Agriculture sciences

Overfishing of the oceans is a global problem. According to the environmental protection organization WWF, 33% of commercial fish stocks are affected. In Europe, the situation is even more dramatic: In the Mediterranean and Black Seas, as much as 62.2% of stocks are considered overfished. Meanwhile, however, demand for fish continues to rise. Food tech startup Bluu Seafood wants to rebalance overfished seas with alternatives made from cultured fish cells.

Medicine has always relied on the healing powers of nature. Plant-based active ingredients are therefore a sought-after raw material for both the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. However, their extraction from medicinal plants such as thyme and chamomile is subject to natural fluctuations, so that the active ingredient content varies. In addition, climate change and barren soils further reduce the concentrations of the ingredients, thus lowering the quality of conventionally extracted essential oil.

At 38%, the construction industry is responsible for a large share of global greenhouse gas emissions. As the demand for housing increases, sustainable building materials are urgently needed to avoid further burdening the environment and climate. Researchers at the University of Göttingen have found an ecological alternative for dry construction with a new process that can be used to manufacture numerous products from hemp, flax and popcorn granules.

Palm oil is one of the most versatile and sought-after vegetable oils: it is found in many foods such as ice cream, chocolate and potato chips, and is also used in the production of cosmetics and biodiesel. Yet palm oil cultivation in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia has economic, social and also environmental consequences, and has therefore long been controversial. A research consortium is now working on a domestic alternative to palm oil. The NextVegOil project focuses on developing a process for producing a microbial oil based on agricultural residues.

How can our food system become more sustainable? This question is currently occupying many researchers. Eating less meat and more vegetables is just one way of protecting the environment and climate, as well as making agriculture more sustainable. Like other sectors of the economy, however, agriculture is geared to constant growth. For a long time, there have been voices arguing for an economy without growth, because this development is harmful to the environment. Researchers have now taken a closer look at these so-called "degrowth" approaches.

Energy crops such as rapeseed and corn are grown on more than one-fifth of the arable land in Germany. This means that they compete with food production for valuable agricultural land. Agri-photovoltaics (Agri-PV) promises a resource-efficient dual use of arable land. The simultaneous use of fields for the cultivation of food crops and for the generation of electricity also opens up new sources of income for farmers.

With the trend toward plant-based nutrition, a food crop that seemed forgotten for decades is gaining in importance: the field bean. Nationwide, the area under cultivation has increased almost tenfold since 2010 and reached a new record level of around 56,500 hectares in 2020, according to the Federal Statistical Office. As part of the group's 2026 PLUS strategy, Südzucker subsidiary Beneo now wants to significantly expand its acreage under field beans.

The market for meat substitutes may still be small, but it is growing rapidly. Microbial protein could play a particularly important role as an alternative to beef, researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) report in the scientific journal Nature.