Valley partner Insolight powers Switzerland’s largest agri-PV project

Sep 16, 2026 | Uncategorized

Valley partner Insolight powers Switzerland’s largest agri-PV project

In Lovatens, Romande Energie, Insolight and organic blueberry producer Olivier Pichonnat have inaugurated Switzerland’s largest agri-photovoltaic installation to date, combining crop protection and renewable energy production on the same land. The new installation, officially inaugurated in the presence of Vaud State Councillors Valérie Dittli and Isabelle Moret, is the first of its kind in the canton of Vaud and the largest agri-PV project built in Switzerland so far.

Developed through a collaboration between farmer Olivier Pichonnat, Vaud-based technology company Insolight and Romande Energie, the installation protects 1.8 hectares of organic blueberries while generating around 2,400 MWh of renewable electricity each year – equivalent to the annual consumption of approximately 955 households. The project provides a practical example of how agricultural innovation, climate resilience and the energy transition can work hand in hand.

Helping agriculture adapt to a changing climate

Extreme weather events are becoming an increasing challenge for farmers. Heatwaves, drought, hail, heavy rain and late frosts can all affect crop quality and yields.

The Lovatens installation was designed to help address these challenges. Built on Olivier Pichonnat’s organic farm, its photovoltaic canopy provides greater protection for the blueberry plants while simultaneously producing renewable energy.

The benefits became particularly clear during the hot summer of 2026. While some exposed crops suffered significant damage, the blueberries growing beneath the agri-PV structure benefited from more favourable conditions, helping to limit sun damage, interrupted growth and dehydration.

Vaud State Councillors Valérie Dittli, responsible for agriculture, sustainability and climate, and Isabelle Moret, responsible for economy, innovation, employment and heritage, attended the inauguration. The project reflects the canton’s interest in solutions that can simultaneously support farmers in adapting to climate change, expand renewable energy production and contribute to the regional economy.

A Vaud innovation with broader potential 

The system consists of 5,220 photovoltaic modules installed above the blueberry crops on a structure specifically adapted to the needs of the farm.

Positioned 3.2 metres above the ground, the panels allow Olivier Pichonnat to continue working with his existing agricultural machinery and largely maintain his usual farming practices. At the same time, the structure provides protection against hail, frost, heavy rainfall and periods of extreme heat.

“Given the weather extremes we have experienced over the past few years as a result of climate change, it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to imagine a future without better protection for my crops,” explains Olivier Pichonnat. “With Insolight’s Insolagrin agri-PV solution, we were able to take into account both the agricultural challenges and the specific needs of my farm, adapting the installation to blueberry production and the way I work. At the same time, it allows me to play an active role in the energy transition. Combined with Romande Energie’s contracting model, I can look to the future with greater confidence while contributing to the transition towards renewable energy.”

Combining crop protection with food and energy resilience

Designed and built by Valley partner Insolight, the installation demonstrates how agri-photovoltaics can be implemented at scale while meeting the practical requirements of professional agriculture.

Drawing on experience from projects carried out together with leading agronomic research institutes, Insolight combines technical and agricultural expertise to address some of the key barriers to deploying agri-PV systems. The company supports projects from regulatory procedures through to commissioning, with the aim of creating installations that protect both crops and farmers’ long-term livelihoods.

The Lovatens project also highlights the potential synergies between agricultural policy, climate adaptation and renewable energy development.

Making large-scale implementation possible

Romande Energie financed the installation and will operate and maintain it for the next 30 years.

The contracting model enables farmers to benefit from innovative crop protection and new sources of income without having to finance the infrastructure themselves. Romande Energie also manages the sale of the solar electricity produced and its integration into the energy system, taking responsibility for investment, operations and exposure to an increasingly complex electricity market.

By bringing together Insolight’s agronomic innovation, Olivier Pichonnat’s farming expertise and Romande Energie’s energy capabilities, the project offers a promising model for how agriculture and renewable energy production can be developed side by side – creating value for farmers, the energy system and society.

