Voedselvisie “Ede, de proeftuin voor Food”

Posted on April 28, 2014 by RSO-Students

Door Lara Sibbing, MSc-student Organic Agriculture (contact: lara.sibbing@wur.nl)

Tijdens mijn stage bij de gemeente Ede heb ik bijgedragen aan het opstellen van een beleidsvisie rond voedsel. Dit heeft geresulteerd de notitie ‘Ede, de Proeftuin voor Food’ die in het voorjaar aan het college van B&W is aangeboden.De voedselvisie van Ede is te downloaden van de webpagina Ede kiest voor Food waar ook een korte toelichting wordt gegeven.

Met deze visie, die voortborduurt op de toekomstvisie Ede 2025, laat de gemeente Ede zien waar zij op in wil zetten op foodgebied: proeftuin voor Food worden door Ede en Edenaren, bedrijven en organisaties te stimuleren en te inspireren op drie hoofdthema’s: (1) Innovatieve bedrijvigheid in de regio, (2) Sociaal & Gezond en (3) Onderwijs & werkgelegenheid. De nieuwe gemeenteraad zal zich binnenkort over de voedselvisie buigen. Op dit moment wordt er hard gewerkt om samen met Edenaren een strategie op te stellen om de doelstellingen uit de visie te bereiken.

From production-oriented farming towards multifunctional entrepreneurship – PhD-thesis Pieter Seuneke

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Pieter Seuneke

On the 9th of May, I (Pieter Seuneke) will defend my PhD-thesis entitled:

From production-oriented farming towards multifunctional entrepreneurship: exploring the underlying learning process

Context

My thesis focusses on the many European and Dutch farming families which, urged by the environmental, social and economic crisis in agriculture, have diversified their conventional production-oriented farming activities by developing new non-farming businesses on their existing farms. Currently, there are many farmers who are involved in agro-tourism, nature and landscape management, processing and selling of farm products and, more recently in The Netherlands, professional (child)care and on-farm education. The development of such new business activities by these farmers represents a shift away from conventional production-oriented farming towards a more ‘multifunctional’ farming model in which the role of agriculture goes beyond mass food production.

Focus

Based on four different studies, all drawing on the empirical work done in the context of the Dutch research project ‘Dynamics and Robustness of Multifunctional Agriculture’ (carried out by the Rural Sociology Group from 2009 to 2011), I unravel the learning process which is considered as underlying the switch towards multifunctionality and multifunctional entrepreneurship. In other words: the process by which farmers (men, women and their families) re-invent themselves as ‘multifunctional entrepreneurs’, gain the necessary knowledge, skills and networks ‘to do multifunctionality’ as well as finding their way on the multifunctional pathway. Apart from its contribution to theory – by bringing this complex learning process to light – my work ultimately supports practitioners (teachers, trainers, advisers) in fostering this, for today’s and tomorrow’s agriculture and rural areas, valuable form of agricultural entrepreneurship.

Supervision

During my PhD, I have been supervised by Prof. Han Wiskerke (professor of Rural Sociology at Wageningen University) and Dr Thomas Lans (ass. prof. Education and Competence Studies, Wageningen University).

The defence

My defence will take place on Friday the 9^th of May, at 13.30, in the Aula of Wageningen University. The event is open to those who are interested and can also be followed/seen back on WURtv.

Contact

For more information: pieter.seuneke@wur.nl

Declarations by The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC)

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Dirk Roep

The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) is an autonomous and self-organised global platform of small-scale food producers and rural workers organizations and grass root/community based social movements to advance the Food Sovereignty agenda at the global and regional level.

More than 800 organizations and 300 millions of small-scale food producers self organize themselves through the IPC, sharing the Food Sovereignty principles as outlined in the Nyeleni 2007 Declaration + 6 pillars of the synthesis report IPC facilitates dialogue and debate among actors from civil society, governments and others actors the field of Food Security and Nutrition, creating a space of discussion autonomous from political parties, institutions, governments and private sector.

The IPC recently published several declarations on food sovereignty for Europe, Asia and Africa. See the IPC weblog for more information or Facebook page IPC for Food Sovereignty

Peasants and Politics – free access special issue of the Journal of Pesants Studies

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Dirk Roep

The Journal of Peasant Studies is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2013-14. Volume 1 of JPS was published in October 1973 to September 1974. Part of our series of initiatives to commemorate the anniversary of JPS is the publication of virtual special issues, starting with the 40 Classics in Peasant Studies.

The second in the series is JPS 40: Peasants & Politics. This collection highlights some of the key articles that have been published in the journal over the past four decades on peasant politics.

The articles share one common feature: they all remain extremely relevant, especially in the context of today’s massive, worldwide revival of critical agrarian studies. We hope academics will find the virtual special issue useful in their courses. We hope students of contemporary critical agrarian studies and critical environmental studies, among others, will find it useful in building their theoretical foundations. We hope policy practitioners will find it relevant in informing policy debates. We hope agrarian, food and environmental activists will find it relevant in their political struggles.

Old Amsterdam food market & food tour

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Agnese Cretella

Last Saturday a small Purefood delegation visited the Old Amsterdam food market. A lot of interesting things are happening in the Dutch capital —and many of these are organized by the Cities magazine. Here some pics of the market, populated by urban geese hunters (really, they catch them in the Schipol airport area!), artisanal fish smokers, mushroom growers and chocolate-makers. Definitely worth it a visit if to be organized again. In the meantime, you can still join the Cities team to the Old Amsterdam food tour 2014: its kick-off will be on April 23rd and 30th.