Food for the Future – food4future

How can we ensure healthy and sufficient nutrition for future generations? Are salt tolerant plants, macro algae, crickets or jellyfish alternatives to traditional food sources? And how can we include urban spaces in food production chains?
The joint project food4future (f4f), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the funding line Agricultural Systems of the Future explores radical innovations to ensure sustainable and healthy food supply.
By developing and adapting key technologies – (UV)LED technology and composite lightweight materials – we develop innovative approaches and test them for their technical feasibility, their economic and ecologic viability.
food4future investigates macro algae, halophytes (salt tolerant plants), crickets and medusae (jellyfish) as alternative food sources. These will be cultivated in an urban environment in novel, customizable modular systems for food production – so-called “Urban Bio Spaces”.
In food4future, we conduct sociological and anthropological studies and focus on different extreme future scenarios. These help us identifying possible challenges of future food security and subsequently drive innovations.