How AI is transforming the European food industry

Sep 15, 2026 | Press-releases, SFNV updates, Uncategorized

September 2026

Uncategorized

Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley (SFNV) and Porsche Consulting have launched 'How AI changes food', a new report examining how AI is reshaping competition, value creation, and execution across the European food industry with interviews from 12 industry experts.

The report looks at AI in Food through 3 lenses: 

  • Why AI is intensifying competition in the sector
  • What value it can deliver for food industry executives
  • How it can be applied effectively across the value chain and the organisation
Join the AI in Food Masterclass
Why AI, why now?

The report identifies the forces putting AI at the center of food industry strategy: consumers who already expect personalisation, a shift in how executives view AI, from an experimental technology bet to a decision that shows up directly on margin, and Europe's opening to take a leading position in the AI-in-food race.

Anna Mucha, COO and AI in Food Lead at Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, said: “AI is quickly moving from an emerging technology to a core part of how food companies operate and stay relevant to consumers. This report is part of our AI in Food Masterclass and is designed to help our ecosystem move beyond curiosity to action and application of AI."

From adoption to execution

Giulio Busoni, Partner at Porsche Consulting, frames AI in food as an incremental enabler rather than a disruptor of business models. "The real dividing line in the industry is no longer between companies that use AI and those that don't, but between those running isolated pilots and those integrating it at scale across the organisation, with slow adopters risking lower valuations, persistent cost inefficiencies, and reduced appeal to talent.”

Beyond mapping where AI is being applied, the report focuses on the gap between what AI can do and what companies are actually deploying, and the capabilities food businesses need to build to close it and turn adoption into real execution with first-hand interviews with Nestlé, Bühler, Givaudan, EPFL, Helbling, Tetra Pak, FlavorWiki, University of Bern, Barilla, Novonesis, dsm-firmenich and GDI.

What's next

The report closes with an outlook on the future of the food industry in the AI era, covering regulation, industrial depth, and the trusted data ecosystems that will separate leaders from followers by 2030.

This report is part of the AI in Food Masterclass, with 3 expert led webinars and 2 in-person events.

Access the masterclass today (free for Valley Partners) and join us online and in person over the next few months:

About Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley

Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley (SFNV) is a purpose-driven not-for-profit association, founded in 2020. It brings together the Swiss agrifood ecosystem to pioneer future-proof food systems that are good for the planet, good for people, and good for the economy.

We bring together over 150 partners from startups, industry, research and policymakers to accelerate innovation from farm to fork. Through collaboration and piloting new solutions, we translate science into impact – for people, planet and prosperity.

About Porsche Consulting
Porsche Consulting is a leading management consulting firm, offering executive advice from strategy to operations.

Founded in 1994 following Porsche's successful transformation into one of the most profitable and admired luxury sports car manufacturers.

Today, its experts support companies around the world in business growth, strategic transformation and performance management. The consultants operate in various sectors ranging from mobility to life science, consumer goods to industrial goods, energy to aerospace, construction to defense.

The main areas of expertise are corporate strategy and corporate finance, sales and services, organization and efficiency, development and technology, as well as operational excellence.

Porsche Consulting has offices in Germany, Italy, France, China, Brazil, and the United States

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From Policy to Plate: Turning food policy into healthier, lower-carbon meals

Sep 14, 2026 | Press-releases, Uncategorized

From Policy to Plate: Turning food policy into healthier, lower-carbon meals

Every year, schools, hospitals and other public institutions across the Canton de Vaud serve around four million meals. 
What if those meals could improve people's health while increasing local sourcing and highlighting a seasonal menu?
That is the opportunity behind From Policy to Plate, a new collaborative initiative supported by the Canton de Vaud and led by Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, pi2Life and FOOD2050.
Over the next 18 months, the programme will work with collective catering providers across Vaud to demonstrate how healthier, lower-carbon menus can be implemented in real kitchens.
The ambition is simple: turn policy-level health and climate goals into practical changes on the plate.
A huge opportunity hiding in plain sight
Public and institutional catering has an enormous influence on what people eat.
Every day, kitchens in schools, hospitals, care settings and other public institutions make decisions about thousands of meals. Those decisions need to balance nutritional requirements, budgets, procurement, kitchen capabilities, customer preferences and increasingly, environmental targets.
That makes collective catering both a challenge and a powerful opportunity.

