TransForum is organising a course for PhD students concerning the building blocks required for the more sustainable development of agriculture.

From now on all information and news on metropolitan agriculture and the Metropolitan Agriculture

The TransForum workshop at the Pensa conference held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, attracted great attention.

Deelnemers innovatie-event in gesprek tijdens projectenmarkt.




























Dagvoorzitter Frénk van der Linden voelt Herman de Boon, Voorzitter TransForum, aan de tand.




























Afrondende paneldiscussie, met van links naar rechts: Henk van Latesteijn, Algemeen directeur TransForum, Piet van Staalduinen, Algemeen directeur Syntens, Janneke Hoekstra, directeur Kennis en Innovatie van het Ministerie van LNV en Chris Buijink, Secretaris Generaal van het Ministerie van EZ.

Care farming is one of the examples of metropolitan agriculture.

Care farmers help to provide a solution to urban problems, based on the demands and needs of the urban population. By doing so, they also create a source of income for themselves. A fruitful interaction to the benefit of urban communities and farmers alike.

Link to the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05DjZP7czms

  “Agroparks are good for sustainable development. The costs are lower, they deliver greater added value and the environmental impact is lessened. The more functions and forms of activity that are linked up, the greater the contribution to sustainable development,” maintains Peter Smeets in the dissertation for which he obtained his PhD in Wageningen on 6 October 2009.

Het verslag van de Open Space die TransForum organiseerde tijdens de Knowledge Democracy-conferentie van RMNO (augustus jl.) is beschikbaar. 

Klik transforum_session_rmno_verslag_open_space voor het volledige verslag.

Open letter to the Lower House

Today – on the Day of Sustainability – a group associated with TransForum has sent an open letter to the Standing Parliamentary Committees of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) and Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) and to the party chairmen in the Lower House expressing their concern about the slow progress being made towards sustainabilisation in agriculture, even though sustainability is one of the six pillars of the present administration’s policy programme. On behalf of the agricultural sector and the sustainable consumer they call on the political parties to enter fully into the debate concerning the potential for sustainabilisation in agriculture. It is precisely in this sector, with its huge production volumes, that enormous sustainability gains are to be made. The initiators of the letter consider that good potential solutions remain unexplored in the sustainabilisation debate. Sustainability is a composite concept: social, environmental and economic values (people, planet, profit) all play a role. All too often representatives of one of these values – people, profit or planet – get stuck in their own ideology and proposed solutions. Beliefs that do not fit in are left out of the discussion and matters do not get beyond lecturing one another that the ‘right’ solution is not being selected.

Dutch agriculture could achieve much more in the field of sustainable development. Innovations are failing to get off the ground as the various parties accuse one another of not doing enough in terms of their own convictions. This is stated by Herman de Boon and Henk van Latesteijn in an article expressing the views of the TransForum network by way of follow-up to an open letter to the Standing Parliamentary Committees of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) and Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) of the Lower House.

On the island of Texel, near the former sheepfold owned by Marc van Rijsselberghe, a saline agriculture experimental garden is being laid out. Saline agriculture plants such as marsh samphire, spelt and quinoa will be cultivated in the garden. Both the growing conditions and the market potential for the crops are to be investigated. In order to provide visitors with background on the saline agriculture crops, Marc has had an almost 3-metre high “room screen”constructed. The experimental garden is to be officially opened on 9 September, the Day of Sustainability. TransForum is contributing towards the Saline Agriculture project and was also involved in the construction of the screen.

Wednesday, 08 July 2009

The handing over of the now familiar TransForum tile provided the starting shot for the LandMarkt project. Entrepreneur Harm van Dijk, project leaders Jan Willem van der Schans and Mariët de Winter and all the other project partners each received a similar tile from project director Anne-Claire van Altvorst. Anne-Claire said that she was proud of the project, for three reasons. In the first place LandMarkt meets a growing public need for involvement in and knowledge about food production. Secondly the shared responsibility in the chain creates added value for all the partners, while thirdly an innovative business model is being built here on the basis of transparency and the exchange of information. The first LandMarkt shop will be opened in mid-2010.

