Verena Seufert is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist specializing in agriculture and food topics. She holds the Robert Bosch Juniorprofessorhip 2021 and leads the Department Sustainable Use of Natural Resources (430c) at the Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture at the University of Hohenheim.
Verena’s research focuses on the question of how to do food better: How can we create a world where everyone has access to sufficient and nutritious food they enjoy eating, while producing this food without destroying the very natural resources that food production depends on? There are many purported answers to the question of how to do food better, from local food, over a vegan diet to organic agriculture. But what do we actually know about these supposed solutions? Debates around these issues are often very passionate, but typically not sufficiently informed by good science. A particular focus of Verena’s work has been to assess the debates around one of these potential solutions - organic agriculture - using a variety of different interdisciplinary scientific tools.
Themes
Land change trade-offs for ecosystem services and biodiversity , Land management systems
The Journal of Land Use Science dedicated their first issue of 2022 to 'Women in Land Science'. The journal is co-edited by two of GLP's SSC members, Dr. Daniel Müller and Dr. Darla Munroe, and strives to itself be a strong representation of excellence in the field as well as representation by gender.
The global food system is under pressure: Farmers and agribusinesses have to produce food for a growing population. This increases the environmental burden, as greenhouse gas emissions accelerate climate change, biodiversity loss increases, and resources become scarce. How can this system become more sustainable? This question forms the basis of new Robert Bosch Junior Professor Dr. Verena Seufert’s research.
The guest editors of the Journal of Land Use Science welcome expressions of interest for a special issue devoted to highlighting the excellent and cutting-edge scholarship of women and non-binary people in land science. Deadline for expressions of interest: 1 May.
A team of international experts, including GLP Member Verena Seufert from the VU, explains that organic farming is an important part of the solution for changing the current agricultural and food system.