“Translating health and climate ambitions into meals that work for chefs, kitchens and the people they serve can be a huge challenge. From Policy to Plate allows us to use recipe intelligence in real catering environments, helping teams redesign menus, understand their impact and identify changes that can be scaled across public institutions.”

Christian Kramer, CEO & Co-founder, FOOD2050

Rather than asking individuals to change their diets one meal at a time, From Policy to Plate looks at the institutions serving food at scale. 
If a kitchen can improve the health profile of its menus, reduce their carbon footprint and increase the use of locally sourced plant-based and alternative proteins, the impact can be multiplied across millions of meals.
From ambition to action
Translating policy ambitions into a menu that works in a real kitchen is rarely straightforward.
A policy might call for healthier diets or lower emissions. A chef still has to decide what goes on the menu. Ingredients need to be available, affordable and practical to prepare, and, importantly, people need to want to eat the result.
Policy to Plate is designed to bridge that gap.
The programme brings together public authorities, caterers, food suppliers, technology providers and innovators to test what works in practice, learn from implementation and identify approaches that can be scaled.
The programme is targeting:
  • +15% improvement in the health profile of redesigned menus
  • Significantly increase the share of local and Swiss products in menus
  • -10% reduction in CO₂ emissions, as a minimum

“By making high-quality, locally relevant options easier to discover and source, we can help turn ambitious sustainability targets into practical purchasing decisions and create new opportunities for food innovators across Vaud and Switzerland.”

Dhanesh Kothari, Founder, pi2Life

Connecting innovation with real-world demand
A core part of the programme is connecting kitchens with the companies developing new food products and solutions.
  • For food suppliers and brands, collective catering offers an opportunity to demonstrate how plant-based and alternative protein products can work in institutional settings.
  • For solution providers, it offers a chance to test technologies and services against real-world challenges.
  • And for caterers, it creates access to a wider ecosystem of products, expertise and ideas that can help them meet changing health and sustainability expectations.
Innovation needs to find its way into menus, procurement systems and kitchens, and ultimately onto people's plates.

“The opportunity is to move beyond setting ambitious targets and start testing what change actually looks like in the kitchens serving people every day. By bringing the right partners together, we can learn what works, build capability and create models that can be replicated.”

Marco La Fortezza, Head of Funding Strategies and Initiatives at Swiss Food Nutrition Valley

Now, we need the food ecosystem
The first phase of From Policy to Plate is now getting underway, and the programme is looking to expand its network of participants and partners.
We are particularly interested in hearing from:
  • Collective caterers and kitchen operators interested in piloting the approach
  • Food suppliers and brands looking to showcase their plant-based and alternative protein products
  • Solution and service providers with technologies, expertise or services that can help accelerate the transition
Because creating healthier, lower-carbon food systems is about changing what happens when policy meets procurement, innovation meets the kitchen, and ambition meets the plate.

Register your interest here to take part in the initiative and to get the full over of the initiative head this way.

How can we empower citizens to improve nutrition and metabolic health in Switzerland?

Sep 14, 2026 | Uncategorized

How can we empower citizens to improve nutrition and metabolic health in Switzerland?

Givaudan TW Startup Challenge

There’s no single answer, and no single company, organisation or sector can solve this alone.

That’s why the latest Nutrition4Metabolic Health brought together producers, academics and food experts at Swiss Re to explore what it will take to move faster from ambition to action.

Building on our previous workshop, we shifted the conversation from identifying the barriers to what we can do to drive action and responsibility across sectors. 