See also the press release under News/Press releases.

De jaarlijkse monitoring van TransForum door SenterNovem en NWO is voor  TransForum weer positief uitgepakt. Op drie van de vijf criteria (realisatie mijlpalen, internationaal en organisatie & bestuur) haalt TransForum zelfs de maximale score.
Wij zijn zeer verheugd met de constatering van de monitors dat “TransForum internationaal koploper is in discussies over duurzame landbouw in metropolitane gebieden”. Ook constateren de monitors:  “De maatschappelijke mijlpalen liggen fors hoger dan de planning. De mijlpalen voor innovatie plus kennistransfer zijn in lijn of hoger dan verwacht.”
Het TransForum programma loopt nog tot eind 2010. Om het programma ook in lijn met de huidige positieve beoordeling af te sluiten gaat TransForum op suggestie van de monitors nog meer aandacht zetten op het meten en zichtbaar maken van de successen via prestatie-indicatoren.

Wednesday, 01 July 2009

Promoting the demand and supply of sustainable food is at the core of the Sustainable Food policy document submitted to the Lower House by the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food, Gerda Verburg, on 29 June. The policy document sets out the ambition for the Netherlands to lead the field in respect of sustainable food and act as an example for the international community. A sum of 20 million euros is available under the document. Click on nota_duurzame_voeding_lnv1 in order to read the policy document.

From June 21 till June 24, the 5th ISIE (International Conference on Industrial Ecology) will take place in Lisbon. The theme is Transitions towards Sustainability. PJ Beers, theme coordinator of the scientific program of TransForum, will present a poster over the TransForum project "Images of sustainable development in the Dutch agriculture system". Click poster_pj_voor_isie_congres.

On 7 May 2009, TransForum, together with TUDelft and Xplorelab (Province of South Holland), organised a meeting to consider the spatial aspects of Metropolitan Agriculture in a number of TransForum projects. Some 20 guests drawn from the government, industry and research institutes discussed the proposal to compare various metropolises in the world and their agricultural systems in a ‘configuration study’. Does Metropolitan Agriculture (MA) exist and, if so, how does it relate to the TransForum projects? An important contribution was that made by Dirk Sijmons, Professor of Sustainable Design at TUDelft, who discussed the Delta dilemma: the struggle for scarce space in the deltas of this world between nature, food production and the cities. Can Metropolitan Agriculture provide a solution here? Two case studies were introduced by Xplorelab in order to test the MA theory: Mainport Greenport (the port of Rotterdam and the Westland) and Green & the City (the Hof van Delfland region and the surrounding cities). The participants in the meeting agreed to investigate these case studies further. For more information please e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Super de Boer presents sustainability report

With the presentation of its second sustainability report, Super de Boer firmly consolidates its leading position as regards sustainability in the food industry. In the report the TransForum project is referred to as “Sustainability in Retailing”. Sustainability is one of the supermarket chain's key objectives. Caspar Woolthuis, responsible for corporate social responsibility policy at Super de Boer since 2003 in his capacity as Quality and Sustainability Manager, states: “Consumers increasingly want to know where products come from and to have greater insight into the production process. This is also reflected in the increased level of activity among non-governmental organisations in the Netherlands. In addition we consider that as a large, national supermarket chain, we also need to take our share of responsibility in this area. Sustainability is, after all, about the future. For a number of years we have been concerning ourselves with the sustainabilisation of the entire chain, as we can take real steps forward in this way instead of merely adding sustainable products to our range.” Sustainabilisation of the chain In 2008 Super de Boer successfully took a number of sustainability steps. The supermarket chain is for example highly active in the field of animal welfare; no white veal is purchased, and pork only from uncastrated piglets. Super de Boer was furthermore awarded the “Better Living” hallmark by the Animal Protection Association for its “Scharrelplus” free-range eggs. In 2008 Super de Boer also introduced its own fish sustainability indicator as advocated by the North Sea Foundation. It has also played a pioneering role in the cooperation with various NGOs, including the “Sustainability in Retailing” knowledge project and the “Sustainable Fruit and Vegetables” coalition with, among others, Oxfam Novib and the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment. “We have to face the fact that as a supermarket chain, we are unable to undertake the sustainabilisation of this wide-ranging process by ourselves. We are doing so in close collaboration with our suppliers and with the help of non-governmental organisations. We are entering into dialogue and jointly coming up with new ideas,” says Caspar Woolthuis. Ambition Super de Boer is continuing its initiatives in this area in 2009 and actively exploring new opportunities. “We know what matters for our customers and the NGOs in question. In 2009 we will continue to focus on animal welfare and the added value of sustainable products and processes. Our entire range of organic meat now has the ‘Better Living’ hallmark and has been awarded no fewer than three stars by the Animal Protection Association,” states Caspar Woolthuis. In addition Super de Boer will be concentrating heavily on the environment in the coming year, for example making energy savings from the use of LED lighting and innovative refrigeration methods. Savings on transport kilometres and sustainable waste processing will also be contributing to more environmentally friendly operations. Super de Boer is one of just 12 Dutch companies so far to have published a separate sustainability report on 2008 in line with and notified to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Source: iNSnet Click hier to read Super de Boer’s sustainability report.

