
Towards an inclusive and sustainable economy
One of the biggest challenges facing global society today is the provision of food, water, energy, healthcare and other resources and services to a world with an increasing population, in the face of mounting environmental stresses and rising inequality. There is a need for circular and resilient food systems that close material flow loops in the complete supply chain from farmers to consumers and back. This should be done in a resource efficient manner that includes all relevant actors.
Supporting society, government and industry
Wageningen Economic Research focusses on the social, economic and environmental aspects of these challenges within the food nexus. We provide government authorities with monitoring, evaluations, outlooks and policy scenarios, and support industry by facilitating the sustainability of supply-chain and company processes. This way we actively contribute to the Paris Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and COP21 climate targets.
Based on agricultural roots
From our agricultural basis, we make essential contributions to food security, climate and environmental policy through the formulation of future scenarios and the application of integrated assessment methods that unify micro and macro methods, as well as economic, behavioural and biophysical models. We contribute with cutting-edge research and through the monitoring and implementation of sustainability analyses to policy decisions for industry, foundations and government authorities. This way, we facilitate the transition from a linear to a circular economy.
Position statement
In January 2017 we have presented our position statement during the yearly Agrodebat. Here you can find the publication that supports this statement.
Monitoring and accounting
Improving Resilience through uncertainty management
- Water resources
- Phosphate recovery: a study of economic chances and opportunities
- The economic feasibility of seaweed production in the North Sea
- Understanding growers’ decisions to manage invasive pathogens at the farm level
- The nature of agroparks: synergy versus risk
- How do farmers react to varying water allocations? An assessment of how the attitude to risk affects farm incomes
Analysis of scenarios
- Agricistrade | Exploring potential for agricultural and biomass trade with the EU
- FoodSecure | For policies that matter
- SUSFANS | Metrics, Models and Foresight for European Sustainable Food And Nutrition Security
- SUCCESS | Strategic use of competitiveness towards consolidating the economic sustainability of the European Seafood sector
- Agmip | The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project
- Sim4Nexus | Sustainable Integrated Management for the nexus of water-land-food-energy-climate for a resource-efficient Europe
- Macroeconomic outlook of sustainable energy and biorenewables innovations
- Socio-economic and environmental impacts of reducing food loss and waste