Category Archives: Food

Farmers’ Markets in Beijing – an impression by prof. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg

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By prof. dr ir Jan Douwe van der Ploeg

Poster lecture by prof. Van der PloegAt the end of October I had the opportunity to meet a large group of social activists involved in the development of Farmers’ Markets in Beijing. I gave a short presentation in a meeting with some 150 people (see the announcement). It took place in a cinema with my Power Point Presentation projected on the screen normally used for films. The good thing was that the projected images were now up to 5 times larger than me myself. I felt reduced to the right proportions. Afterwards we had a lengthy conversation on the construction of new markets, peasant agriculture and new peasants. The nearby Farmers’ Market (that frequently changes location: it travels through Beijing) impressed me very much: it was, as it were, a perfect illustration of the discussion we had inside the cinema. Many peasants, many new peasants as well. Continue reading →

Open for applications: graduate workshop in Kyoto, Japan in May 2016

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From May 24 to May 27 Kyoto University, represented by the Graduate School of Economics and the Graduate School of Agriculture, together with the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University, organize a Second Graduate Workshop. The workshop is intended for graduate students (both master and PhD) and takes place within the context of a collaboration between both institutes. The objective of the workshop is to become acquainted and discuss ongoing social sciences research within Kyoto University and Wageningen University, with an emphasis on the political economy and the sociology of agriculture and food.

Students who are interested can request an application form or more info at: joost.jongerden@wur.nl

Participants needed for online survey about sustainable urban and peri-urban food provision!

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SUPURBFOOD logo

SUPURBFOOD is an international research project carried out by a consortium of ten research and ten SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) partners, in which novel solutions to urban and peri-urban food provision have been examined in three thematic areas. These thematic areas are: (i) nutrient, water and waste cycles, (ii) short food supply chains, and (iii) multi-functional land use. While positive developments are found in all of these, additional steps are needed to make full use of the potential of these innovations. Hence, the project team formulated a set of recommendations and would like to ask relevant stakeholders (e.g. policymakers, entrepreneurs, civil society organisations) for their opinion about their effectiveness. For that purpose an online survey has been launched, which takes 10-15 minutes to complete. If you considers yourself to be a relevant stakeholder, you are kindly requested to complete the online questionnaire, which is available in seven languages: English, Dutch, German, Italian, Latvian, French and Galician.

Lunch Time Lecture Dr. Gyorgy Scrinis on ‘Big Food Corporations’ Nutritional Strategies in Response to Under- and Over- Nutrition’

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NutritionismEveryone is welcome to an open lecture by Dr. Gyorgy Scrinis.

Monday June 29, 2015
12:30 – 13:30
Room C71   (Leeuwenborch)
Bring your lunch

The world’s largest food and beverage manufacturing corporations (i.e. Big Food) have responded to recent health concerns associated with their processed foods by developing and marketing a range of ‘healthy’ or ‘healthier’ products. In this lecture, Dr Gyorgy Scrinis identifies three nutritional strategies that define these corporations’ nutritional engineering and marketing strategies:

  • the micronutrient fortification of foods to address nutrient deficiencies, particularly targeted at developing countries;
  • the reformulation of products to reduce harmful food components; and
  • the ‘functionalisation’ of foods marketed as providing optimal nutrition through addition of functional nutrients.

Continue reading →

Community gardens in urban areas – critical reflection on social cohesion & alternative food provisioning – PhD thesis by Esther Veen

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Esther Veen - Community gardens in urban areasJune 15, 2015 at 1.30 pm Esther Veen will publicly defend her PhD-thesis ‘Community gardens in urban areas: A critical reflection on the extent to which they strengthen social cohesion and provide alternative food‘ in the Auditorium of Wageningen University. The defence ceremony will be streamed live by WURTV but can be viewed later as well. A hard copy of the thesis can be ordered by sending an email to esther.veen@wur.nl or a pdf can be downloaded from Wageningen Library (see link above).

This thesis shows that the different organisational set-ups of community gardens reflect gardeners’ different motivations for being involved in these gardens. The gardens studied in this thesis can be defined as either place-based or interest-based; gardens in the first category are focused on the social benefits of gardening, whereas gardens in the second category are focused on gardening and vegetables. Nevertheless, social effects occur in both types of gardens; in all of the gardens studied, participants meet and get to know others and value these contacts. Based on this finding, I conclude that community gardens do indeed enhance social cohesion.

Continue reading →