Throughout the afternoon, representatives from across the nutrition and health ecosystem came together, spanning food producers and manufacturers, academic institutions, startups, and experts from insurance, food-science associations and government-adjacent advisory bodies. 

Organisations represented included, Bühler, Nestlé, SV Group, Hilcona, ETH Zürich, Fachhochschule Bern, University Hospital Zürich, DataBiomix and Alivion, among many others.

Making prevention a priority

Christina Senn-Jakobsen, CEO of Swiss Food Nutrition Valley, opened by setting the scene on Switzerland's health economics: national health costs surpassed CHF 100 billion last year, with 72% of that cost driven by  non-communicable diseases (NCDs),which are the largest cost driver, and yet preventable.

She noted that only less than 2% of health spending goes toward prevention, despite research suggesting a roughly 20x return on investment for preventive health spending. 

She introduced the initiative's nutritional touchpoints (spanning agriculture, retail, workplace, healthcare, education, and government) and its empowerment framework that prioritises citizen choice over prescriptive mandates.

Rethinking the metabolic health paradigm

Dr John Schoonbee, Swiss Re's Chief Medical Officer, gave a detailed presentation arguing that insulin resistance is a widely underappreciated root cause behind many NCDs. 

He argued that the legacy of the mid-20th-century “diet-heart hypothesis” helped establish the low-fat, higher-carbohydrate paradigm that shaped nutritional guidance for decades. 

In his view, this has contributed to an underappreciation of the metabolic effects of carbohydrate-rich diets, particularly their role in driving glucose and insulin responses.

John cited startling statistics (U.S. obesity rates rising sevenfold since the 1950s; over half of American adults now diabetic or pre-diabetic) and Swiss data suggesting a substantial undiagnosed pre-diabetic population even among healthy seniors. 

The debate around diet, policy and prevention

Five interconnected themes emerged from the discussion, reflecting some of the key challenges in translating nutritional science into policy and practice:

  • The credibility and funding gap in official dietary guidelines 
  • Skepticism toward the "ultra-processed food" classification as scientifically unclear and inconsistently applied
  • Changes to the school education curriculum so children have an understanding of healthy habits from a young age
  • The economics of who pays for preventive interventions, with Finland's employer-incentive model cited as a possible template
  • Tension between sustainability goals and metabolic-health goals with the example of plant-based reformulation that sometimes conflicts with minimal processing

From discussion to action

Next, the attendees split into sector-based groups to consider what their respective industries and institutions could do to advance better nutrition and metabolic health.

Food producers discussed redesigning retail and considered controversial ideas like shifting margins toward healthier products, plus lobbying for tax incentives. 

Academia emphasized the need to improve public science communication, and engage more directly with policy makers. 

The mixed group flagged the lack of consensus messaging across sectors and the importance of Swiss nutrition bodies being independent from government recommendations.

A drop in the ocean, but the ocean is made of drops

When we want to improve metabolic health, it can't simply be about telling people to make better choices. We need to make the better choice the easier choice.

That means changing the environments, systems and opportunities that people have, and requires action and collaboration across different sectors and ecosystems.

This is the conversation we're continuing through the Nutrition4MetabolicHealth Initiative, as we get ready for our Summit on 3-4 November in Zurich. 

Get monthly updates in your inbox or register your interest for the Summit.

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The Clima Now launches its “Wall of Fame” as public voting opens today

Sep 7, 2026 | Uncategorized

The Clima Now launches its “Wall of Fame” as public voting opens today

Givaudan TW Startup Challenge

Earlier this year, Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley teamed up with Clima Now Spotlight 2026 to find the best solutions for a more climate-friendly food system. From 67 innovative projects submitted, the jury has nominated 14 for the “Wall of Fame”. The two-week public vote will now help determine which seven projects will go on to compete for the coveted Spotlight Award 2026 at the Pitch Night on 29 October 2026.

