Category Archives: Multifunctionality

Uitgegeten? #3 ‘De Toekomst van het Platteland’

Posted on by

Zonder het platteland geen voedsel! Maar, heeft u er wel eens bij stilgestaan dat ons voedselsysteem en consumptiepatroon van invloed is op hoe het buitengebied eruit ziet? De afgelopen decennia voelden veel boeren zich genoodzaakt om te investeren in megastallen of om te stoppen. Dit heeft niet alleen economische consequenties, maar is ook bepalend voor andere waarden die we aan het platteland verbinden, zoals; een aantrekkelijk landschap, een gezonde leefomgeving en kennis over de herkomst van voedsel. Tijdens het derde en laatste publieksdebat van de serie Uitgegeten? gaan we met ‘waarden-experts’ in op de toekomst van het agrarisch platteland. Welke waarden willen we behouden of juist ontwikkelen voor de toekomst? Hoe zou het platteland eruit zien als we onze voedselproductie vanuit die waarden zouden organiseren? En, kan duurzaam voedsel de link tussen boer en burger herstellen?

Met: Ton Duffhues (Stichting Atelier Waarden van het Land), Ina Horlings (onderzoeker en docent rurale sociologie, Wageningen Universiteit), Maria Hopman (arts en hoogleraar integrale fysiologie, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen). Met cabaret van Irene van der Aart.

woensdag 26 sept | LUX zaal 7 | aanvang 20.00 uur | entree gratis, met proeverij regionale producten van Oregional | kaarten bestellen via www.lux-nijmegen.nl of aan de kassa van LUX

Uitgegeten? De toekomst van duurzaam eten is een verdiepende debatreeks over duurzaam voedsel georganiseerd door stichting Landwaard in samenwerking met LUX. Onderwerpen die eerder in de reeks aan de orde kwamen waren; de nieuwe voedselketen en stadslandbouw.

Next period the course Understanding Rural Development starts again!

Posted on by

On March 12th 2012 the Rural Sociology Course Understanding Rural Development starts. There is still room for new students to attend this course.
The course aims to provide a theoretical, empirical and methodological understanding of rural and regional development processes in Europe, with emphasis on agro-food, rural and regional dynamics in metropolitan landscapes. It builds upon several BSc and MSc courses, such as Agrarian and Rural Development: Sociological Perspectives (RSO-20806), Sociology of Farming and Rural Life (RSO-30806), Sociological Theories of Rural Transformation (RDS-30306), Globalisation and Sustainability of Food Production and Consumption (ENP-31806) and Sociology in Development: Towards a Critical Perspective (RDS-32806). Continue reading →

Request for a master student interested in product development and marketing for an organic farm and macro-distillery in Wales

Posted on by

Glynhynod is an organic farm where artisan cheeses are produced, situated in west-Wales and managed by a Dutch family. The firm is highly innovative, applying sustainability guidelines to all their activities and producing food of high quality; several cheeses have received prices on national and international level. The family is now developing the first organic Welsh whisky and an orange liqueur at their newly established organic micro-distillery. They are looking for a master student- preferably one in food technology- who will be able to do an internship and/or thesis inWales. The student should be interested in organic, artisan food production. The student will be during his/her intership:.

  1. actively involved in developing, testing and trying out new liqueur and spirit recipes using organic ingredients and trial batches of different orange liqueurs using different ingredients and different amounts of ingredients. The student will be required to accurately measure the amounts of ingredients e.g. total weight, of oranges, orange peel amounts of sugar etc; ‘age’ the different liqueurs for 3 different periods e.g. 40, day, 50 day and 60 day infusions. The same method will be used to develop various recipes for spirits e.g. sloe gin and seaweed gin.
  2. Doing research on marketing aspects to try out the new recipes such as implementing a sensory evaluation in a real life situation where the public will be asked to judge the product. The student will be expected to develop a statistical sensory evaluation method that will determine which liqueur the public prefers and this liqueur will then proceed to bulk production.

 His/her master thesis can be focused on of the following themes:

  1. Marketing and/or gastronomy: how to enhance the supply of local artisan products in this rural area;
  2. Consumer demands towards locally produced speciality products in west-Wales;
  3. Develop guidelines for food quality and taste of new alcoholic local products
  4. Research on food safety of organic artisan products

 The student will start around the beginning of April 2012 and stay on the farm for 3-4 months in the beautiful setting of the Teifi Valley in Llandysul near Carmarthen, not far from the sea in west-Wales. The research will be supervised by a staff member of the relevant chair group and co-supervised by Ina Horlings (Rural Sociology Group). If you are interested please apply or ask for more information by sending a mail to (lummina.horlings@wur.nl) before the end of February, 2012.

DERREG film Westerkwartier

Posted on by

Over the last 3 years, we have been carrying out research in the Westerkwartier concerning global influences on rural regional development.

The Westerkwartier, Groningen Province, The Netherlands

This research was carried out as part of the European project DERREG. The Westerkwartier was involved in two work packages of the project: 1. Investigating arrangements through which public support for joint learning and innovation is provided to development initiatives active in the region (WP4) and 2. Investigating global networking activities among rural businesses in the Westerkwartier (WP1).

In the summer and fall of this year, three film students from the University of Aberystwyth in Wales made their way around Europe to visit all case study areas and to film the present development activities. In the Westerkwartier, the film focuses on our research conducted for WP4 (joint learning and innovation). In this film, several supporters as well as the beneficiaries were interviewed. Their stories describe the development activities in the Westerkwartier very lively and give a feeling of the enthusiastic and motivated engagement of the denizens in developing their Westerkwartier. The film is available on YouTube and can be viewed here. Enjoy!

‘Agriculture in an Urbanizing Society’ Conference – new deadline for submission of abstracts

Posted on by

As mentioned in previous posts, an international conference entitled ‘Agriculture in an Urbanizing Society’ will be held from 1 to 4 April 2012 in Wageningen. A whole range of different topics and research findings will be presented and discussed in 20 different working groups. The deadline for submitting abstracts was originally 20 December 2011 but the conference committees, in consultation with the working group convenors, have decided to postpone this deadline by one month. So if you are interested to present and discuss your research activities (or plans) in one of the working groups, please send your abstract to the convenor of the working group before 20 January 2012. You are kindly requested to use the abstract submission form.