The ETH World Food System Center looks back on the many exchanges and new collaborations with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2025. Much of the cooperation has been boosted by the growing UN-ETH Partnership.

Based on ethnographic research in two municipalities of southern Minas Gerais, this article explores how young adults working in Brazil’s coffee sector navigate difficult socio-environmental conditions in plantation labour by moving into emerging professions such as coffee grading, sensory evaluation, and barista work. These “caféology” careers allow them to gain autonomy, prestige, and in some cases international recognition within the specialty coffee movement, extending their activities into urban and even Global North settings. Yet, while these paths represent a quiet strategy of emancipation from the constraints of plantation work, they remain shaped by the broader pressures of neoliberal global agri-food systems and do not fully resolve structural vulnerabilities in the rural coffee economy.

This article develops a methodological framework to assess and spatially target agri-environmental schemes (AES) in permanent grasslands so as to optimize multiple ecosystem services at the regional level. By integrating environmental data, biodiversity indicators, and provisioning services, the study compares existing “action-oriented” AES with “hybrid” schemes in a case study from the Swiss canton of Solothurn. Results suggest that many pastures under AES align with hotspots of regulating services (e.g., climate regulation, pollination), while a substantial share of meadows overlap with yield hotspots — revealing trade-offs between biodiversity/ecosystem services and forage production. The proposed three-step framework helps planners reallocate AES to maximize synergies and minimize trade-offs — enabling spatial planning that supports both biodiversity conservation and agricultural productivity.