Food and the city has never been a more urgent theme than today, and The European Union’s priority to commit to innovation in this field will certainly enhance its economic and external strength and improve its competitive position in the world of food and life sciences. Europea Netherlands held a seminar on this topic in May 2016, during the Dutch EU presidency.To be part of this international endeavour, the Netherlands need to strengthen the digital market, support innovation in the internal market, boost domestic policy reforms, and embed their knowledge and skills in a European society that challenges itself and continues to innovate. The Netherlands is a global player in the agro, food and horticultural sector and a major player in the export market of agricultural products. This sector is one of its main economic pillars. New knowledge is being developed as we speak, which is also an export product in high demand, providing sizeable employment. This is only possible because the sector is innovative and remains up-to-date. The peri-urban areas in the Netherlands (both urban and rural areas) are characterized by high population density. This necessitates thinking about manufacturing, food, logistics and water management(circular economy). Land-based education and life sciences in the Netherlands may appear to be specific, yet it is broad too: the primary sectors are included, as well as the manufacturing businesses and services associated with it. Participants learn to work in an innovative sector in a society in transition, bringing together multiple disciplines (cross-overs) and stakeholders. This education is practical and has a strong connection to the industry. During the Europea seminar five professorships, installed by the ministry of Economic Affairs, focused on transitions in the agro and food sector. The five professorships are posted at the Dutch Agricultural Universities of applied sciences, including teacher education for sustainable connected learning and development for professional education and business communities.
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Food and the city has never been a more urgent theme than today, and The European Union’s priority to commit to innovation in this field will certainly enhance its economic and external strength and improve its competitive position in the world of food and life sciences. Europea Netherlands held a seminar on this topic in May 2016, during the Dutch EU presidency.To be part of this international endeavour, the Netherlands need to strengthen the digital market, support innovation in the internal market, boost domestic policy reforms, and embed their knowledge and skills in a European society that challenges itself and continues to innovate. The Netherlands is a global player in the agro, food and horticultural sector and a major player in the export market of agricultural products. This sector is one of its main economic pillars. New knowledge is being developed as we speak, which is also an export product in high demand, providing sizeable employment. This is only possible because the sector is innovative and remains up-to-date. The peri-urban areas in the Netherlands (both urban and rural areas) are characterized by high population density. This necessitates thinking about manufacturing, food, logistics and water management(circular economy). Land-based education and life sciences in the Netherlands may appear to be specific, yet it is broad too: the primary sectors are included, as well as the manufacturing businesses and services associated with it. Participants learn to work in an innovative sector in a society in transition, bringing together multiple disciplines (cross-overs) and stakeholders. This education is practical and has a strong connection to the industry. During the Europea seminar five professorships, installed by the ministry of Economic Affairs, focused on transitions in the agro and food sector. The five professorships are posted at the Dutch Agricultural Universities of applied sciences, including teacher education for sustainable connected learning and development for professional education and business communities.
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In light of the current debate on the impact of our current food system on climate changeand related mitigation strategies, addressing the acceptance of sustainability aspects within consumerbehavioral issues is of vital importance. However, the field remains mute on how those strategies canbe designed and employed effectively to stimulate sustainable food consumption behavior. Immersivenarrative design is a promising approach to engaging consumers in this context. Within this study, weshed light on how to create immersive, impactful, interactive narratives in augmented reality (AR)together with consumers. We propose a novel approach to how those stories can be planned, utilizingparticipatory design methods. Within a step-wise process, we develop the storyboard together withconsumers. In the next step, we evaluate multiple approaches with AR application developers onhow this storyline can be enhanced in AR considering the perspective of various stakeholders likedevelopers, behavioral scientists, and consumers. Finally, we propose a conceptual framework for howimmersive narratives can be designed and validated in a collaborative, multidimensional approachfor impactful AR narrative content designs to stimulate sustainable food behavior for consumers.
