Four members (Peter Dannenberg, Kerstin Nolte, Anika Trebbin, Michael Spies) of our working group Agri-Food Geographies attended the international workshop “Measuring Resilience in Agri-Food Systems: Metrics, Methods, and Policy Relevance” at the University of Göttingen on October 20th, 2026.
As agri-food systems face multiple and interconnected crises, understanding and measuring their resilience is becoming increasingly important. But what exactly makes an agri-food system resilient, how can we capture this complexity, and what does this mean for sustainability and policymaking? The workshop brought together researchers from agricultural economics, geography, and related disciplines to explore these questions through three keynote sessions:
- Peter Dannenberg (University of Cologne) discussed the differences between sustainability and resilience and their implications for measurement.
- Miranda Meuwissen (Wageningen University) addressed the methodological challenges of developing robust and reliable food system resilience metrics.
- Christophe Béné (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) focused on how resilience metrics can inform effective policy advice.
The afternoon programme provided space to reflect on conceptual and methodological challenges and future directions for resilience research. Many thanks to Margherita Squarcina, Silke Hüttel, Meike Wollni, Carola Paul and Peter Dannenberg for organizing this inspiring event!
