development.