Author Archives: Petra Derkzen

Students interested in food crisis and urban agriculture

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Over a potluck diner organised by Boerengroep and Otherwise, yesterday, we evaluated the courses that we ran together this academic year. The course Food Farmers and Forks in November/December 2011 and the course Grassroots Science, from Februari until June this year. The courses were designed to give students the possibility to follow the evening lecture series as a course for 3 credits with additional mandatory literature and an essay assignment as exam. In both cases, initially around 30 students subscribed to the course, but not all students were able to finalise the course with the exam. It nevertheless gave both student organisations a steady audience of at least 30 students. However, the lectures were open just for anyone to join and in various cases there were over a hundred people participating. From the high numbers of participants and the positive feedback so far, we concluded that their evening lectures hit a nerve or a latent demand from students across study programs in this university to engage in critical thoughts on food issues.

The biggest hits were those lectures that had ‘food crisis’ and ‘urban agriculture’ in their title. Not to suggest ‘problem’ and ‘solution’ of course. Even though urban agriculture is unmistakenly a trend showing our re-engagement with food, we need more fundamental change in addition to some production in cities or more home grown activities by consumers in order to move towards a more sustainable and just food system. It seems that Dutch supermarkets pressured by NGO’s on animal welfare are finally beginning to catch up with wider societial trends and some leading examples in the food industry.

However, there is a long way to go. Both lecture series (in fall and spring) touched upon various structural inequalities and injustices such as around water rights and access, around seed sovereignity, the origin of our food, and the commodification of knowledge by vested interests (including of course universities) to name just a few. Both Boerengroep and Otherwise are dedicated to bringing food for thought for students who want to broaden their horizon.

They did a great job and are looking forward to organise more next year. If you have any suggestions for topics that you would like to know more about within the realm of sustainable food systems, please send an email to st.boerengroep@wur.nl

Traditional foods at IP in Romania (7) Student reflection

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Four previous blogs reported on the Intensive Program on Traditional Foods in Romania which took place during the first weeks of February. Students who participated were asked to reflect on their experiences.

Written by Rineke Boonen.

Saturday the 28th of January the time was come. Four students from Wageningen University replaced Wageneningen for two weeks Cluj-Napoca in Romania. We went to the cold Romania (-20C!) to take part at the Intensive Programme (IP) with the subject:”Microbes and traditional Foods: Competitors or allies”. Continue reading →

Oproep Onderzoeksstage “Smaak van het varken”

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Gezocht: Studenten die in de periode mei-juni-juli een onderzoek willen uitvoeren naar aantoonbare verschillen in smaak en smaakbeleving tussen verschillend gevoerde varkens van Piggy’s palace in Bathmen.

Het Nieuwe Veehouden van Piggy’s Palace

De familie Stegink uit Bathmen is eigenaar en initiatiefnemer van het Piggy’s Palace concept. De familie bestaat uit Erik, Paula , Bart, Tim, Appie en Hennie Stegink. Appie en Hennie Stegink (ouders van Erik) zijn al in de jaren ’60 begonnen met het varkenshouderijbedrijf. In het project “het nieuwe veehouden” heeft Erik nu een bedrijfsconcept ontwikkeld, waarmee hij als varkensbedrijf duurzaam de toekomst in wil gaan.

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Traditional Foods at IP Romania (6) Student reflection

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Four previous blogs reported on the Intensive Program on Traditional Foods in Romania which took place during the first weeks of February. Students who participated reflect on their experiences.

Written by Hylke Sibtsen

While watching the airplanes departing from Schiphol airport take-off from a runway with perfectly white lanes of snow on either side I wondered what the IP in Cluj-Napoca Romania would bring. Besides a little bit of information concerning the topic, “Microbes and traditional foods: competitors or allies?”, and that each participating country would present several traditional products of their country or region, I didn’t know what to expect from the IP.

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Traditional Foods at IP Romania (5) Student reflection

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Four previous blogs reported on the Intensive Program on Traditional Foods in Romania which took place during the first weeks of February. Students who participated reflect on their experiences.

Written by Cho-Ye Yuen

picture: Stefanos Nastis - Valea Draganului

Not knowing what to expect, we arrived in Cluj-Napoca, where it was minus 15 degrees during the day and minus 20 during the night and everywhere was covered with snow. The first day started off well, students from different countries brought their own traditional food and held a presentations about it. Afterwards there was this big tasting where we enjoyed parmigiano reggiano aged 12 and 48 months, French saucisson, different kinds of cheeses and cakes, smoked bacon and off course accompanied by some drinks: strong liquors from Poland and Romania such as plum brandy. The next day was more serious and started with lectures from professors all over Europe. Assignments were given and working in groups with different nationalities was not unfamiliar when you come from Wageningen.

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