Category Archives: Agriculture

Time Magazine about multifunctional agriculture, some thoughts about the farmers’ identity

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While waiting for my train at Utrecht Central station – I tend to kill my time looking around in the book/magazine shop – the cover of the latest Time Magazine struck my eye, heading: “France’s Rural Revolution, traditional French farmers are dying. Can farmers make money from town dwellers’ love of the land?”. Interested about the heading – and teased by the astonishing landscape on the cover – I bought a copy for the second part of my trip to Rotterdam.

Bruce Crumley (the author) poses the question what eventually will save rural France. French farmers are hit by a shrinking agricultural sector, falling food prices (globalization) and tightening E.U. support (so called CAP reforms (Common Agricultural Policy) in 2013). These developments are not exclusive to France, farmers in many other E.U. member states are facing these problems. However, future CAP reforms are considered to be critical especially to French farmers, since the French receive nearly 20% of the total CAP funding.

By illustrating the developments on three French farms the author focuses on one of the ways to get out of this tightening trap by diversifying the farm business with new (‘non-farming’) activities. A strategy also known as multifunctional agriculture. The farmers mentioned in the article developed new activities in rural tourism and the production and selling of regional products like beer and ham. Interestingly, the article has many parallels with the conversations I had myself (in relation to our research project on (Dutch) multifunctional agriculture). Apparently, many farmers (eventually) don’t regret their step on the multifunctional pathway. On the contrary, many farmers say to enjoy the new farm dynamics, contacts with new people and some even claim to have reinvented entrepreneurship. However, we needn’t to underestimate the step of ‘just’ diversifying your farm to survive. In the article colleague rural sociologist François Purseigle argues many farmers simply refuse to find new sources of income as they see diversification as a betrayal of the agricultural profession they took on. As a parallel, I experienced many interviewed Dutch farmers – who have made the step or are still hesitating in some way – have or are still struggling with their identity of being a ‘real farmer’: “It’s not just running a business” – one farmers stressed – “it’s a way of life!”. I think the notion of multifunctional agriculture has matured but still often perceived as something for losers or nothing ‘real farmers’ should deal with. Often the environments of hesitating farmers aren’t ready for this new way of farming, yet.  

The article can be found on the Time website. The page also offers a great picture gallery about the topic.

Eat your landscape Part II: Lupine

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Fresh back from a break, lets continue where a line was dropped earlier (see Par I). In June the lupine of farmer André Jurrius blossomed for weeks. A beautiful view, a big field of white or pink flowers (see picture 4 in the link). An idyllic site for a picnic… But the weather turned suddenly hot and the flowers neared the end of their blossoming. Just a bit too quick for the scheduled picnic in the middle of the field organised by the Vegetarische Slager (the vegetarian butcher). Guests enjoyed several courses with products made of lupine. They ate the landscape quite literally albeit with a time lag of a year. Last year’s harvest of André is being developed into edible products.

The Vegetarische Slager, an initiative of Jaap Korteweg, develops new meat substitutes from lupine, a plant from the legume family with high amounts of protein. With even higher ratio’s of protein and oil as soja, lupine can become the alternative in our moderate climate for imported (genetically modified) soja, the expansion of which is now destroying rainforest. However, the cultivation has to be improved and developed further before it can be a serious competitor of soja according to the LEI last year. That doesn’t prevent André from growing it. He is one of the two farmers who are currently cultivating lupine organically. Dreaming about next year’s picnic or who knows a Hemmens Land event with mobile cooking unit amidst a sea of flowers……

Balancing between governing styles – participatory processes in Galicia

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By Marlies Meijer, graduated MSc-student

In previous blogs (see e.g. my second post on Planning realities in Galicia) I have written about my journey to Galicia and the difficulties and interesting views I came across while investigating planning and rural development practices there. In June this journey came to an end, I finished my master thesis and graduated (full thesis report ‘Balancing between governing styles: participatory practices in rural Galicia‘   is available online).

When writing my thesis I spent a lot of time on untangling the complex background of problems experienced in rural Galicia. Now I have been asked to write shortly about the conclusions to introduce the thesis. It is not an easy task, but I will try. 

