The ‘Suit’ of Urban Agriculture

Marlinde Koopmans of Van Hall Larenstein presented her thesis results yesterday in a workshop at Stroom, The Hague. Her thesis will be online available in September. For now she presents her main results in the below article.

By VHL student Regional Development Marlinde Koopmans (marlinde.koopmans@gmail.com):

groundworkhv.org/programs/environmental-education/science-barge/faqs/

Lately urban agriculture has gained interests of scholars, policy makers and citizens. Urban agriculture forms a unique integration with the urban system. It uses resources from the city and produces for the city. For the Foodprint program, Stroom has investigated the potentials of urban agriculture for the city of The Hague.In terms of flows of energy and food is a city one giant glutton, consuming tons of high valuable material coming from the countryside and only leaving tons of waste in return. The Hague therefore has, like other cities, to increase its environmental sustainability, for example the reduction and reuse of waste, the improvement of the urban climate.

It requires a systematic change of the metabolic system of the city. Various, often costly, measures are undertaken in order to change this unsustainable metabolic system of the city. Yet these are all very specific solutions to specific problems for example: the assigning of ecological protected areas to certain regions in The Hague and municipality buildings being covered with solar panels to supply energy.Since agriculture can form an ecological circular system, urban agriculture will be able to combine a multitude of environmental facets.

The research investigated the potentials of urban agriculture to contribute to the sustainability of The Hague.Organizations active in The Hague were asked about the possibilities to integrate urban agriculture in the city; how and where could this happen, and how can the respondents participate? Continue reading

Art and social interaction on Mando; Call for Researchers

The Wadden Sea coast of Denmark from Tønder to Blaavand is a beautiful natural and rural area with three wadden islands Romø, Mandø and Fanø. For the third time, the biannual Wadden Sea Festival from 4 to 12 september draws attention to this area with various forms of Contemporary Art at many different places. One of the art projects is organised by Foundation Waddenart on the island Mandø. This is a special island, very small and only accessible at low tide through a gravel road at the sea bottom.

The project Any Questions on Mandø is an interdisciplinary project, an experiment to integrate art and research in one project and at the same time embed the project in a local place. Foundation WaddenArt started in collaboration with SDU to explore the question of quality of life for the inhabitants at Mandø in October 2009. The findings fed into the Call for Artists to attract Contemporary Art in Installation art, Performance art and Landart. Five different artist(groups) have been selected to work daily to create works of art during the festival in september. 

There is also space for three researchers to be involved in the project in september. We ask researchers to reflect from a research background in the social sciences or art & humanities to what they observe during the festival. We ask you to observe and write a short story based on personal experience and empirical observation which can be performed during the closing event on Mandø. Are you interested questions such as; How does contemporary art relate to the cultural and social life of the community on Mando? How do the people on Mando relate to a festival that is not theirs? How is Mando expressed? What symbols the links between past, present and future? What are defining factors in change and stability? Then please look at this link for the full Call text and the way to submit your interest to Foundation Waddenart.

Boeren buitenspel gezet – Inspraak en onvrede in Restveen en Groene Waterparel

Door Reinier van der Starre, MSc student

Het melkveehouderij/akkerbouw bedrijf van mijn familie in de Wieringermeer wordt bedreigd door de  planvorming voor het Wieringerrandmeer. Dit proces volg ik dus al jaren van dichtbij. Wat mij opgevallen is, is dat mijn familie maar ook andere boeren in de omgeving zeer gefrustreerd zijn geraakt tijdens dit planvormingproces. Hierbij is men wel in contact met overheden, maar is de beeldvorming over de overheden zeer negatief. De vraag, die hierbij altijd in mijn achterhoofd speelt is: “waar komt die onvrede vandaan?” en “gaat het in andere gebieden ook zo?”.

Tijdens mijn studie Management of Agro- Ecological Knowlegde and Social Change (Maks) probeer je te begrijpen, waarom en hoe veranderingen tot stand komen en wat die veranderingen tot gevolg hebben. Het afstuderen was voor mij dan ook een unieke kans om uit te zoeken, waar die onvrede in genoemde planvormingsprocessen uit voortkomt. In samenwerking met Alterra heb ik de oorzaak van de onvrede in het gebied Restveen en Groene Waterparel in de Zuidplaspolder onderzocht.

