Category Archives: Food

Open letter on the EU’s ‘Farmers for the Future’ Report and the Farm to Fork Strategy

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Open letter of European scholars to (in English, French and Spanish):

  • Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission
  • Janusz Wojciechowski, European Commissioner for Agriculture,
  • Norbert Lins, President of COMAGRI of the European Parliament.

Re: ‘Farmers for the Future’

Wageningen, 10th of March 2021

Dear Sirs,

In 2020 the European Commission released ‘Farmers for the Future’ (EUR 30464 EN), a Science for Policy Report, prepared by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. This policy report is intended to contribute to the further elucidation of the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy which is a key element of the European Green Deal. It has, at its core, a description of 12 profiles that are attempt to categorize the likely diversity and range of professional farming styles in European agriculture in 2040. The report asks, and tries to respond to, the following question: “ Who will be the key players of the EU next generation agriculture, the farmers of the future?” Continue reading →

75th Anniversary: 11) Notes from the field: Agricultural Development in Rojava and Resistance of the Third Kind

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Women’s cooperative farm in Rojava (2015)

Introduction

In one of our previous blogs we discussed Van der Ploeg’s concept resistance of the Third Kind (see Anniversary Blog 7). This was defined as a resistance which resides in working practices and farmers’ fields and is expressed in the way that cows are bred, how manure is made, products are delivered. In short, it is a resistance which intervenes in and reorganizes production, reproduction and markets (Van der Ploeg 2007). In this blog, the reconstruction of Kobanî is discussed a resistance of the third kind. Continue reading →

Foodscapes in times of uncertainty – blog 2

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The Transformative Power of Gardening: food literacy, connection and environmentally sustainable choices during COVID19

By Jessica Breslau and Sofie de Wit

Sparked by the covid19 pandemic food supply chains have been disrupted: food is more scarce, expensive, and difficult to access than before (OECD, June 2, 2020). Simultaneously, the pandemic has increased the number of people participating in home and community gardening (Polansek and Walljasper, 2020). One of the reasons for this transition may be people losing their jobs, having less disposable income to spend on food. Additionally, as people spend more time at home due to the crisis, home gardening became more accessible. Some scholars also identified gardening as a therapeutic act that brings tranquillity during times of stress (Bratman G.N. et al. 2019). As such, the current global circumstances remind us of the therapeutic and educational potential of gardening, particularly regarding individuals’ relationships to their food and how this translates to food consumption patterns (Kellaway, 2020; Wang and MacMillan, 2013).  Continue reading →

75th Anniversary: 8) Kyoto meets Wageningen, Political Economy meets Rural Sociology

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Countryside excursion at the 2016 Graduate Workshop

 Introduction

The collaboration between the group of rural sociology at Wageningen University and the group of agri-food political economy at Kyoto University officially started in July 2014, when we signed a letter of intent to foster international cooperation in education and research. This was first materialised when Kyoto University invited Dirk Roep in February 2015, and Guido Ruivenkamp and Joost Jongerden in March 2015 (http://agst.jgp.kyoto-u.ac.jp/topics/report/376). Their visit to Kyoto kickstarted a series of intensive lectures given by invited RSO members as well as a series of joint workshops between the two groups either in Kyoto or in Wageningen, as explained below. Continue reading →

Grow, share or buy? PhD-thesis by Lucie Sovová

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October 13 2020, at 13.30 am (CET) Lucie Sovová will defend her PhD-thesis ‘Grow, share of buy? Understanding the diverse food economies of urban gardeners‘. See the abstract below. After the defence the full thesis can be downloaded from WUR Library here. The ceremony will be live-streamed – click here – but is recorded and can be viewed later as well. Lucie Sovová is affiliated as PhD-candidate at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University. 

Abstract
How do urban gardens work as sources of food? That is, in a nutshell, the central question of this thesis. Urban gardening and other food alternatives have received growing attention in relation to issues such as food quality and the environmental impacts of food production. However, we know little about how urban gardens actually provide food. In order to answer this question, I conducted an in-depth study of 27 gardening households in Brno, Czechia, exploring the long and lively tradition of gardening in Central and Eastern Europe. I investigated how much food gardeners produce in their plots, how they think of this practice and how it relates to other ways of obtaining food such as shopping. The results reveal that several practices facilitate food self-provisioning, such as food sharing or preserve making. I conclude that urban gardens play a central role in gardeners’ food supply, influencing eating as well as shopping habits in all four seasons.