The Clima Now Spotlight is an ideas competition that calls for projects designed to support innovation in the climate space. This year, it's sixth edition, the focus is on the Swiss food system.

Together with partners Innovate 4 Nature, Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, Zweifel Chips & Snacks AG and Graubünden Ferien, Clima Now invited changemakers to submit high-impact projects that can contribute to transforming the food system towards net zero.

Driving food system innovation 

When it comes to shaping our food system, Clima Now has identified four levers that offer particularly strong opportunities for innovation:

  1. Preserving natural resources such as soil and biodiversity
  2. Closing loops in food processing
  3. Creating new synergies between actors across the food system, and
  4. Developing new forms of value creation.

Projects were submitted from the beginning of May until the end of June. A total of 67 innovative projects were received. The jury has now nominated 14 projects for the Wall of Fame.

“We are delighted by the high quality and diversity of the projects submitted,” says Corinne Grässle, Managing Director of Clima Now. “Choosing the projects to nominate for the Wall of Fame was no easy task for the jury.”

Meet the 14 nominees on the Wall of Fame

The nominated projects come from across Switzerland and neighbouring countries. The innovations submitted cover all four of the identified impact levers within the food system.

The 14 Wall of Fame nominees include a digital app for fast, tailored fertilisation, a multifunctional equipment carrier, and a project focused on growing sorghum in Switzerland. From 7 to 21 September, you have the opportunity to rate the projects submitted and cast your vote.

See all 14 projects at a glance (in German)

Clima Now Spotlight pitch night

Only seven projects will make it to the Pitch Night on 29 October at Kraftwerk Zurich. During this exciting evening, the finalists will present their projects to the jury and a large audience.

Commenting on the Pitch Night, Corinne Grässle said: “Of course, we don’t yet know which project will win yet. But we do know that it will be an innovative, scalable project with the potential to drive meaningful progress in our food system. I’m already looking forward to the grand finale and welcoming a large audience.”

The best projects will receive a total of CHF 90,000 in funding, as well as expert support from the Spotlight partners.

About Clima Now

Clima Now is a Swiss foundation with a mission to mobilise people and ideas now to help shape a liveable future and enable Switzerland to achieve its net-zero target.

With a focus on policy and advocacy, Clima Now works to support effective and future-ready Swiss climate policy. At the same time, through its annual Spotlight Pitch Night, the foundation puts innovative climate ideas in the spotlight and works with partners to help turn them into reality.

Clima Now is committed to ensuring that solutions create impact — fearlessly, boldly and together with the changemakers of today and tomorrow.

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ETH Zurich’s Alexander Mathys joins the SFNV Steering Committee

Aug 22, 2026 | Uncategorized

ETH Zurich’s Alexander Mathys joins the SFNV Steering Committee

From sustainable processing and circularity to the challenge of turning promising research into solutions that work at scale, Professor Alexander Mathys believes the future of food innovation depends on taking a systems approach. Having recently joined the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley Steering Committee, Alexander brings extensive experience spanning academia and industry, including ETH Zurich, the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL), Nestlé and international research initiatives in Singapore.
We caught up with him to explore where he sees the greatest opportunities to build a more sustainable food system, what it takes to move emerging technologies from the lab into real-world applications, and why closer collaboration across Switzerland’s food innovation ecosystem will be key to accelerating impact.

Alexander, welcome to the Valley! What inspired you to join the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley Steering Committee, and what are you most looking forward to contributing?

Thank you! I’ve had the opportunity to work across academia, applied research and industry, from ETH Zurich and DIL to Nestlé and international research initiatives in Singapore. One thing I’ve learned along the way is that structural food system transformation requires seamless cross-sector integration.

Switzerland has an extraordinary mix of research, food-tech startups and global companies. What excites me about joining the Steering Committee is the opportunity to bring these strengths together. I look forward to bringing a systems-oriented, process-engineering perspective to help convert scientific discoveries into validated, scalable solutions for global food security.

