Category Archives: Food

Voedseltuinen: local food for the low income in the Netherlands?

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The Rural Sociology Group is looking for a Master student.

Local and organic food is hip in the Netherlands nowadays though it is often seen as being quite exclusive and not accessible for people with low income. Are there examples in the Netherlands of local, healthy food for low income people?

The voedseltuin (food garden) is a recent phenomenon (since 2011) that seems to be doing just that. In general, the voedseltuin can be described as a place where mostly low income volunteers collectively grow food for themselves and for the food bank. Hence, the voedseltuin is different from an allotment garden.

Why are these gardens popping up in different cities in the Netherlands? The aim of this research will be to explore the voedseltuinen: What are their aims, who are behind it? What are their ideas about food? Is it about having enough food, cheap food or healthy food or is it about something else? And how do these initiatives work out in practice? Are they able to merge their aims with their actual activities?

The student is expected to interview initiators and participants of voedseltuinen in the Netherlands which can become part of a Master thesis research.

Interested students can contact Femke Hoekstra, Rural Sociology Group
femke.hoekstra@wur.nl

Tip of the iceberg

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This weekend I gave a lecture twice in ‘Het Klooster’ (The Convent) at Oerol, a famous week-long festival with theatre, performance and music at 63 locations on the Wadden Island Terschelling. Het Klooster features at Oerol this year and in its full capacity next year. The Dutch State Forestry Commission (Staatsbosbeheer) Firma Rieks Swarte and Peergroup will remove the topsoil of lines drawn at a field this year. The lines represent the layout of the Convent of St Gall, a detailed model from the 8th C for a monastery that was never built but nevertheless served as a ‘roadmap’ for many convents all over Europe in the middle-ages. Removal of top soil will give older seeds of rare species a chance while the map will be visible from a tower in the middle of the field and will be part of a theatre show at next year’s Oerol.

IMG_0208What if the monastery was built at Terschelling? The geometric beauty and symbolism of the design is what fascinates Rieks, how man organises man is what fascinates the PeerGroup, and in line with that, what did they eat? That’s where I came in. Food culture before the invention of the printed book in the 15th C is always surrounded with many doubts and insecurities for lack of evidence. But in the case of Convent of St Gall, everything within the walls (a village almost) was detailed to the point of which herbs were grown in the herbal medicine garden. It was fascinating to see the books in which the plan has been studied. My earlier doubts based on other historical sources about how realistic this design would be in practice were confirmed.

One small example; the vegetable garden was divided in 2 x 9 beds of equal size with 1 vegetable planned for each bed. This then meant that cabbage received equal space to dill and that unions were occupying one bed whereas chervil a complete other. While the vegetable garden as a whole was far to small to feed the approx 200 people who would live there (where did we hear that discussion lately?), it seems highly impractical to have as many lettuces as poppy, unless they had a good use for poppy of course……..

Seminar on Voluntary Simplicity in Food Choices

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voluntary seminarVoluntary Simplicity in Food Choices – A seminar to navigate through theory and practices of responsible food consumption

Voluntary simplicity is a movement that promises better lives on a more healthy planet. But how does this work in our every day food practices? WASS proposes an afternoon on the theories and practices of voluntary simplicity and critical food consumption: How can voluntary simplicity be understood in a food context? What would it look like? Could it be expressed in movements of artisan local production, organic farming, alternative food networks, etc.? And how?

This seminar features both leading thinkers (Philip Cafaro, Colorado State University; Jeanine Schreurs, Maastricht University) and local practitioners (De Nieuwe Ronde, Veld & Beek, Project EAT). Next to a figurative taste of theories and practices, it offers participants a literal taste of actual locally produced simple foods in order to induce a lively and inspired discussion.

Date: September 10th, 2013
Time: 13:30 – 18:30
Place: Leeuwenborch building, Wageningen

For more information and how to subscribe, contact Simon d’Amico (simona.damico[at]wur.nl).

Foodlinks News (June 2013)

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The latest issue of Foodlinks News is out!

Read about our meeting in Scotland and about some inspiring food initiatives in Edinburgh. Or about the short food supply chain CoP and the important meeting they had on slaughtering and meat processing with some experts in Austria. The newsletter also includes some accounts of the value of participation experienced by members of the public food procurement CoP as well as a short-list of  some of our favourite knowledge brokerage tools!

Would you also like to become a member? Sign up for the Short Food Supply Chain, Revaluing Public Sector Food Procurement or Urban Food Strategies CoP!

The FOODLINKS project brings together different types of knowledge and experience from research, policy and civil society representatives. FOODLINKS organises a collective process of sharing and integrating this knowledge around particular problems of food systems. You can read more about us on our website and if you would like to receive the next edition of Foodlinks News you can subscribe here.

Fruits of internship labor

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IMG_0168Last week I visited Clara, a Master of Organic Agriculture student at her internship with the PeerGroup in Donderen near Groningen. This theatre group located at an old ammunition depot advertised a while ago that they were looking for a student who could set up their farming activity (see earlier blog). Over the past few months she worked hard to design and construct the first step, a vegetable garden near the communal and office spaces. At the same time of building a greenhouse and raised beds she kept a nursery going and when the weather (finally!) got better, planted the seedlings. Now the water pump is working, it will go fast.

This is just step one of a long-term plan to integrate more farming in the area, in collaboration with the community in the village and the care farm nearby. The PeerGroup is open to future students with skills to develop other parts of their unique location which inhabits rare species and special biotope, and is at the same time military heritage, creative work space and publicly open and connected to nearby recreation forests.