One of the main problems in Galicia is land abandonment. Many people own land, but most parcels are too small and dispersed to manage. Due to many reasons most owners are not willing or able to maintain or sell their land. A great deal of these parcels have been afforested, with EU-subsidies. Unfortunately also forested parcels turned out to be ill-managed and not economically viable. With the implementation of forest management units the government of Galicia (Xunta) tried to tackle these problems. Within these units parcels are managed jointly, as one area. This makes forestry more economic viable and diverse; and forest fire safety measures or road construction more feasible. The most important precodition and goal of this project is the active involvement of citizens. Though this is the first participatory project in Galicia, many have been implemented in the EU. Galicia followed this example.

The problem with citizen involvement (or participatory processes) is that it takes two to tango, and sometimes even the ability of citizens to dance on their own. In Galicia the Xunta was a step ahead. Citizens did not show an endogenous will to participate actively, they were involved on paper and felt that maintenance was the task of Xunta. The Xunta conversely was very willing to make this policy a succes. Setting good examples and attracting as many owners as possible dominated. By overtaking responsibilities of owners (like administratory tasks and costs) and with charisma this process was streamlined. Nonetheless, as many interviewees responded, a participatory approach was also “the only way” to deal with problems like land abandonment or ill-managed forests. And it is true, inactive ownership forms the root of these problems and needs to be dealt with.

By studying this project it became clear that Galicia’s government was balancing between different style of governance. On the one hand are the old, clientalistic, ways of policy making in which the governments are in charge and take care of everything. On the other hand there is the new participatory approach that the Xunta aimed for when implementing the uxfor-policy. While looking for a balance, several areas of tensions emerged:

  • The policy-makers wanted to establish success quickly. By taking care of almost all aspects of implementation, it was possible to found uxfors in an efficient and quick way. However, creating active citizenship takes usually much more time and patience.
  • It was difficult to involve the citizen actively. The Xunta wanted to create active citizenship, but citizens expected the government to take care of common affairs. Citizens felt this was out of their responsibilities.
  • Land abandonment and depopulation are deep-rooted problems at the Galician countryside. The uxfor-policy tried to deal with these developments. But how can active citizenship be stimulated if the largest part of the population is well over 65, and most landowners live in other regions?

These conclusions hold close relations with other parts of Europe. Also here the participatory approach is gaining ground and are governments and citizens struggeling (in different ways) with its implementation. Depopulation and land abandonment also prevail in other marginal rural areas.

Despite the above mentioned comments on participatory processes in Galicia I respect the Xunta highly for their ability to ‘just’ do something, to start a project and not getting diluted by all kinds of problems (like bureaucracy) that might rise in the beginning.

Boeren buitenspel gezet – Inspraak en onvrede in Restveen en Groene Waterparel

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Door Reinier van der Starre, MSc student

Het melkveehouderij/akkerbouw bedrijf van mijn familie in de Wieringermeer wordt bedreigd door de  planvorming voor het Wieringerrandmeer. Dit proces volg ik dus al jaren van dichtbij. Wat mij opgevallen is, is dat mijn familie maar ook andere boeren in de omgeving zeer gefrustreerd zijn geraakt tijdens dit planvormingproces. Hierbij is men wel in contact met overheden, maar is de beeldvorming over de overheden zeer negatief. De vraag, die hierbij altijd in mijn achterhoofd speelt is: “waar komt die onvrede vandaan?” en “gaat het in andere gebieden ook zo?”.

Tijdens mijn studie Management of Agro- Ecological Knowlegde and Social Change (Maks) probeer je te begrijpen, waarom en hoe veranderingen tot stand komen en wat die veranderingen tot gevolg hebben. Het afstuderen was voor mij dan ook een unieke kans om uit te zoeken, waar die onvrede in genoemde planvormingsprocessen uit voortkomt. In samenwerking met Alterra heb ik de oorzaak van de onvrede in het gebied Restveen en Groene Waterparel in de Zuidplaspolder onderzocht.