Your work at ETH Zurich takes a systems approach to sustainable food processing, considering the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the entire value chain. Where do you see the greatest opportunities to make our food system more sustainable over the coming decade?

The most impactful shift is moving away from isolated single-indicator metrics, like evaluating carbon footprint alone, and embedding multi-indicator sustainability frameworks directly into early-stage processing design. We must assess environmental boundaries systematically, alongside nutritional quality, energy efficiency, cost, and sensory appeal.

In terms of product design, hybrid food formulations offer immense potential. By strategically combining functional properties from plants, fungi, microalgae, and traditional dairy, we can achieve better nutritional profiles and taste experiences that naturally drive consumer adoption.

I believe we should also focus on optimising production efficiency, exploring resilient raw materials like microalgae, and integrating robust side-stream conversion into value chains.

Much of your research explores how emerging technologies and new raw materials can help us produce healthy, high-quality food more efficiently. Which innovations do you believe have the greatest potential to move from research into real-world impact?

Advanced processing methodologies, like ultra-short thermal treatments, high-pressure processing, pulsed electric fields and specialised extrusion, can help us preserve heat-sensitive nutrients and create the structures we need, while making production more sustainable.

The real challenge is getting these technologies out of the pilot plant and into industry. They need to work continuously, reliably and at a competitive cost. That transition from promising technology to something that can perform at industrial scale is where we now need to focus.

Circularity is another recurring theme in your work, particularly the use of side streams and more efficient use of biomass and energy. Where are we currently missing opportunities to turn food-system waste into value?

We still have many nutrient-rich side streams that end up in relatively low-value applications. There is a real opportunity to make better use of them. For example, liquid side streams can be used to cultivate microalgae for food-grade biomass, while other residues can be used in insect farming to produce more sustainable feed.

To make this work, we need efficient ways to convert, stabilise and extract these resources close to where they are produced. We also need clear safety standards and regulatory pathways. If we can get those pieces right, circular approaches can help us produce more nutritional value from the resources we already have.

When assessing new food technologies, sustainability can’t be reduced to a single metric. How should innovators balance environmental impact with nutrition, affordability, consumer acceptance and commercial viability?

We need to think about these trade-offs from the beginning, rather than waiting until a product is ready to launch. At ETH, for example, we look at environmental impact alongside nutrition, cost and how a technology is likely to develop over time.

A process might perform very well environmentally, but that alone isn’t enough. If it reduces important nutrients, creates taste challenges or makes the final product too expensive, it will struggle to succeed.

That’s why collaboration is so important. Process engineers, food scientists, nutritionists and industry partners need to work together early on. It gives us a much better chance of developing solutions that work technically, commercially and for consumers.

You’ve worked across academia and industry, including at ETH Zurich, the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL), and the Nestlé Research Centre. What have those different perspectives taught you about what it takes to successfully translate food innovation into practice?

You learn something new in every new role. Universities are very good at exploring fundamental science and longer-term breakthroughs. Applied research institutes such as DIL can test whether those ideas work under food-grade, pilot-scale conditions. Industry brings the experience needed to understand markets, supply chains and scale.

Problems often arise when these groups work sequentially rather than concurrently. Setting up pre-competitive collaborative platforms, joint pilot infrastructures, and shared risk-assessment frameworks allows us to streamline technology transfer and bring scientific concepts to commercial application significantly faster.

Finally, is there a message or invitation you’d like to share with the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley community?

Switzerland is in a prime position to set a global benchmark for sustainable food processing and nutrition. Through our international activities, including the Singapore-ETH Centre and the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein at NUS, we observe how Swiss scientific quality and engineering precision are respected worldwide.

My invitation to the Valley community, across universities, startups, established enterprises, and government, is to leverage our joint capabilities. Let’s focus on de-risking novel processing technologies together, validating circular value chains, and creating science-based solutions that demonstrate real-world impact both regionally and internationally.

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