Verena Seufert

Verena Seufert is an interdisciplinary scientist working at the intersection of agricultural sciences, land system science and sustainability science. She holds the Robert Bosch Junior Professorship 2021 and leads the Department of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources (430c) at the Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture at the University of Hohenheim.

Her research asks two core questions: What does sustainability mean in agri‑food systems, and how can we transform real‑world systems to get there? To address these questions, she combines global, spatially explicit analyses (e.g. on farm size, organic agriculture, crop diversification) with comparative case studies and transdisciplinary work with local actors in regions such as India, Mexico, Kenya, or Germany.

Her recent work focuses on “bright spots” of sustainable agri‑food systems, participatory visioning, and agrifood knowledge and innovation systems, integrating ecological, agronomic and socio‑economic dimensions and reflecting on how science itself needs to be practiced to be truly transformative.