Food Otherwise is the expression of a growing Food Movement in The Netherlands and Flanders. We organized the very succesfull Food Otherwise conference in the main building of Wageningen University in Februariy 2014, see below. In March 2015 we organized the Soil Otherwise conference in Den Bosch. We will organize another broad conference early 2016. Most of our website is in Dutch, but our posts on Facebook and Twitter are partly in English. So if you’re interested in the Food Movement and Agriculture in The Netherlands and Belgium, please follow us!
Video: From Corporate Control to Food Democracy (4 min)
video impression conference (9 min)
CONFERENCE Friday 21 and Saturday 22 February 2014, Wageningen – Conference Report
Over 800 participants made the congres into a huge sucess. Almost everyone went home with an enormeous motivation and the idea that we are working together on fundamental changes. And that in the main bulding of Wageningen University, from where usually we hear only the voice of industrial agriculture. People found new ideas, met new friends, exchanged experiences and made new connections. We’re all doing our work, but we’re not alone. We’re part of a growing worldwide movement towards fair and sustainable agriculture systems, where farmers get a fair price and respect for a good product and where we cooperate with instead of fighting against nature. A system in which food democracy rules, and not the monopoly of a few big companies.
Vandana Shiva video speech and full text
Olivier de Schutter video speech and full text followed by Sieta van Keimpema, Gert Engelen and keynote listener Leen Laenens
Pablo Tittonell (prof agroecologie Wageningen University) en Hanny van Geel (board EU coordination La Via Campesina)
More and more farmers, consumers, scientists and civil society organisations are working towards a contemporary, sustainable and fair way of producing food. They are shaping new relationships between farmer and consumer. They offer creative, dynamic and diverse alternatives for large-scale, anonymous and industrialised food production and the increasing influence of transnational corporations.
Participants learned, experienced, thougt along and discussed new and attainable formss of food andagriculture with others. They built bridges and helped to achieve a more sustainable and fair food and agriculture model. Got to know sustainable (young) farmers and became inspired by innovative examples from the Netherlands and Flanders and from abroad. The two day conference in Wageningen on 21 and 22 February 2014 was a great succes!
Keynote speakers:
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•Vandana Shiva, scientist and activist
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•Olivier de Schutter, UN rapporteur on the Right to Food
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•Pablo Tittonell, Farming Systems Ecology, WageningenUniversity
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•Hanny van Geel, of La Via Campesina Europa, farmer
Translation English-Dutch and D-E provided in the plenary sessions. Quite some workshops in English.
Workshops and discussions plus mini-lectures on several themes, such as: Local food networks, Agroecology, Seeds and biodiversity, Fair Trade and Agricultural policies, Closed-loop agriculture, Urban agriculture, Permaculture / food forests, Land rights.