Category Archives: Food

Publication | With whom do you want to be interdependent in producing food?

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JAFSCD article by Margriet Goris (Wageningen University & Research) Daphne Schoop (Wageningen Research), Dirk Roep (Wageningen University) en Jan Hassink (Wageningen Research)

Intentionally shifting interdependencies through territorial food networks

Values-based territorial food networks (VTFNs) hold immense potential for reshaping our food supply, but little is known about how they bring about change. In a new JAFSCD article, “Relational autonomy highlights how interdependencies shift in the transformation of food provisioning,” Goris, Schoop, Roep and Hassink present findings from narrative interviews and observations during fieldwork in three different VFTNs in The Netherlands.

They aimed to understand how shifts in interdependencies in VFTNs come about and what this means for autonomy in food provisioning. The scholars show how mutual autonomy is promoted in relations among farmers, livestock, soil life, plants, citizens by creating opportunities, rights, respect, trust, and capacities amongst others. They state that autonomy is not an individual matter but is created in relationships of interdependency.

This helps us explain how people and nature depend on each other. For example, when we stop using agrochemicals, we depend more on natural processes and other market relations. To make this work, farmers and rural workers need to be able to mimic those natural processes, and to be able to create a fairer food market where everyone shares the risks, acknowledging mutual vulnerabilities and interdependencies.

Read the entire @JAFSCD article for free
Visit members VOKO Utrecht to food forest by VOKO Utrecht

Advanced Metropolitan Solutions: Cultivating the Future of Urban Gardening 

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What can a city’s gardens tell us about its people?

Our colleague, Antonia Weiss, is shedding light on a novel approach to urban gardening through her research on the Wereldgroentetuinen (World Vegetable Gardens) in Amsterdam’s Nieuw-West neighborhood. This project taps into the gardening expertise and culinary heritage of immigrants, offering an inspiring model for inclusive and sustainable urban food systems.

Here’s what makes it remarkable:
>> 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀: A disused commercial greenhouse has become an oasis of diverse crops—sopropo, okra, tajerblad, peppers, melons, and more—thanks to the hands-on knowledge of residents whose food cultures span the globe.
>> 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: By honoring the agricultural traditions of immigrant communities, the project connects the past and future, highlighting how these skills can redefine urban food landscapes.
>> 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆: Beyond the harvest, these gardens are places of connection, where residents share stories, tips, and seeds of cultural exchange.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: In the global push for sustainable urban food systems, cultural diversity is often overlooked. As Antonia’s work reveals, cities like Amsterdam hold a wealth of food knowledge rooted in migration histories. Recognizing and mobilizing this heritage is essential to building resilient, inclusive, and innovative foodscapes.

𝗔 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: To policymakers and urban planners—let’s embrace the culinary heritage and creativity of immigrant communities as key drivers of the food transition. Together, we can grow a future where cities thrive on the diversity of their people.

📚 Read more about this groundbreaking research, supported by the AMS Institute, Wageningen University & Research, and Cascoland, and see how it’s cultivating a greener, more inclusive Amsterdam.

Democracy in Agriculture and Food Provisioning: A Citizenship Lens

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Spring School-PhD course May 19-23, 2025

With daily seminars by Engin Isin and contributions by Cristina Grasseni, Robin Smith, Joost Jongerden, and Han Wiskerke

Fair and just agriculture and food systems have been central issues in policy and practice for much of the 20th and 21st centuries. Peasants, consumers, and social movements have been fighting for rights such as land ownership, access to healthy food, and the right to determine our agricultural and food futures for many decades, if not centuries. Few have conceptualized this in terms of citizenship. Yet by questioning what is fair, just, and right, challenging the working of our agrarian and food systems, and practising alternatives people establish themselves as citizens, and more specifically as agrarian and food citizens.

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Dreaming of the food system of the future

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Written by Lucie Sovová.

“The future” cannot be “predicted” because “the future” does not exist.
Any useful idea about the futures should appear to be ridiculous.

These two often quoted sentences from Jim Dator’s text on Future studies tickle scientists‘ brains. Science has useful tools to make predictions, usually extrapolating from the current state: if we continue on this path, this is likely to happen. When thinking about the current food system (and  many other issues), this approach quickly leads to a bleak picture: we are headed the wrong way and clearly need to change course. How exactly that should happen is a more difficult question – it is in fact much easier to identify which parts of the current setup are preventing change.

Future studies propose a different approach: rather than thinking about the scenarios that are the most likely extension of the present, let us think about a desirable future. Envisioning preferred futures – realistic or not – can help us think outside of the box of the current state. This, in turn, can set a clear direction of where we want to go, and open up creative ideas about how to get there.  Future studies are tied to a number of methodological approaches, such as participatory foresight, scenario development or visioning which can work with desirable, possible and probable outcomes. When paired up with strategic planning and policy development, these tools can in fact help envision and implement change. This way of working fits with the tradition of engaged research at the Rural Sociology Group, and different future-oriented methods have been used in the group’s past and current projects, such as TRANSMANGO or CULTIVATE.

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