Healthy soils and socially just coffee – Research for more sustainable food systems

Public award ceremony organized by SFIAR and hosted by ETH Zurich (9 December 2025)

Subject

Healthy soils and fair value chains are key to more sustainable and resilient agri-food systems. This year’s SFIAR Awards highlight two outstanding research projects that address these challenges from complementary angles: the ecological foundations of agricultural production and the social conditions under which it takes place.

Dr. Claude Müller, winner of the SFIAR PhD Award 2025, examined the effects of nutrient management on organic matter and soil microorganisms in tropical and temperate agroecosystems. By comparing different contexts, his research sheds light on how nutrient management practices influence soil biological activity and long-term soil health, providing valuable insights for the design of agroecological farming systems across regions.

Lea Fabritius, winner of the SFIAR Master Thesis Award 2025, focused on the social life cycle assessment of coffee production systems in the south of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Her work analyses social impacts along the coffee value chain, contributing to a better understanding of labour conditions and social sustainability in one of the world’s most important agricultural commodities.

Before the awardees presented their projects, two keynote speakers placed their research in a broader context. Dr. Lutz Merbold (Agroscope) highlighted the role of soil health as a cornerstone of agroecological farming systems, while Philipp Schallberger (Kaffeemacher:innen GmbH) offered a practitioner’s perspective on coffee production, drawing attention to the people behind global value chains.