Make your research green

Can healthy eating habits be sustainable? What is Arla doing to combat the global obesity epidemic? Should we rewild the intestines and invite intestinal worms back? Come to the annual meeting of the Food and Nutrition Network and get a health perspective on the green transition.

Foundations and the EU are currently allocating large sums of money to green research ideas. Photo: Alisha Mishra/Pexels

The Food and Nutrition Network’s annual meeting


31 May 2022
Read more about the network here
See the programme for the annual meeting and register here.

Both politicians and foundations are focused on the climate and the green transition – and this agenda will naturally also be a focal point at Health.

This is the view of the Food and Nutrition Network, which at its annual meeting on 31 May, will focus on how you can utilise the opportunities for green solutions in your research.

Everyone is welcome to attend the annual meeting, which takes places in the AIAS Lecture Theatre in the University Park – and this includes both the network’s 150 current members and anyone else with an interest.

"The annual meeting focuses on the green transition because it’s relevant and topical. This is a challenge for Danish society as a whole, and the universities have been invited to provide input – including the Faculty of Health,” says the chair of the network, Niels Jessen. He is head of research at the Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, clinical professor at the Department of Biomedicine and consultant at Aarhus University Hospital.

Right inside the intestines

Taking a health science viewpoint, the green transition can be about everything from the global health crisis to the intestinal microbiota.

Which is one of the things that the annual meeting focuses on.

During the day you can hear associate professor at the Department of Public Health Christina C. Dahm, nutrition researcher at Arla Foods Andreas Buch Møller, associate professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine Peter Nejsum and clinical associate professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine Christian Lodberg Hvas.

The final two speakers take the audience deep inside the intestine, because perhaps humans also need a green transition here?

"Once we had lots of intestinal bacteria and worms which have disappeared from the modern lifestyle. We’ve discovered that this has consequences. Perhaps we should let them loose in the intestine again – just like the Mols laboratory sends wild animals out into wild," says Niels Jessen.

Health has a lot to offer in relation to the green transitions that Denmark is currently engaged in – and foundations and the EU are allocating very large amounts of money to green research ideas.

"This might not seem like an agenda that’s naturally part of health science research. But within food and nutrition, we’ve got a lot to offer. We need to remind each other of this, otherwise the agenda will be set without us," says Niels Jessen.

"However, when we bring the green transition over to our home turf, it gives us new opportunities to attract research resources, but also allows the individual researcher to make their mark on an important change in Danish society," he points out.

Vegetarian – of course

The menu at the annual meeting also reflects the day’s agenda.

As part of Aarhus University's climate action plan for 2022, vegetarian food will in future be the default option when ordering food and refreshments for meetings and conferences. In other words, you have to specifically ask for meat. Of course, the steering committee has not done this, because when the theme is the green transition, a vegetarian menu is called for.

"As the meat-free menu is now the default option at the university, it’s a very tangible illustration that the green transition is in full swing. It's not just something we're talking about. Denmark is changing, and we’re part of it," says Niels Jessen.