Reed-Elsevier will be holding a national conference on Care Farming at the Orpheus Centre in Apeldoorn on 21 April (www.zorglandbouw.nl). TransForum will be running two workshops in the afternoon session entitled "Opportunities, obstacles and solutions for Care Farming". In the first workshop a number of TransForum projects, including Green Care Amsterdam and Our South Limburg Land, will be sharing their experiences with the combination of care and farming. Green Care Amsterdam is a network of care farms, the Landzijde organisation and welfare agencies. Our South Limburg Land works on Integrated Care Communities in the Limburg Hills. The second workshop will focus on the opportunities, obstacles and solutions for care farming. An interactive workshop will be analysing the TransForum projects and exploring ways for dealing with those opportunities and obstacles. Throughout the day TransForum will be present at the knowledge market with its own stand. In order to register for the conference visit www.zorglandbouw.nl 

The Shanghai Agricultural Commission (i.e. Shanghai ministry of agriculture) paid a visit to The Hague on 1 April. The situation concerning the Greenport Shanghai project was discussed in the course of a constructive meeting. It was concluded that the project was also receiving a lot of support from the Chinese side, but that the present financial situation called for some patience.

The Shanghai Government will be deciding in the near future whether the project should receive government aid. In that case the financing of the prestigious project would be all but finalised. During the meeting the new chairman of the Shanghai Agricultural Commission (SAC), Mr. Sun, (see photo) indicated that the project was highly important for Shanghai. He also saw a good future for agroparks in general in China. The growing population and growing demand for high-quality food called for a major effort in China to modernise production, processing and transport.

Greenport Shanghai offered extensive opportunities to that end. Ate Oostra (former DG of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) and chairman of the Governmental Support Group for Greenport Shanghai) indicated that a number of parties in the Netherlands were poised to make a start. In that respect a number of organisational and financing preconditions needed to be sorted out on the Chinese side. So far that was not the case. He also stated that the project appealed to the imagination and that it would be good to proceed to actual implementation.

TransForum brings entrepreneurs and knowledge institutions together in various ways. Direct contact generally takes place within practical projects. TransForum also has scientific projects concerned with generic questions.

On Monday 23 March a meeting to exchange knowledge took place between three practical and two scientific projects based around the theme of consumer behaviour. The question was how knowledge from the scientific projects concerning consumer behaviour can help the practical projects. TransForum acted as host and moderator. Insights were shared in a lively discussion between practitioners and scientists.

Although the expectations expressed in advance were largely realised, there proved to be a gap between the world of science and the world of practice; this also applied within TransForum. A knowledge-broker therefore remains badly needed, and TransForum will continue to try and fulfil this role. More information: Arnout Fischer

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A unique meeting was held in Shanghai on 20 March at which Dutch and Chinese plant geneticists, researchers and government officials exchanged ideas and insights in an informal atmosphere concerning the opportunities and risks of transgenic vegetables. The workshop was jointly organised by TTI Green Genetics, KeyGene and the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences. This was the first TTI GG/Plantum activity forming part of the 2g@there programme (pronounced: ‘to get there’). The programme was launched at the beginning of this year in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) and Economic Affairs and the Netherlands Foreign Trade Agency (EVD) in order to improve co-operative links and trade relations with China.

