Author Archives: RSO-Students

Voedselvisie “Ede, de proeftuin voor Food”

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Door Lara Sibbing, MSc-student Organic Agriculture (contact: lara.sibbing@wur.nl)

Voedselvisie EdeTijdens mijn stage bij de gemeente Ede heb ik bijgedragen aan het opstellen van een beleidsvisie rond voedsel. Dit heeft geresulteerd de notitie ‘Ede, de Proeftuin voor Food’ die in het voorjaar aan het college van B&W is aangeboden.De voedselvisie van Ede is te downloaden van de webpagina Ede kiest voor Food waar ook een korte toelichting wordt gegeven.

Met deze visie, die voortborduurt op de toekomstvisie Ede 2025, laat de gemeente Ede zien waar zij op in wil zetten op foodgebied: proeftuin voor Food worden door Ede en Edenaren, bedrijven en organisaties te stimuleren en te inspireren op drie hoofdthema’s: (1) Innovatieve bedrijvigheid in de regio, (2) Sociaal & Gezond en (3) Onderwijs & werkgelegenheid. De nieuwe gemeenteraad zal zich binnenkort over de voedselvisie buigen. Op dit moment wordt er hard gewerkt om samen met Edenaren een strategie op te stellen om de doelstellingen uit de visie te bereiken.

Les Indomptables : An ethnography of niche novelty production in Walloon Agriculture (MSc-thesis)

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By Vincent Delobel, MSc Regional Development & Innovation Wageningen University

My ancestors from both sides have been farming for ages. Peasants have continuously held this as ancestral as salutary art of nourishing “débrouillardise” (lit. problem-solving creativity) for ages; they have fed others in the plain as in the mountain, under dictatorship as under “democracy”. However, farmer newspapers today say we may disappear soon; ‘eternal’ peasant population rushes to the bottom.

Are we really going to disappear? How and why did we get to this situation? What is going on in farms today? What are farmers’ plans and projects? What futures do these projects lead to? This is in short the structure of my MSc-thesis ‘Les Indomptables : An ethnography of niche novelty production in Walloon Agriculture’. This alarming observation motivated me to go and see on farms in order to better see, understand phenomena going on in the reality of farms, and to reflect deeper on underlying issues. Thus, I phoned a few cousins and other colleagues and told them I was interested in their “inventivité” (inventiveness), their own way of doing things; I asked them to go and work with them in their own farm, in their daily activities -whatever it would be- to understand why and how they are looking to change their routines, i.e. for novelties.

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Tatra National Park – second post RUW-RSO studytrip to Poland

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RUW Foundation and the Rural Sociology Group organized a studytrip to Poland. In a 10 day intensive program different cities and rural areas in Poland were visited, interesting people and organizations met and farm work is done. The theme of the trip is “Glocalise”. Students are asked to prepare themselves well on different themes in groups before leaving and to write a concluding reflexive paper on their impressions and findings, and to write a blog. The is second blog on the Tatra National Park posted by:

Emanuel Sandrini, Kyra Weerts, Ileen Wilke, Meret Windler, Meia van der Zee

Museum Tatra national parkToday our trip took us to Tatra National Park, in the south of Poland. It is one of the 23 national parks in Poland.

First we arrived in Zakopane, a village close to the park. Zakopane is the so called wintersport capital of Poland and in summer many tourists come to hike and do other outdoor activities in the area. Each year in fact more than 2 million visitors come to Zakopane. Here we went to the local museum where we got a tour about the history and natural environment of the area from a very enthusiastic guide.

We learned about the Gorale people, the original inhabitants of the Tatra mountains. Traditionally they lived under harsh conditions with cold and long winters in the mountains and survived mostly from hunting. The Gorale are nowadays still famous for their wood crafts and making music. Continue reading →

Going global and remaining local: challenges of Poland in implementing climate change policies

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RUW Foundation and the Rural Sociology Group organized a studytrip to Poland. In a 10 day intensive program different cities and rural areas in Poland were visited, interesting people and organizations met and farm work is done. The theme of the trip is “Glocalise”. Students are asked to prepare themselves well on different themes in groups before leaving and to write a concluding reflexive paper on their impressions and findings, and to write a blog. This is first is posted by:

Caroline Lumosi, MSc-student Forest and Nature Conservation.

The first day saw us spend time learning about nature conservation in Poland. We focussed on climate change policies and agriculture. Poland faces challenges in implementing regional EU climate change policies in relation to implementing its national regulations on energy and economic development. Poland relies on the use of coal to support 90% its electricity. As the EU moves to cut down on its carbon emission, this in turn means focus is put on use of renewable energy sources. For Poland, and in particular the city of Warsaw, this presents a huge challenge as the city heavily relies on the use of coal for electricity, in transport and in household heating. Continue reading →

Puur & Eerlijk zonder zegeltjes – Topkoks over voedsel en koken

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Door MSc-student Guido Verheul

Puur en Eerlijk zonder zegeltjes Koken staat volop in de belangstelling. De afgelopen jaren zijn kookprogramma’s op televisie als paddenstoelen uit de grond geschoten en onlangs is er zelfs een ‘kookkanaal’ opgericht waar men 24 uur per dag terecht kan voor lekkere recepten of documentaires over voedsel. Ook topkoks worden gelauwerd om hun kookkunsten in televisieprogramma’s, boeken, tijdschriften, kranten en andere media, wat hun mening maatschappelijk bezien erg relevant maakt. Ik heb daarom besloten om voor mijn MSc-thesis deze topkoks te interviewen. In ‘Puur en Eerlijk zonder zegeltjes; een analyse van de claim op ‘kwaliteitsvoedel’ van Nederlandse topkoks‘ doe ik verslag van mijn bevindingen. Continue reading →