Author Archives: Han Wiskerke

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About Han Wiskerke

Chair and Professor of Rural Sociology at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) Research domains: rural development, multifunctional agriculture, city-region food systems

Conference Call – Agriculture in an Urbanizing Society

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A major demographic milestone occurred in May 2007. For the first time in the history of mankind the earth’s population became more urban than rural. This process of urbanization will continue in an accelerated pace in the forthcoming decades: the growth of the world population from 6 billion people in 2000 to 9 billion people in 2050 will mainly occur in urban areas. By 2050 the urban population will approximately be twice the size of the rural population.

However, this does not mean that urban areas are or will become of greater importance than rural areas. On the contrary, the urban and the rural have always heavily relied on each other and will do so even more in an era characterized by rapid urban population growth. Cities will continue to need resources such as food, fibre, clean water, nature, biodiversity, and recreational space, as well as the people and communities that produce and provide these urban necessities and desires. Hence, key questions for the next decades are how, where and by whom these urban necessities and desires will be produced and provided and if and how this can be done in manner that is considered to be socially, economically and ecologically sustainable and ethically sound.

In recent years the concept of multifunctional agriculture has emerged as an important reference in debates on the future of agriculture and the countryside and its relations with the wider and predominantly urban society. This is an expression of the fact that agriculture is not only valued for its contribution to food and fibre production and the economic development of the agro-industry, but needs to be assessed according to a much wider range of social, environmental, economic and ethical concerns. At farm level multifunctional agriculture is characterized by a variety of entrepreneurial strategies and activities, such as processing and direct marketing of food products, energy production, care for elderly and disabled people, and tourism. But multifunctional agriculture is also expressed at higher scales, such as the regional level (e.g. collective nature and landscape management schemes and regional branding) and the national level (e.g. policymaking and implementation).

Due to the multiplicity of activities, the multi-scalar character of multifunctionality and the geographical contextuality of expressions of multifunctional agriculture, research on multifunctional agriculture and changing urban-rural relations is highly fragmented, disciplinarily as well as geographically. Hence, this conference aims to advance the scientific state of the art in research on multifunctional agriculture and urban-rural relations by bringing together scholars of different disciplines (sociology, economics, spatial planning, land use planning, regional planning, urban planning, crop sciences, animal sciences, soil sciences, architecture, etc…) from all parts of the world.

Working group themes
The conference facilities allow for a maximum of 21 parallel working group sessions. The scientific committee has proposed 21 working group themes (see http://www.agricultureinanurbanizingsociety.com/UK/Working+group+themes/)   and is inviting prospective working group convenors to submit a short (max 500 words) call text for the theme they would like to convene. Proposals for a working group call text can be send to the chair of the scientific committee by email (han.wiskerke@wur.nl) before the 1st of September 2011. The deadline for submission of abstracts will be 1st of December 2011. Abstracts will have to be submitted to the convenors.

More information

Please check the conference website for more information.

PUREFOOD Research Vacancy ‘Comparative analysis of urban food strategies’

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The vacancy for a position as Early Stage Researcher (ESR) for the project  ‘Comparative analysis of urban food strategies in European cities’ within the PUREFOOD research and training network has been re-opened. More information about PUREFOOD can be found below and on the PUREFOOD website (which is still under construction).

Job description

For this PUREFOOD project ‘Comparative analysis of urban food strategies in European cities’ we are looking for an Early Stage Researcher who is interested in the topics of urban food provisioning and the relations between food and policy domains as public health, education, environment, et cetera from a sociological, political science and/or planning perspective. The research will focus on how food policies are articulated and motivated in different European cities and what  the consequences are for their implementation. This focus is inspired by the fact that more and more city governments are taking up food as a key policy area to enhance human and environmental urban health. The challenges of policy articulation and implementation are big. The articulation of food policy has so far been reliant on individual politicians and on a political level vulnerable to electoral shifts. Institutionalization of food policy in city governments has just started and different patterns of institutionalization are emerging with particular pitfalls and successes. This study will explore the preconditions, political processes, strategy articulation and implementations of urban food strategies in different European cities in comparative perspective to enhance the understanding of the conditions for successful urban food policy implementation. Continue reading →