On the Dutch side alternative methods such as cisgenesis, molecular mutagenesis and molecular improvement were also examined. In the afternoon ‘Open Space’ discussions were held during which the Chinese and Dutch participants freely exchanged ideas and viewpoints concerning GMOs. In particular this concerned goals, risks, public acceptance, patents, legislation and technological developments. Of the 70 participants around a third came from outside China, most of them from the Netherlands. The general approach taken was that gene technology was regarded as a necessary means of guaranteeing sustainable food production and food safety. Many transgenic crops are now being cultivated in China, with few problems of public acceptance. It did however emerge in the discussions that in the event of possible future exports, China would need to take account of the fact that this was not the case everywhere. This was one of the first times that China had organised a workshop in such an open atmosphere, in which the participants themselves helped determine the topics for discussion. According to one of the co-organisers, the Director of TTI Green Genetics Bernard de Geus, the occasion had been "a great success, something very special." Together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), which helped organise the workshop in conjunction with TTI GG, it is now being examined how the workshop might be followed up.

Source: TTI Green Genetics

The 2008 TransForum Annual Report has now been published. This year the report is based around the theme of Sustainable Metropolitan Agriculture, the vision with which TransForum is working towards the more sustainable development of the Dutch agricultural sector. Click on transforum_-_jaarverslag_2008-def in order to read the report. It is also available in English. If you would prefer to receive a tangible, printed copy, please e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Metropolitan Agriculture central theme at international agrofood management conference Thursday, 19 March 2009 Metropolitan Agriculture is a key area for the International Food and Management Association (IAMA). The subject will therefore form a central theme at the annual IAMA conference, to be held this year from 20-23 June in Budapest.

Rond de presentatie van dit boek hebben de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, ERAC en TransForum een symposium georganiseerd op 2 april van 16 tot 19 uur. De praktijkvoorbeelden zullen worden toegelicht door Harry Keereweer (gedeputeerde Prov. Gelderland), Pierre Sommer (Klavertje 4) en Peter Geertse (Zeeland Seaports). Henk van Latesteijn zit het symposium voor. Het eerste exemplaar van het boek wordt in ontvangst genomen door voormalig minister van LNV Cees Veerman. Onder leiding van Dirk Strijker (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) zal een panel met de sprekers en de zaal discussiëren over de duurzaamheidswaarden van de biobased economy. Het panel bestaat uit Hein Vrolijk (v/h Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Herman van Ham (ZLTO) en Roel Bol (Ministerie LNV).

Met genoegen nodigen wij u uit om aanwezig te zijn bij dit symposium dat plaatsvindt op 2 april in Utrecht van 16 tot 19 uur.

Wij zien uw aanmelding graag tegemoet per mail ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) of telefonisch (0411 68 58 11). Klik hier voor de uitnodiging_symposium_a5.

Henk Schouten werd geinterviewd op 17 februari op Radio 1 over cisgenese. Hij legde helder uit wat dat is en vertelt over het toegenomen politieke draagvlak voor cisgenese. Het fragment is te beluisteren via

http://player.nos.nl/index.php/media/play/tcmid/tcm:5-480221/

The Upper House has adopted the motion tabled by Schuurman (CU) and others on genetic modification. The motion asked the government to promote further study in the European context into new plant-breeding techniques (including cisgenesis) in order to establish those breeding techniques for which a simplified admission regime could apply. In doing so it needed to be ensured that the conventional (organic) food chain was preserved, thereby assuring the consumer's continuing freedom of choice to buy GM-free food.

Scientific director Evert Jacobsen, who had long awaited this moment, was delighted: "This means a great deal. More parties will now become involved in cisgenesis, which is all to the good. Discussions will need to be held with more parties, precisely so as to offer that freedom of choice. Now, once again, there will be the opportunity to discuss this matter in the Lower House as well. That will be to the benefit of cisgenesis."