De Zuidplaspolder is in de vijfde Nota Ruimtelijke Ordening aangewezen als ontwikkelingsgebied voor woning en glastuinbouw. Onder leiding van de provincie Zuid-Holland heeft de bestuurlijke werkgroep bestaande uit 23 partijen zoals; overheidspartijen, maatschappelijk organisaties en belangenbehartigers, de ontwikkelingsopgave verder uitgewerkt. Dit heeft er toe geleid, dat de op het veen gelegen zuidelijke deelgebieden Restveen en Groene Waterparel gedeeltelijk bestemd zijn voor natuur. Momenteel zijn er echter nog een aantal grondgebonden veehouderijbedrijven actief, die ontevreden zijn over de genoemde ontwikkelingen.

In dit onderzoek zijn de bronnen van onvrede van de boeren in het Restveen en Groene Waterparel onderzocht. Dit is gedaan door middel van een deskstudie van de verschillende beleidsdocumenten en daarnaast hebben er interviews plaats gevonden met de betrokken boeren, overheidsinstanties, belangenbehartigers en andere betrokkenen. De bronnen van onvrede zijn onderzocht door de beeldvorming over het planvormingproces, de wisselwerking tussen de regionale partijen en de boeren en de wijze van grondverwerving te analyseren. Uit het onderzoek is gebleken dat de volgende punten de bron zijn van de onvrede bij de boeren:

  1. Het feit dat de agrarische functie niet meer leidend is in het gebied.
  2. De overheid de verwachting schept dat de boeren nog invloed kunnen uitoefenen op het planvormingproces. Maar dat inspraak een illusie is.
  3. De boeren voelen zich niet vertegenwoordigd door de LTO in de bestuurlijke werkgroep.
  4. De overheid maakt in de ogen van de boeren misbruik van wet en regelgeving bij de verwerving van de grond.
  5. De overheid biedt in de ogen van de boeren geen redelijk vergoeding voor de grond gebouwen, die zij nodig heeft voor de planontwikkeling

Kortom de boeren voelen zich buitenspel gezet. 

U kunt hier klikken voor een volledige versie van mijn MSc-thesis ‘Boeren buitenspel gezet: Inspraak en onvrede in Restveen en Groene Waterparel’

The Black Gold

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Last week, students of the course ‘Agrarische en rurale ontwikkeling, sociologische perspectieven’  had two days of excursions and could choose from 4 different excursions to see different models of multifunctionality and institutional arrangements in farming (see Birgit’s blog about a different excursion). With our group, we visited the Stadsboerderij Almere and the nearby Zonnehoeve in Zeewolde. Both farms have different other activities related to farming, such as school education, cattle in nature reserves, home sales of products, relations with care institutes.

Both are also organic farms, or better; bio-dynamic farms, which goes a step further in closing the nutrient cycle than organic farming. The nutrient cycle turned out to be the key to understanding the multifunctionality of these farms. At the very core of it all was what Tineke called ‘the black gold’; good quality manure, the essential ingredient for a healthy and productive farm without dependence on external input.

To illustrate her point, she took a handful of manure from last year and encouraged students to smell it. Hesitantly a few did. To their surprise it did not smell bad. The mixture of straw, urine and feces of the beef cattle was far into the composting process. It smelled more like soil than like shit….

At the Zonnehoeve they heard again about the importance of building soil. Piet told many unusual stories which illustrated that building soil is quite literally building a resilient farm. He showed his long list of activities in which he diversified which dazzled the students (amongst others, a bakery, permanent housing for caretakers, facilities for therapy with horses, internet shop). But starting with his dairy herd, he emphasised the importance of  Tineke’s ‘black gold’ too.

The centrality of the herd in the farming philosophy of both the Stadsboerderij and the Zonnehoeve, illustrates very well the theoretical framework which the students had learned in class (see Ploeg et al 2003). Grounding the farm in this vital resource  for a healthy nutrient cycle, both farmers deepened their farm strategy by shortening the supply chain whilst delivering high quality organic produce and from that solid base they broadened their farm with new additional functions. Tineke explained this by showing her ‘black gold’, which had brought good economic revenue of their core activity; producing food (e.g. onion, pies, carrots) which made it possible to invest in an entire new facility consisting of a farm-house and barn for a further expansion into care farming.