SG - Organizing Responsibility and Profitability in the Food Chain

Organizing Responsibility and Profitability in the Food Chain

What does the concept of circular economy imply for food value chains? Which social and institutional mechanisms are needed to move towards a circular food system? Dr. Roel Jongeneel will bring together the discussion on farm income and the role of the wider economy by discussing the role of the food chain. What are current challenges in pricing of food products, and how could we deal with these? Subsequently, Geert Hoekstra will address the potential of circular food from the sea, highlighting innovative case studies from Iceland and Norway. Could we achieve zero waste in seafood chains?

About Roel Jongeneel

Dr. Roel Jongeneel is senior scientist at Wageningen Economic Research and assistant professor at the Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy Group (Wageningen University & Research). His research is focused on agricultural policy analysis and developing market outlooks for key agricultural markets, taking into account worldwide developments (political, climate, macro-economic) and agricultural, environmental, and trade policies. In addition to scientific publications, he wrote several books on agriculture and food systems, and is columnist of the Dutch agricultural newspaper Boerderij Vandaag.

About Geert Hoekstra

Geert Hoekstra is an economic scientist at Wageningen Economic Research (Wageningen University & Research) with expertise in fisheries and seafood value chains. Besides applied research projects concerning revenue models with (short) supply chains in agriculture (region Food Valley), the transition to circular seafood chains has his passion. Internationally he watches daily the trends of supply chains with food from the sea and aquaculture. Last year Geert was also part of the circular WUR team (TEAM C) that aims to generate attention for circular food systems with sustainable and connected food production from land and sea.

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.