Multifunctionele landbouw is een sector met toekomst

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Ondernemen in de multifunctionele landbouw is niet voor stoppers, maar biedt juist toekomstperspectief. Het vervlechten van nieuwe activiteiten (zoals zorg, recreatie, educatie, huisverkoop etc.) met de agrarische productie zorgt voor een aanzienlijke bijdrage aan het gezinsinkomen en verdere ontwikkeling van de agrarische activiteiten. Dit blijkt uit het onderzoek ‘Dynamiek en Robuustheid van Multifunctionele Landbouw’ dat in opdracht van het ministerie van EL&I werd uitgevoerd door de leerstoelgroep Rurale Sociologie van Wageningen University. Het onderzoek is gebaseerd op diepte-interviews met 120 multifunctionele landbouwondernemers. De ondernemers komen uit het Brabantse Groene Woud, Flevoland, Laag-Holland (Noord-Holland), het Zeeuwse Walcheren/Zuid-Beveland, De Drentse Wolden en de Noordelijke Friese Wouden.

Robuustheid

Uit de interviews blijkt ten eerste dat bij de komst van nieuwe activiteiten vooral positieve drijfveren een rol spelen, meer dan een te laag inkomen. Betrokken boeren en boerinnen hebben vaak behoefte aan meer contact met burgers, consumenten en de maatschappij. Ten tweede blijkt dat op de onderzochte bedrijven gemiddeld bijna drie verschillende activiteiten voorkomen, in verschillende combinaties.

De verschillende combinaties van multifunctionele activiteiten op de onderzochte bedrijven zorgen voor een gemiddelde omzet van 195.000 euro (aanvullend op de agrarische omzet). De activiteiten leveren – met gemiddeld 40 procent – een aanzienlijke bijdrage aan het totale gezinsinkomen. Sinds de start van de nieuwe activiteiten is er bovendien op het overgrote deel van de bedrijven sprake van een positieve wisselwerking met verdere agrarische ontwikkeling. Agrarische omzet, grondgebruik en arbeidsinzet blijft behouden of groeit.

De robuustheid van multifunctionele bedrijvigheid blijkt verder ook uit de positieve beoordeling van het totale bedrijfsinkomen door boeren, groeiende omzetten en inkomensbetekenis en de geleidelijke uitbreiding van het aantal nieuwe bedrijfsactiviteiten in de tijd. Ook de totale arbeidsinzet op betrokken bedrijven neemt geleidelijk aan toe. “Multifunctionele landbouw is dus niet alleen van betekenis voor betrokken bedrijven, maar zeker ook voor de plattelandseconomie als geheel”, aldus projectleider Han Wiskerke.

Verschillen

Het onderzoek laat zien dat er grote verschillen bestaan in dynamiek en robuustheid van onderzochte bedrijven. Dit wordt enerzijds verklaard door regionale verschillen, zoals de aanwezigheid van sterke samenwerkingsverbanden als belangrijke succesfactor. Daarnaast maken ook meer bedrijfsgebonden factoren verschil. Te denken valt aan verschillen in bedrijfsstrategie zoals de mate van investeren, het wel of niet werken met personeel en in hoeverre er wisselwerking plaatsvindt tussen de verschillende bedrijfsactiviteiten.

Taskforce

De Taskforce Multifunctionele Landbouw zet zich namens het ministerie van EL&I in voor de verdere ontwikkeling van zorglandbouw, streekproducten, recreatie, agrarische kinderopvang en educatie en natuurbeheer. Kenniscoördinator Arjan Monteny: ,,Het onderzoek toont aan dat multifunctionele landbouw een stevig fundament heeft: ondernemers durven erin te investeren en behalen rendement uit de nieuwe bedrijfsactiviteiten. Het is mooi dat dit vaak gepaard gaat met verdere ontwikkeling van de agrarische activiteiten. Multifunctionele landbouw is daarmee onlosmakelijk verbonden met de agrarische productie. Het is duidelijk geen exit-strategie.”

