Dr. Benedikt Jahnke

The decision to study organic farming in Witzenhausen was a happy coincidence: I returned to Germany from voluntary service abroad in the field of development cooperation without any concrete plans. It was only at an information day for prospective students that I found out about the courses on offer in Witzenhausen, and I was particularly impressed by the variety of subjects and the openness of the students. After a successful start, I tried to complete my basic studies quickly in order to have time for highlights such as organizing the 2010 excursion abroad to Austria or a five-month internship abroad in Argentina. This and my time as a student assistant at the Agricultural and Food Marketing department awakened my fascination for consumer research and empirical social research.

In order to develop further in this direction, I moved to the University of Göttingen, where I completed my Master's degree in Agricultural Sciences with a focus on the economics and sociology of agriculture. As an external lecturer, I organized the courses "Ecological Nutritional Anthropology" and "Food and Drink as a Subject of Research" together with a colleague from Witzenhausen during this time, so that I remained in contact with Witzenhausen.

My path led me on to the University of Bern in Switzerland, where I completed my doctorate in 2019 under my supervisor Prof. Liebe (also with a Witzenhausen past), on a topic that was and is also an issue in Witzenhausen: containerization. A court case involving three Witzenhausen students that attracted nationwide attention prompted me to take a closer look at the phenomenon of food rescue in Germany.

Parallel to my doctorate, I took up a position as a research assistant in the LOEWE focus on animal-human society at the University of Kassel. This position at the Department of Agricultural History in Witzenhausen was the first step back to Witzenhausen, so to speak.

I finally returned to my starting point in the fall of 2017 when I took up a position as a research assistant at the Department of Agricultural and Food Marketing, where I now work as a postdoc and am working on a research project on avoiding food waste in organic trade.

Then as now, I appreciate the tranquillity and manageability of the Witzenhausen site. The inspiring atmosphere in the rooms of the monastery building and the good atmosphere in the team offer excellent conditions for me to continue on my path into science. No matter where I end up one day, the connection to Witzenhausen will remain.