De Zuidplaspolder is in de vijfde Nota Ruimtelijke Ordening aangewezen als ontwikkelingsgebied voor woning en glastuinbouw. Onder leiding van de provincie Zuid-Holland heeft de bestuurlijke werkgroep bestaande uit 23 partijen zoals; overheidspartijen, maatschappelijk organisaties en belangenbehartigers, de ontwikkelingsopgave verder uitgewerkt. Dit heeft er toe geleid, dat de op het veen gelegen zuidelijke deelgebieden Restveen en Groene Waterparel gedeeltelijk bestemd zijn voor natuur. Momenteel zijn er echter nog een aantal grondgebonden veehouderijbedrijven actief, die ontevreden zijn over de genoemde ontwikkelingen.

In dit onderzoek zijn de bronnen van onvrede van de boeren in het Restveen en Groene Waterparel onderzocht. Dit is gedaan door middel van een deskstudie van de verschillende beleidsdocumenten en daarnaast hebben er interviews plaats gevonden met de betrokken boeren, overheidsinstanties, belangenbehartigers en andere betrokkenen. De bronnen van onvrede zijn onderzocht door de beeldvorming over het planvormingproces, de wisselwerking tussen de regionale partijen en de boeren en de wijze van grondverwerving te analyseren. Uit het onderzoek is gebleken dat de volgende punten de bron zijn van de onvrede bij de boeren:

  1. Het feit dat de agrarische functie niet meer leidend is in het gebied.
  2. De overheid de verwachting schept dat de boeren nog invloed kunnen uitoefenen op het planvormingproces. Maar dat inspraak een illusie is.
  3. De boeren voelen zich niet vertegenwoordigd door de LTO in de bestuurlijke werkgroep.
  4. De overheid maakt in de ogen van de boeren misbruik van wet en regelgeving bij de verwerving van de grond.
  5. De overheid biedt in de ogen van de boeren geen redelijk vergoeding voor de grond gebouwen, die zij nodig heeft voor de planontwikkeling

Kortom de boeren voelen zich buitenspel gezet. 

U kunt hier klikken voor een volledige versie van mijn MSc-thesis ‘Boeren buitenspel gezet: Inspraak en onvrede in Restveen en Groene Waterparel’

Food initiatives in Amersfoort

 

eemlook website

 “Eating is an agrarian act” said Bart Pijnenburg at a meeting last Thursday in Amersfoort. So we ate together with 50 people a meal based on regional products and lots of garlic from the farm Eemlook. The meeting was organized by Transition Town Amersfoort, the Eemlook and two consultancies Mensenland and Eemstad Lab.

“We” were all those interested in progressing new thinking about regional and urban food production and consumption. The Amersfoort food strategy; this was the topic. There is no such a thing yet, and the meeting was meant to inspire each other and the city government to undertake action.

There were lots of ideas; after a few brainstorm sessions at least 25 ideas were presented – in an elevator pitch situation. From community gardens to Meatless Monday, and mobile cooking units to dine in a field, the variety of ideas surprised many people. Maybe some of these ideas can be submitted to the “Sustainable Food” call of the Ministry of Agriculture it was concluded. Well then, be prepared for heavy competition.

At the launch of this grant-funding on the 9th of June at least a hundred people were present to explore their opportunities for submitting a project. This high interest is starkly contrasting the amount of funding available; half a million euro with individual project limits up to 75.000 euros. This funding is – according to the explanation that day – an experiment which may or may not be repeated. The piecemeal funding is underlying one of the three policy goals; to enable Dutch consumers to choose for sustainable food products. A bit meager I thought given the huge ambition to become ‘world leader in sustainable food production in 15 years’.

Through a Food Lens…

By Simone Plantinga – MSc student

For the Dutch version of this text follow this link

A year ago, I started with the research for my MSc Thesis in Rural Sociology. The research was carried out in Tilburg, a city in the Province of Noord-Brabant, in the south part of the Netherlands. After a couple of explorative meetings within the chair group of Rural Sociology of Wageningen University, with the Brabantse Milieufederatie (Environmental Federation Brabant) and the Provincie Noord-Brabant (Province of Nood-Brabant) this research has been defined. The research is about the preconditions, possibilities and restrictions for the set up of a Food Policy Council, a particular form of food policy. A FPC is a broad social network or platform which consists of multiple actors which have an interest in well developed food system. A successful example is the Toronto Food Policy, which formed in 1991 in Canada. In this blog I’ll explain the (conceptual) background of the research, as well as the key results and conclusions.   Continue reading