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About Dirk Roep

I have retired as Assistant professor at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. I continue though to be involved in various initiatives and research on different modes of regenerative agriculture, food provisioning and place-based development.

Food Tank: Five Ways to Change the Food System

About the Food Tank:

Our food system is broken. Some people don’t have enough food, while others are eating too much. There’s only one way to fix this problem—and it starts with you and me.

Food Tank: The Food Think Tank is for the 7 billion people who have to eat every day. We will offer solutions and environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty by creating a network of connections and information for all of us to consume and share. Food Tank is for farmers and producers, policy makers and government leaders, researchers and scientists, academics and journalists, and the funding and donor communities to collaborate on providing sustainable solutions for our most pressing environmental and social problems.

As much as we need new thinking on global food system issues, we also need new doing. Around the world, people and organizations have developed innovative, on-the-ground solutions to the most pressing issues in food and agriculture. Through years of field visits (and years of trying to eat better in her own community) our President Danielle Nierenberg has helped to highlight and promote these best practices. Today, we hope to bridge the domestic and global food issues by highlighting how hunger, obesity, climate change, unemployment, and other problems can be solved by more research and investment in sustainable agriculture.

Food Tank will highlight hope and success in agriculture. We will feature innovative ideas that are already working on the ground, in cities, in kitchens, in fields and in laboratories. These innovations need more attention, more research, and ultimately more funding to be replicated and scaled-up. And that is where we need you. We all need to work together to find solutions that nourish ourselves and protect the planet.

See the clip how the food systems can be changed in the five ways:

Il a plus sur le grand paysage – Film about crisis in Wallonian Dairy farming in Movie W

Monday March 31, 20.00 the film ‘Il a plus sur le grand paysage‘ (with English subtitles) will be shown in Movie-W. The film is directed by Jean-Jacques Andrien. The director and a farmer will be present and open for discussion with the audience.

Autumn 2010. In the region of Herve, in Belgium’s east, the milk crisis of 2009 struck brutally at the dairy farms. In this profoundly estabilised context, the decision of the European Union to completely remove the milk production quota in 2015, and the determination of the World Trade Organisation to further liberalise the markets, directly threatened the existence of the farms. Nine farmers tell us of their struggle, from the heart.

Free entrance thanks to the support by Rural Sociology and Sociology of Development and Change of Wageningen University. The evening is co-organised by Otherwise, Movie-W, ILEIA, RUW and Boerengroep.

Voedselanders / Food otherwise conference very successfull

The Voedselanders or Food Otherwise conference held last Friday and Saturday at the Wageningen Campus has been very successfull and inspiring: more then 800 people participated. Key notes speeches by a.o. Pablo Titonell, Hanny van Geel, Vandana Shiva and Olivier de Schutter were broadcasted live by wurtv.wur.nl and those did missed one or more can still see what they missed. See also the Voedselanders.nl website for links to the recordings.

Wageningen goes Arts & Design

Poster Wageningen Goes Arts and DesignRUW and the Cultural Geography Chair group present: Nature, food, animals and  landscape – seen through the eyes of artists and designers.

What? Lecture and discussion
When? Thursday 27 February, 19-21
Where?  Forum C314
With:

Sascha Landshoff (DeTostiFabriek – The Toastie Factory)
In Amsterdam, the experimental project ‘Tosti Fabriek’ was set up, producing all the ingredients for a toastie in an old factory. Grain was harvested and turned into bread, pigs were kept to produce ham and cows were milked to produce cheese. What does this project tell us about cycles of production and the relations between people, food and cities?

Henriette Waal (Outdoor Brewery)
How can you make the landscape drinkable? Henriette is an artist and designer (Design Academy Eindhoven) who made an outdoor installation for beer brewing. She uses rainwater and wild plants for brewing beer, turning the landscape into an ingredient.

‘Bartaku’ (Plant based photo-voltaic cells)
How can we use plants to generate energy? Bart Vandeput not only investigates the energy potential of plant based photovoltaic cells, but in the process generates new ways of relating to energy (consumption): what if we could eat it? And generate electricity with our body?

This lecture is the kick-off for a Capita Selecta ‘Environmental Humanities’ about the relation between science, technology and art. Inspired by your essay and in conversation with you, students of the Rietveld Academy of Arts will work on creating designs which will be exhibited in Wageningen. More info about the course (5th period, 3ECTS): Clemens.Driessen@wur.nl

Student asked for MSc-thesis research on poultry systems in Venda, Northern South Africa

There is a possibility for a MSc-student to explore poultry dynamics in South Africa. Post-apartheid socio-technical development interventions (still) favours the introduction and expansion of modern poultry systems (broilers and layers) among smallholders to supply meat and eggs to urban consumers. The ‘formula 1 chicken’ (or plof kip) relies heavily on purchased industrial feed and fodder. The market, in addition, plays a crucial role. Together they shape the future of this poultry system. Next to this modern system, a flourishing poultry hinging on indigenous scavenging chicken is operational.

The project aims to make a detailed socio-technical analysis of both poultry systems with a focus on problematic issues and opportunities.

Accommodation and a translator can be arranged. Info: Paul.Hebinck@wur.nl