SG - Dilemmas and Opportunities at Farm Level

Dilemmas and Opportunities at Farm Level

This lecture focuses on the basis of the food system: agriculture. What does a transition towards a circular food system mean for farmers? What are (novel) business models that food producers can adopt to move towards a more circular food system? And what opportunities and challenges are farmers facing in this transition?

Tonight’s lecturers will address these questions based on their experiences with politics, finance, industry, and farming practice. Hester Maij will share the findings of the Taskforce ‘Earning Capacity Circular Agriculture’ and go into measures needed to move towards a more circular food system. Jan de Ruyter will share his perspective on sustainable agricultural business models and the role of finance in this.

About Hester Maij

Hester Maij is Corporate Director Public & Regulatory Affairs at FrieslandCampina. In 2019, she chaired the Taskforce Verdienvermogen which studied the economic consequences and dilemmas of a transition towards circular agriculture and advised the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. Hester Maij was previously active in politics as a provincial executive at the province of Overijssel and as alderman in the city of Amsterdam.

About Jan de Ruyter

Jan de Ruyter is Sector Banker at ABN AMRO Bank NV in the Netherlands. At the head office of ABN AMRO he is responsible for horticulture, arable farming and fisheries. For over 25 years he is overlooking the international developments and trends in the complete business chain of these sectors, from genetics to consumers. His international background provides a broad scope on different production systems and sustainable farming.

About lecture series Economic Perspectives for a Circular Food System

Attention for circular food systems is booming. Now that Dutch agriculture has to move towards circularity, it becomes clear that a lot of questions with regard to the business model for food producers, fair and true pricing along the chain, and the economic system in general, remain unanswered. For example, can farmers make a living from circular production? Are consumers and retailers willing to reward circularity? How do we organize responsibility in the food chain? Are there options to move beyond growth and GDP? In this series we will discuss these questions and explore the role of the economy in the transformation towards a circular food system.

This series is organized in collaboration with the Animal Production Systems group, Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy group, and Wageningen Economic Research. These five public events can be followed separately. They can also be followed as part of a new university course (capita selecta, 3 ECTS) which is organized in period 2, in the evening. More information on the course can be found here.

This programme has a hybrid set-up, which implies that a limited number of people can attend the lectures on campus while others will follow the lectures online. This set-up might be subject to change depending on COVID-19 developments.

If you wish to register for the complete course (capita selecta involving 6 sessions and assignments) or if you have questions about the course, please contact Evelien de Olde (evelien.deolde@wur.nl).

If you wish to attend one of the sessions without enrolling for the course, please register for this session by sending an e-mail to info.sg@wur.nl, with the title and date of the event in the subject line.

Please note that due to limited capacity, we might not be able to accommodate all registrations. The earlier you register, the more chance you have you can attend the event. For more information about registration and attendance, see here.