The HAS professorship Future Food Systems is performing applied research with students and external partners to transform our food system towards a more sustainable state. In this research it is not only a question of what is needed to achieve this, but also how and with whom. The governance of our food system needs rethinking to get the transformative momentum going in a democratic and constructive manner. Building on the professorship’s research agenda and involvement in the transdisciplinary NWA research project, the postdoc will explore collective ownership and inclusive participation as two key governance concepts for food system transformation. This will be done in a participatory manner, by learning from and with innovative bottom-up initiatives and practitioners from the field. By doing so, the postdoc will gain valuable practical insights that can aid to new approaches and (policy) interventions which foster a sustainable and just food system in the Netherlands and beyond. A strong connection between research and education is created via the active research involvement of students from different study programs, supervised by the postdoc (Dr. B. van Helvoirt). The acquired knowledge is embedded in education by the postdoc by incorporating it into HAS study program curricula and courses. In addition, it will contribute to the further professional development of qualitative research skills among HAS students and staff. Through scientific, policy and popular publications, participation in (inter)national conferences and meetings with experts and practitioners, the exposure and network of the postdoc and HAS in the field of food systems and governance will be expanded. This will allow for the setting up of a continuous research effort on this topic within the professorship via follow-up research with knowledge institutes, civic society groups and partners from the professional field.
The composition of diets and supplements given to bovine cattle are constantly evolving. These changes are driven by the social call for a more sustainable beef and dairy production, interests to influence the nutritional value of bovine products for human consumption, and to increase animal health. These adaptations can introduce (new) compounds in the beef and milk supply chain. Currently, the golden standard to study transfer of compounds from feed or veterinary medicine to cows and consequences for human health is performing animal studies, which are time consuming, costly and thus limited. Although animal studies are increasingly debated for ethical reasons, cows are still in the top 10 list of most used animals for animal experiments in Europe. There is, however, no widely applicable alternative modelling tool available to rapidly predict transfer of compounds, apart from individual components like cattle kinetic models and simple in vitro kinetic assays. Therefore, this project aims to develop a first-of-a-kind generic bovine kinetic modelling platform that predicts the transfer of compounds from medicine/supplements and feed to bovine tissues. This will provide new tools for the efficacy and safety evaluation of veterinary medicine and feed and facilitates a rapid evaluation of human health effects of bovine origin food products, thereby contributing to an increased safety in the cattle production chain and supporting product innovations, all without animal testing. This will be accomplished by integrating existing in silico and in vitro techniques into a generic bovine modelling platform and further developing state-of-the-art in vitro bovine organoid cell culturing systems. The platform can be used world-wide by stakeholders involved in the cattle industry (feed-/veterinary medicine industry, regulators, risk assessors). The project partners involve a strong combination of academia, knowledge institutes, small and medium enterprises, industry, branche-organisations and Proefdiervrij, all driven by their pursuit for animal free innovations.
In the Netherlands, the theme of transitioning to circular food systems is high on the national agenda. The PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency has stressed that commuting to circular food chains requires a radical transformation of the food chain where (a) natural resources must be effectively used and managed (soil, water, biodiversity, minerals), (b) there must be an optimum use of food by reducing (food) waste . . ., (c) less environmental pressure, and (d) an optimum use of residue streams. The PBL also recognizes that there should be room for tailored solutions and that it is important to establish a benchmark, to be aware of impacts in the production chain and the added value of products. In the line of circular food systems, an integrated nature-inclusive circular farming approach is needed in order to develop a feasible resource-efficient and sustainable business models that brings shared value into the food chain while invigorating the rural areas including those where agricultural vacancy is occurring. Agroforestry is an example of an integrated nature-inclusive circular farming. It is a multifunctional system that diversifies and adapts the production while reducing the carbon footprint and minimizing the management efforts and input costs; where trees, crops and/or livestock open business opportunities in the food value chains as well as in the waste stream chains. To exploit the opportunities that agroforestry as an integrated resource-efficient farming system adds to the advancement towards (a) valuable circular short food chains, (b) nature-based entrepreneurship (nature-inclusive agriculture), and (c) and additionally, the re-use of abandoned agricultural spaces in the Overijssel province, this project mobilizes the private sector, provincial decision makers, financers and knowledge institutes into developing insights over the feasible implementation of agroforestry systems that can bring economic profit while enhancing and maintaining ecosystem services.
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