Food Tank: Five Ways to Change the Food System

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Dirk Roep

About the Food Tank:

Our food system is broken. Some people don’t have enough food, while others are eating too much. There’s only one way to fix this problem—and it starts with you and me.

Food Tank: The Food Think Tank is for the 7 billion people who have to eat every day. We will offer solutions and environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty by creating a network of connections and information for all of us to consume and share. Food Tank is for farmers and producers, policy makers and government leaders, researchers and scientists, academics and journalists, and the funding and donor communities to collaborate on providing sustainable solutions for our most pressing environmental and social problems.

As much as we need new thinking on global food system issues, we also need new doing. Around the world, people and organizations have developed innovative, on-the-ground solutions to the most pressing issues in food and agriculture. Through years of field visits (and years of trying to eat better in her own community) our President Danielle Nierenberg has helped to highlight and promote these best practices. Today, we hope to bridge the domestic and global food issues by highlighting how hunger, obesity, climate change, unemployment, and other problems can be solved by more research and investment in sustainable agriculture.

Food Tank will highlight hope and success in agriculture. We will feature innovative ideas that are already working on the ground, in cities, in kitchens, in fields and in laboratories. These innovations need more attention, more research, and ultimately more funding to be replicated and scaled-up. And that is where we need you. We all need to work together to find solutions that nourish ourselves and protect the planet.

See the clip how the food systems can be changed in the five ways:

MSc Thesis on return-migration in Turkey-Kurdistan

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Joost Jongerden

The destruction and burning of thousands of rural settlements and the forced migration of hundred thousands, if not millions of (mostly) Kurdish villagers is one of the most painful and pressing issues in Turkey. Though the evacuations date back to the end of the 1980s, the issue has left a heavy legacy, socially, politically, and economically.

Over the last years, many thousands of people returned to their villages. Yet little is known about who returns and when and how livelihoods are rebuild . The evidence there is suggests that not all segments of the population return in equal proportions and that young men and young families in particular are underrepresented among the returnees. Furthermore, it transpires that people do not exchange their urban accommodation for a rural one; instead, it appears that what may be identified as dual or extended settlement patterns emerge. Apparently, there is not only no coming back to an earlier condition, but rather the development of new ways of organizing living and working space.

For those attempting return, there are new problems, livelihood difficulties that they did not have to face prior to their evacuation. Clearly, re-establishment as a peasant is difficult because most of the displaced have to start from scratch: they arrive back to find their fields and houses ruined. Furthermore, community facilities and services like health care and education facilities and water and electricity supplies were similarly destroyed or fell into disrepair or just remained unsupplied. Neo-liberal policies are said to have negatively impacted returnees by undermining their ability to make a living from agriculture.

At the Rural Sociology group and in collaboration with partners in Turkey we would like to look at return migration from several perspectives. Therefore, we are looking for (two or three) students who are interested in doing a MSc thesis, looking at the (gendered) demography of return, the rebuilding of livelihood and multi-place settlement patterns and spatial mobility.

Does one of these issues make you curious and/or do you have an interest in one or more of the research themes mentioned above, please contact Joost Jongerden at joost.jongerden@wur.nl

Two food and urban farming conferences in The Netherlands in May 2014

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Han Wiskerke

Take action? Collaborative action for more sustainable food systems

PUREFOOD Conference, May 14^th, Utrecht (The Netherlands)

On Wednesday May 14^th 2014, the international PUREFOOD conference will take place in Utrecht (The Netherlands): “Take action? Collaborative action for more sustainable food systems.” This day marks the finalization of the EU-funded PUREFOOD program. The conference is connected to the Day of Urban Farming (‘Dag van de Stadslandbouw’), which takes place on May 15th in Utrecht.

The PUREFOOD conference starts with an informal drink and local bite on Tuesday evening the 13th of May. Wednesday morning the 14th will stimulate the dialogue between you and business, government and civil society representatives, with reflections by keynote listener Tim Lang (Professor of Food Policy at City University London). Taking 3 short, inspirational talks as the starting point, we will try to find answers to the rather challenging tasks we face for the (near) future with regard to making our food system more sustainable. With the experience of 12 PUREFOOD researchers, plus the presence of experienced and well-known scholars and practitioners, we can draw from a rich ‘database’ of knowledge. The challenge will be to connect all this knowledge present and translate it into advice for and action by various actors within our food system.

Wednesday afternoon 3 different excursions are offered, all visiting Utrecht and its peri-urban fringes. During the excursion you will experience the rich history of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Utrecht. The results of the workshop sessions and discussions on Wednesday morning, will feed into 9 English spoken sessions during the Day of Urban Farming on Thursday May 15th.

For more information: www.purefoodconference.com.

Third Edition Day of Urban Farming, The Netherlands

May 14^th-17^th Utrecht (The Netherlands)

After two previous editions in Almere (2012) and Rotterdam (2013), the Day of Urban Farming (‘Dag van de Stadslandbouw’) has become the authoritative professional event in the field of urban and urban oriented farming in The Netherlands. During this National Platform on May 15^th 2014, its 400 participants and about 80 speakers will deal with the central topic how urban and peri-urban farming and regional food systems can fulfill the needs of Dutch cities, its inhabitants and local farmers. Participants at the conference are farmers and urban farming entrepreneurs, food & agriculture executives and executives from city and regional governments, health organizations, social institutions, real estate developers, housing corporations, universities and colleges.

The conference consist of a plenary session with keynote speaker Claus Meyer (founder New Nordic Cuisine Movement; co-owner restaurant Noma (Copenhagen) and Sharon Dijksma (Minister of Agriculture of The Netherlands). The plenary session is followed by three rounds of breakout sessions, where one will be able to discuss a broad variety of urban farming subjects in further detail. Main items in 2014 will be:

health and social aspects
business models, value creation and economics
cultivation in and on buildings
urban area development and placemaking
sustainability and local cycles
local and regional food networks
urban and regional food policies and planning

For English speaking participants, 9 of the 27 breakout sessions will be held in English (in co-operation with the PUREFOOD conference). During three excursions on Wednesday May 14^th, one will be able to meet farmers and urban gardeners in and around the city of Utrecht and hear about their experiences. On Saturday April 17^th, the general public is invited to visit urban farms and urban gardens all over The Netherlands. In this way, local residents get the chance to become acquainted with urban farming projects in their own neighborhood.

For more information: www.dagvandestadslandbouw.nl.

Il a plus sur le grand paysage – Film about crisis in Wallonian Dairy farming in Movie W

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Dirk Roep

Monday March 31, 20.00 the film ‘Il a plus sur le grand paysage‘ (with English subtitles) will be shown in Movie-W. The film is directed by Jean-Jacques Andrien. The director and a farmer will be present and open for discussion with the audience.

Autumn 2010. In the region of Herve, in Belgium’s east, the milk crisis of 2009 struck brutally at the dairy farms. In this profoundly estabilised context, the decision of the European Union to completely remove the milk production quota in 2015, and the determination of the World Trade Organisation to further liberalise the markets, directly threatened the existence of the farms. Nine farmers tell us of their struggle, from the heart.

Free entrance thanks to the support by Rural Sociology and Sociology of Development and Change of Wageningen University. The evening is co-organised by Otherwise, Movie-W, ILEIA, RUW and Boerengroep.