MPs Annie Schreijer-Pierik, Ger Koopmans, Bas van der Vlies, Janneke Snijder-Hazelhoff and Ernst Cramer and Clerk of the House Cathelijne Dortmond paid a visit on 6 February to the province of North Holland, at the invitation of the Agrologistics Platform and the Province. A small part of the busy programme was filled by TransForum.

TransForum was invited to take part in the celebration of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese moon calendar indicates that we are now entering year 4706. And that year is the Year of the Ox. According to the Chinese ambassador in the Netherlands, Zhang Jun, the Year of the Ox is characterised by hard work, perseverance and ultimate success. He sees major opportunities for a clear win-win outcome in the growing economic relationship between China and the Netherlands. This also applies to the Greenport Shanghai project that TransForum helped to develop, particularly since this agropark was designed to serve the domestic market.

Aanstaande vrijdag 6 februari bezoeken leden van de Vaste Kamercommissie LNV Noord-Holland. De provincie Noord-Holland en Platform Agrologistiek hebben een interessant programma samengesteld waarin onder andere Landzijde/Groene Hoed wordt bezocht, de 'zetel' van de TransForum projecten Green Care en Regionale Voedselketen. Jaap Hoek Spaans zal daar de kamerleden iets vertellen over zijn samenwerking met vele partijen, waarvan TransForum er een is, om multifunctionele landbouw in Noord-Holland gestalte te geven. Tijdens een bezoek aan de proeftuin Zwaagdijk spreekt Herman de Boon de groep toe over de aanpak van TransForum, die in vele praktijk- en wetenschappelijke experimenten moet leiden tot een meer duurzame ontwikkeling van de Nederlandse landbouwsector. De gasten krijgen ook de film van Greenport Shanghai te zien.  Ook in die film is het sleutelwoord "samenwerking tussen vele sectoren".

The TransForum SynErgy project has nearly been completed. The participating horticulturalists and steering group met on 26 January to discuss the results.

Project-leader Harm Maters mentioned the four seminars and more than 80 publications that SynErgy had generated. "The invention is there," said  Harm, "but the development is still in its infancy and implementation has still to get under way. We have done a great deal of late, but there is a lot to do before conditioned cultivation can be applied on a broad scale. Widespread introduction in practice has still to take place, practical experience on a broad scale remains to be built up and in particular the technique of heating and cooling, the ‘new' (= conditioned) cultivation and the automated monitoring of climatic conditions and cultivation still require a lot more research."

No entrenched positions, no reiteration of own views but a joint exploration of the scope for agreements and realistic solutions: that was the thrust of the meeting on cisgenesis organised by TransForum on 17 November in the Nieuwspoort press centre. Around 80 invited participants from the scientific community, the processing industry, government and interest groups attended the evening and made effective contributions.

The debate concerning genetically modified food continues to be waged, covering all the related themes: food safety, patenting, competitiveness and consumer wishes. Positions for and against have been firmly taken, to the detriment of the debate. TransForum is concerned about this, as it curbs the innovation that is so vitally required. The fact that the opinions are more nuanced and that many people have good ideas as to how this problem can be solved emerged clearly from the discussions.

Marco van Steekelenburg is begonnen als Projectcoördinator Metropolitan Agriculture. 

How can the presentation and packaging of regional products be made attractive for youthful, cosmopolitan and culturally-oriented urban dwellers? This was the challenge with which the Mijn Boer co-operative of farmers supplying MarQt with sustainable regional products confronted five artists and designers.

The Green Care project, in which health care institutions work together with care farmers, has provided research material for identifying the competencies required by network managers. This raises issues of cultural differences, as well as the attributes and skills required for dealing with these. The research has resulted in a short film in which Barbara Regeer (VU Amsterdam) and Jaap Hoek Spaans (Green Care project-leader and entrepreneur) relate what they have learned. Click here to start the film.

The final report on the FloriLog project has been published. Click on florilog_eindrapportage in order to read the report. The three related position papers may be found under Publications/practice projects.