Rapport

Het onderzoeksrapport is te downloaden via de website van het onderzoeksproject.

Bron: deze blog is een overname van een gezamenlijk persbericht van de leerstoelgroep Rurale Sociologie en de Taskforce Multifunctionele Landbouw

FoodWorks – New York City’s innovative and ambitious food strategy

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On November 22nd, the New York City Council presented a comprehensive plan that sets a bold vision for a more sustainable food system. The plan, ‘FoodWorks’, addresses sustainability and health issues at every phase of the food system – from agricultural production, processing, distribution, consumption and post-consumption. The objectives of FoodWorks range from combating hunger and obesity to preserving regional farming and local food manufacturing to decreasing waste and energy usage.

FoodWorks contains 59 policy proposals spanning five phases of the food system. The proposals include new legislation, funding initiatives and far-reaching goals that present a long-term vision for a better food system.

  • Agricultural Production – Support regional farmers, strengthen regional linkages, and increase urban food production 
  • Processing – Generate growth and employment in the food sector
  • Distribution – Improve food distribution channels into and within the city
  • Consumption – Fresh food must be available to New Yorkers regardless of where they live
  • Post-Consumption – Seize opportunities to reduce and recapture waste

The New York Council worked with experts including farmers, gardeners, chefs, partners in government and labor, as well as hunger and environmental advocates throughout the process of developing the Food Works report.  Both content-wise and process-wise New York City’s food policy FoodWorks is innovative and ambitious and can serve as an inspiration for many city councils across the world.

PUREFOOD – 12 vacancies for ESRs are open

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As mentioned in an earlier post on this weblog, the Rural Sociology Group has been granted the the coordination of a Marie Curie Initial Training Network  entitled ‘Urban, peri-urban and regional food dynamics: toward an integrated and territorial approach to food (PUREFOOD)’ funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework PEOPLE program. The objective of PUREFOOD is to train a pool of 12 early-stage researchers (ESRs) in the socio-economic and socio-spatial dynamics of the (peri-)urban and regional foodscape. The PUREFOOD network is centred around food as an integrated and territorial mode of governance and studies the emergence of the (peri-)urban foodscape as an alternative (as opposed to a globalised) geography of food, including the ways in which, and the extent to which, sustainability aspects generally considered to be intrinsic to the alternative food geography are incorporated by the more conventional food companies.

As of now all 12 PUREFOOD research vacancies have been published (or soon will be) by the host universities. For information about the ESR vacancies and application guidelines, you can download the PUREFOOD vacancies leaflet. For more information about the objectives, training and research approach and training program of PUREFOOD you can download the PUREFOOD information pack for prospective ESRs. The deadline for application is 3 January 2011.

Eligibility criteria

The enhancement of transnational mobility to improve career perspectives of early stage researchers is the main goal of the Marie Curie Initial Training funding. To achieve this objective the following eligibility criteria for prospective ESRs have been formulated:

  • You are eligible as an ESR if you are, at the time of recruitment (i) in possession of a university degree, and (ii) have a maximum of four years of full-time research experience, including any period of research training. This is measured from the date when you obtained the degree which formally entitles you to embark on a doctorate, either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the research training is provided. Please not that ESRs cannot be PhD holders.
  • You are eligible to the position if, at the time of the selection by the host university, you did not reside or carry out your main activity (work, studies, etc) in the country of the host university for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to your recruitment.

If you have any questions about a vacancy please contact the contact person mentioned in the vacancy announcement. For general question about PUREFOOD please contact me (han.wiskerke@wur.nl).