Dr. Benedikt Jahnke

The decision to study organic agriculture in Witzenhausen was due to a happy coincidence: I returned to Germany from a voluntary service abroad in the field of development cooperation without any concrete plans. It was only through 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 the basic studies quickly in order to have time for highlights in the main studies, such as organizing the excursion abroad to Austria in 2010 or a five-month internship abroad in Argentina. This, as well as 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 economics and sociology of agriculture. As an external lecturer I organized during this time together with a colleague from Witzenhausen the courses "Ecological Nutrition Anthropology" and "Food and Drink as a Research Subject", so that there was still contact to Witzenhausen. 

My path led me further to the University of Bern in Switzerland, where I completed my doctorate under my doctoral advisor Prof. Liebe (who also has a Witzenhausen past) in 2019, on a topic that was and still is a topic for Witzenhausen as well: containerization. A court case involving three students from Witzenhausen, which received nationwide attention, was the catalyst for 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 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.

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 on a research project to prevent food waste in organic trade.

Then as now, I appreciated the tranquility and manageability of the Witzenhausen location. The inspiring atmosphere in the rooms of the monastery building and the good mood in the team offer excellent conditions for me to continue on my way into science. No matter where I end up at some point, the connection to Witzenhausen will remain.