Relation to the living environment

Eating good quality food improves health. For Jasmin Peschke from the Section for Agriculture’s nutrition department, quality is a question of attitude.

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Different lifeworlds are interconnected in complex ways. When habitats of animals disappear, or when their food resources are reduced due to the loss of diversity, they move closer to human settlements and pathogens that previously only affected animals can transfer to humans as zoonoses. Plants growing in a nutrient solution and in an artificial atmosphere have less of a chance of developing resilience than plants that have to deal with external influences such as wind, weather, pests and diseases. “Humans also benefit from the vitality and resilience acquired by animals and plants,” says Jasmin Peschke, who finds it essential to look beyond the ingredients and understand food quality as an expression of the relationship we have with our living environment.

Jasmin Peschke advocates an attitude of partnership in the food system. “An apple is a food with its own ‘biography’, growth and ripening forces rather than some kind of vitamin supplement.” All stages of the apple’s biography are important: from breeding to planting, from production to processing, down to its presentation on the plate. The same diversity applies to plant cultivation, research, farming, cheese making, medicine, nutritional science and professional kitchens – all these are aspects that Jasmin Peschke considers in her recently published book.

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