Meeting the growing appetite of cities sustainably: a consumption perspective

Dr. Sigrid Wertheim-Heck is a professor of Food and Healthy Living at the Aeres University of Applied Sciences and senior research fellow at the Environmental Policy Group of Wageningen University. She has particular qualifications in consumer and market research on accessing sustainable food and on food security in urban areas. She holds a master in history and international relations, a master in Russian and Eurasian Studies both at Leiden University, and a PhD in consumption sociology at Wageningen University with a thesis on food consumption in modernizing Vietnam.

Sigrid has more than 20 years of experience in business development, market/consumer research, marketing and distribution strategy within the international commercial sector. Since 2016, she leads the research program studying how to feed the city within the metropole region Amsterdam-Almere. Also, she liaised with Wageningen University conducting research in the global south; amongst others, she is dealing the project called Retail Diversity for Dietary Diversity.

Her interest in global urban food security informs her research agenda on the relationship between metropolitan development, food provisioning and food consumption. With a background in consumption sociology, main areas of Sigrid's interest include everyday consumption practices and equitable access to sustainable, safe and healthy foods.

She is regularly consulted as strategic advisor both by ministries in the Netherlands and abroad on issues related to food security and food safety in emerging markets. Moreover, her international background in the fields of research, policy and business allows her to establish vital connections between the private sector and knowledge institutions in creating interdisciplinary approaches for real world issues.