Should farms and rural regions specialize or is it, both at farm and regional level, more desirable to diversify? Based on ample research carried out by my group during the past decade I’m inclined to plea in favor of diversification. At farm level there is much evidence that diversification of economic activities is desirable: Continue reading
Author Archives: Han Wiskerke
The tension between rural and regional development
Last week I participated in a conference in Vienna entitled “Rural potentials for regional development“. One of the issues discussed in one of the workshops at that conference was the field of tension between rural development and regional development policies. Rural development policies focus on the sustainable provision of agriculture’s primary products (food, feed and fibre) and on the other good and services provided by farmers, such as biodiversity, landscape, tourism and care in rural areas. The importance of urban and peri-urban agriculture tends to be somewhat neglected. Regional development policies focus on spatial development and on the economic development of and employment in industry and non-agricultural or rural activities and services. The importance of agriculture in regional development largely remains unnoticed. Continue reading
Rethinking US food policy
I have been out of office a lot the last weeks and in this era of e-communication this automatically means a full e-mail box. Yesterday and today I’ve made an effort to read, answer and either save or delete most of them. Among the many mails, was one that contained a link to an article written by Michael Pollan, entitled ‘Farmer in Chief’, in which he addresses the president-elect (the article was written before the elections) by saying “It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food.” In a very interesting article Pollan, well-known for his well-written and thought-provoking books ‘The omnivore’s dilemma’ and ‘In defence of food’, outlines his agenda for food policy reforms. What I particularly like and admire in his essay is his comprehensive approach to food, i.e. he convincingly demonstrates that food is related to a multitude of problems that contemporary society is facing: health problems (obesity and maltnutrition), environmental pollution, social and economic inequalities, etc… According to Pollan, the many food-related problems of contemporary society are on the one hand due to the reliance of the food system on fossil fuels and on the other hand due to an eating culture based on fast, cheap and easy food . The policy agenda he proposes to overcome the many problems and its causes are threefold: 1) to resolarize the farm, 2) to reregionalize the food system and 3) to rebuild eating culture. For those interested in Pollan’s vision, a 90 minute interview with him can be found on the website of the Dutch documentary programme Tegenlicht (Backlight).
The Good Food Movement in the USA
From 22 – 30 October 2008 Prof. Cornelia Butler Flora (Professor of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Sociology and Director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development at Iowa State University, USA) visited the Netherlands to participate in the European Eemland Conference and the Agriculture in Transition Conference. She concluded her stay in the Netherlands with a seminar for the Mansholt Graduate School of Social Sciences of Wageningen University about the Good Food Movement in the USA. It was very interesting to learn more about the genesis of this movement, in particular how a diversity of interests are somehow aligning around this broad notion of good food. To give some examples of this diversity of social movements and interests:
- The ‘labor movement’ emphasizing a fair income for agricultural workers;
- The ‘social justice and economic security movement’ seeking affordable food (especially for the lower income groups);
- The ‘anti-globalization movement’ in favour of locally produced food;
- The ‘green movement’ focussing on strategies to reduce the environmental impact of food production;
- The ‘humane farming movement’ addressing animal welfare concerns in food production;
- The ‘anti-obesity movement’ advocating healthy eating as part of a healty lifestyle;
- The ‘farmers’ movement’ striving for a fair farmers’ price.
The notion of ‘community based economic development’ seems to be a development trajectory capable of uniting these sometimes competing (e.g. fair farmers’ price vs. affordable food for low-income groups) movements and interests. Although still a niche, the ‘good food movement’ is growing rapidly. It would be very relevant for many European countries, regions and cities to learn more about this ‘good food movement’ and the role played by the food policy councils that many states and cities in the USA have. These councils are also seen as a means to enhance food democracy.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 