About Us

Our work consists of research, teaching, and networking and outreach.

• Our research focuses on the well-being of workers in food systems who are essential to global food production but often face precarious working conditions. Moreover, we study how labor-related policy affects workers, farmers, and agricultural production. We use quantitative and qualitative methods and data from around the world to answer these questions.
• Our teaching covers a wide set of social and environmental topics, addressing the overarching question: How can policy, institutions, technology, and research contribute to addressing key challenges in global food systems? Hunger, inequality, labor exploitation, and food waste and loss are examples of topics discussed in our classes, where we teach students about research, theories, and public debates around these challenges. Similarly, we support MSc and BSc students to address these topics in their theses, and we offer options for students to gain insights into research as student assistants in our team.
• Our network and outreach approach is to embrace opportunities to engage in and advance research, media, and policy debates concerning our topics. We celebrate collaboration, diversity, and networking–internally, with other institutions at ETH, and beyond. At ETH, the Food Systems Economics and Policy Group is part of the Department of Environmental Systems Sciences (D-USYS), affiliated with the Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED), and associated with the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (IAS). We are a member of the World Food System Center (WFSC) and ETH4D.

Our work is closely linked to the international community’s development agenda and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially decent work (#8), no poverty (#1), zero hunger (#2), gender equality (#5), and responsible production and consumption (#12), and it is relevant for farm, labor, migration, and social policy globally.