De derde Nieuwsbrief voor de Eemland conferentie is gepubliceerd. Klik hier nieuwsbrief_ee_conference om de nieuwsbrief te downloaden. Zie ook www.eeconference.nl

During a recent mission by Greenport Nederland to Shanghai led by Sjaak van der Tak, a new Memorandum of Understanding was signed in order to seal the broadly-based political/administrative support that has been generated for Greenport Shanghai. The MoU was signed by the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC) and TransForum, as project-leaders of this project, and Greenport Nederland, the Shanghai Agricultural Commission, the Provinces of Limburg and South Holland and the Municipalities of Westland and Lansingerland.

TransForum continues to grow. In September Karin Andeweg was appointed as Junior Programme manager.

Project-leaders and researchers from TransForum projects have submitted a large number of papers for the conference on Transitions towards Sustainable Agriculture, Food Chains and Peri-Urban Areas being held at Wageningen UR from 27 to 29 October.

TransForum's ways to speed up sustainable development in the agro-sector are being recorded in various publications. One of those is the article "Triggering transitions towards sustainable development of the Dutch agricultural sector: TransForum’s  approach" that will be publicized shortly in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development. Hereunder you will find the abstract of the article. Once it is publicized, the entire article will also be available on this website.

See also http://www.agronomy-journal.org

The TransForum project Regional Fresh Produce Chain has delivered a working value proposition. Two months ago opened the MarQt store in Amsterdam, and already it is successful.

TransForum's annual report 2007 is just out.

On Thursday 27 March Henk van Latesteijn will address the worldwide Deloitte Oracle Client Forum in Rome. The Client Forum has as its theme "Partnering for the future".

Friday March 14 the official documents were signed, and Monday 17 March was the first real working day for the four new empoyees of De Sjalon, the former owners of the four enterprises that now officially constitute De Sjalon. The large scale agricultural farm has now really started.

A special supermarket has been opened in Overtoom in the centre of Amsterdam. MarQt offers regional products from North Holland, supplied by farmers cooperating in the Regional Food Chain.

‘Entrepreneurship means consciously taking uninsurable risks,' or, ‘The government must facilitate and serve, but not act as entrepreneur.' And: ‘A civil servant may not take the credit; politicians want to score.'

These and other sometimes thought-provoking statements were made during the third TransForum ‘Diner Pensant' concerning Innovative Government on 12 February. Fifty guests took their places for a lively discussion over dinner.

The municipal council of Horst aan de Maas established the framework on 12 February for the future establishment of a New Mixed Farm in Grubbenvorst. A proposal by the burgomaster and aldermen for the development of a regional vision for the Witveldweg agricultural development area in Grubbenvorst was accepted. Under a procedure provided for under Section 19 of the Spatial Planning Act, the vision allows the development of large mixed farms without the need to wait for a new zoning plan first.

Trudy van Megen, the project-leader of New Mixed Farm, is upbeat: ‘I'm really pleased about this. It means that clear guidelines have been established for the zoning of the area on the Witveldweg and that New Mixed Farm fits in with this. We will therefore now be able to obtain the necessary environmental and building permits under the normal application procedure. After that it will still take some time before an actual start can be made on construction, but this marks a major step.'

The plans for New Mixed Farm provide for pigsties and housing for chickens, a manure-fermentation plant and a chicken slaughterhouse. This TransForum project indicates how cooperation among entrepreneurs create a business with high animal welfare standards and high energy efficiency, a low environmental impact and low production costs.

See also Nieuw Gemengd Bedrijf

Brackish products are starting to become known. For their salty taste, that combines very well with lamb chops or fish. But equally for being products that grow on saline soil, where very few other plants will florish. Marc van Rijsselberghe, project leader of Brackish Agriculture, has been working for years on methods of cultivating and necessary conditions. With the support of, among others, TransForum. 

With the first harvest of sea kale, Marc has managed to arouse the interest of chefs from Texel and the province of North-Holland. But also Mr Ed Nijpels, Royal Commissioner of Friesland, was invited to taste the sea kale during a meeting on the future of the Afsluitdijk. He loved it! The moment was broadcasted on 11 January.

