Reclaiming economic viability through food forestry: Entanglements of discourse, governance, and practice

This dissertation investigates the extent to which food forests in the Netherlands are economically
viable and examines the discursive and governance conditions under which such
viability emerges. Food forestry – an agricultural practice that mimics forest ecosystem
dynamics to integrate food production with ecological restoration – has become increasingly
prevalent in the Global North. Despite its multifunctional logic, public debates and research
often evaluate food forestry through dominant frameworks that separate ‘economy’, ‘environment’,
and ‘society’ – positioning economic value production as at odds with ecological and
social values and thus constraining understandings of what constitutes economically viable
food production. This dissertation challenges this by offering a relational, multispecies, and
more‑than‑monetary conceptualization of economic viability, grounded in diverse economies
thinking.