Marc van Rijsselberghe also had a beautiful brochure made on the culinary possibilities of sea kale. Although the product is not yet for sale in shops, we can at least enjoy the lovely photos!

Click on brochure_zilte_zeekool to download the brochure. 

Click on this link to see the news item showing Marc van Rijsselberghe who has  Ed Nijpels taste the sea kale.

http://player.nos.nl/index.php/media/play/tcmid/tcm:5-343350/

SenterNovem, the organisation that monitors TransForum and other BSIK  programmes on behalf of the Government's Committee of Wise Persons, rates the progress, results and significance of TransForum very positively. TransForum obtained the maximum score for four of the five elements and, according to SenterNovem, is well on the way towards setting the transition to sustainable agriculture in motion. Furthermore, in the absence of the impetus provided by TransForum, the thinking on transition would have been much less well-developed both within and without the agrocluster. The external evaluation committee had previously also responded positively to TransForum's Mid Term Review.

Inova Fruit and Plant Research International, who are both participants in the TransForum projects Healthy Pip Fruit Chains and Stacking Genes, have started the working company SpringQuest.

In these TransForum projects research is conducted on cisgenesis as a technique to grow new sustainable apple varieties, that are more resistant to illnesses such as apple scab. SpringQuest will market the results of this research. This means a concrete and viable value proposition has been created. TransForum is proud of this result of its projects.

TransForum will organize its third Diner Pensant on Tuesday, 12 February at De Lindenhof in Delft. The theme of the dinner is: the innovating government. Prof.Dr. Roel in 't Veld (RMNO) and Mr.drs. Toine Poppelaars (Deputy of the Province of Zeeland) will deliver speeches. The chairperson of the evening is mrs Prof.Dr. Pauline Meurs (member of the Dutch Upper Chamber for PvdA and professor at Erasmus University, Rotterdam).

Should you wish to participate, please send an e-mail with your name, organisation and telephone number to mrs Magda Moes, on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please apply before 1 February: the number of participants is limited!!

The foundation of the operating company SpringQuest marks an important step towards social acceptance of cisgenesis. The results of the TransForum projects 'Healthy pip fruit chain' and 'Stacking apple genes' will be marketed by SpringQuest. But the impact of these TransForum projects is much greater than the works of SpringQuest, says project leader Henk Schouten (WUR).

Presscentre Nieuwspoort saw an animated and successful debate on industrial and regional food production. Those present quickly agreed that one type of food production should not rule out other types. Bert van Ruitenbeek (Biologica) said he was happy to speak to Rudy Rabbinge (Wageningen UR) in person and not through the media. The two men were unanimous in their desire to develop both biological and intensive types of agricultural production. 

The two Members of Parliament who were present, Joop Atsma (CDA) and Harm Evert Waalkens (PvdA), argued in favour of respect for ethical values, the continued existence of rural areas and the fit of large agricultural enterprises in their surroundings. Differences of opinion on these matters are often suggested, but not always real, said Joop Atsma.

The Chinese government, supported by a large number of Chinese scientists, is operating on the principle of closed cycles for the country's continuing economic development. In recent years, the problems in respect of environmental pollution and the exhaustion of raw materials have become so acute that the concept of the circular economy must provide the basis for all new economic activity. That also applies to the Greenport Shanghai agropark, where residual substances such as maize waste and heat are reused, CO2 emissions are minimised and radical energy savings are achieved. The Chinese partners regard collaboration with Dutch entrepreneurs, scientists and knowledge-brokers as highly important for the realisation of Greenport Shanghai. By using the Dutch know-how and experience with regard to agroparks the Chinese are able to secure a substantial element of the food supply for the city of Shanghai, in an environment that is sustainable for human beings, animals and the environment.

TheTransForum project Greenport Shanghai passes from the design phase to the realisation phase. During the seminar "Innovating Metropolitan Agriculture", that was held in Beijing in October, a Memorandum of Understanding and a Letter of Intent were signed by the parties who will start to execute the plans from now on. 

The Biopark Ghent-Terneuzen project was festively concluded on 13 September with a presentation of the research reports by Bureau Van de Bunt.