Tuesday, 23 August 2011 10:10

The new TransForum book "Sustainable Agricultural Entrepreneurship: the six guises of the successful agricultural entrepreneur" is now available in English. The book shows nine interesting examples of metropolitan agriculture.

Many agricultural entrepreneurs are confronted by the continuing spread of urbanisation on the one hand and the growing needs of consumers for sustainably produced, high-quality food on the other. How best can the agricultural entrepreneur respond to this – and turn these threats into an opportunity? The book 'Sustainable Agricultural Entrepreneurship' sets out the experiences of successful agricultural entrepreneurs who have turned the process of urbanisation and the changing needs of the consumer primarily into an opportunity.

The book is available on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9490192171/sr=8-1/qid=1313504179/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1313504179&sr=8-1&seller=#_

For more information click here http://www.transforum.nl/en/component/content/article/16-general/438-books-and-brochures

Wednesday, 26 January 2011 13:38

On 30th November 2010, the day before the final event of TransForum, the publication 'Extraordinary farming' appeared in the heart of the Dutch newspaper 'de Volkskrant'. In the publication: several interviews with entrepreneurs of TransForum's projects and a letter to minister Verhagen of Agriculture Economic Affairs and Innovation.

Download the newspaper supplement 'Extraordinay Farming' here.

Thursday, 09 December 2010 13:39

The European consumer sees the benefits of apples that have been rendered more disease-resistant by means of cisgenesis. The results of a survey conducted among a large number of people in Europe are described in a report to the European Commission. The report describes how if the advantages for the consumer are clearly visible, this has a major effect on how the apples are perceived. With the Healthy Pip Fruit Chain Project, TransForum has made a contribution towards opening up the debate.

Cisgenis is a genetic modification technique that makes use only of genes from varieties that could also be crossed by conventional means. The technique speeds up the crossing process from several decades to a few years. In all the European member states cisgenic apples enjoy greater support (55%) than transgenically modified apples, where the restriction to species-specific genes does not apply (33%). The results for all the member states are shown in the graph below.

 

Thursday, 09 December 2010 10:59

Just one of the heartfelt cries uttered yesterday. Which is curious, as it was after all the end of TransForum that was being celebrated yesterday. And then again perhaps not, as many of those working in agriculture will be continuing to apply the experience that has been built up.

Read more...

Monday, 22 November 2010 14:36

The first international summit on metropolitan agriculture was a great success. Last week over one hundred enthusiastic participants from 10 different countries met in Rotterdam in order to work jointly on metropolitan agriculture.

The Summit has generated a living network of participants all working on metropolitan agriculture. These are people drawn from trade and industry, the public sector, non-governmental organisations and research institutes. The network will be taking up a number of concrete initiatives in the near future arising out of the Summit, and as from 1 January 2011 will be taking over the baton from TransForum.

A key element of the three-day meeting was to do with learning from one another about metropolitan agriculture. The interactive programme was aimed at sharing experience among participants from various backgrounds and from different countries and sectors. Both participants from large-scale and small-scale agricultural initiatives and participants engaged in highly advanced (industrial) agriculture entered into dialogue. The unique feature of the summit was that the discussions did not emphasise the contrasts (i.e. right/wrong discussions) but that constructive talks were held about ways in which the participants could learn from one another.

Many regard the vision of metropolitan agriculture as offering a valuable potential solution for the sustainable development of agriculture. The Dutch knowledge and expertise concerning metropolitan agriculture is keeping our country at the forefront at world level.

The 'TransLearning' crew recorded a number of short videos during the summit. Participants' responses may be found on the Translearning website: www.translearning.net/metroag.

A more detailed report will follow shortly.

A sustainable perspective for agriculture in metropolitan areas.

Monday, 22 November 2010 14:27

The sustainability performance of the innovative practical projects has recently been calculated by the environmental consultancy Blonk Milieu Advies.

All of TransForum's innovative practical projects are concerned with the improvement of sustainability performance levels. This involves less environmental pollution, more welfare for people and animals and higher yielding agricultural activity. In order to establish the extent to which this has succeeded, Blonk Milieu Advies has analysed various projects, after developing a special methodology for the purpose. The report will shortly be printed and will appear on our website in PDF form.

The analyses not only indicate what the projects have already achieved but also establish where there is room for improvement in the future. In doing so the analyses provide an important frame of reference for further project optimisation. With the aid of the interim results from this study, a number of practical projects have taken a further step towards a more sustainable future.

Monday, 22 November 2010 14:22

The most recent issue of OFID Quarterly (the Journal of the OPEC Fund for International Development) contains an interesting article on agricultural scenarios of the future. The article also provides background details on the experience gained with Metropolitan Agriculture in the Netherlands by the Innovation Network and TransForum.

Monday, 22 November 2010 14:19

Construction of the second Roundel chicken housing system got underway on Monday 20 September. The chicken coop is identical to the first Roundel opened in Barneveld in April this year. The second Roundel is being built at Wintelre in North Brabant. Every effort is to be made over the next few months for this second Roundel coop for laying hens to be opened in mid-February 2011.

Monday, 22 November 2010 14:06

FloraHolland will be setting up a pilot in a Tradepark in Bremen, Germany, in early 2011. FloraHolland is taking this initiative on behalf of Flor-i-Log, a joint venture in the Dutch ornamental plant cultivation sector. The initiative is a spin-off of the TransForumproject Flor-i-Log regie.

The main focus in the Tradepark in North Germany will be on logistical services. In developing this logistics centre FloraHolland is working closely with its suppliers, exporters and the logistics service-providers. The aim is for the Tradepark to help strengthen the international position of the Dutch ornamental plant cultivation sector.

Bremen is an attractive international hub. Apart from its favourable location (close to a large production and consumption area), Bremen is an important international logistical hub for ornamental plant products in Europe. The development of a Trade Park in Germany will reduce geographical constraints, promote international trade contacts and provide a response to changes in public perceptions, such as the desirability of 'local for local' and sustainability. Tradepark Bremen will be able to provide the Dutch ornamental plant cultivation sector with logistical optimisation, fewer transport kilometres, a reduction in chain costs and a stronger product range.

For more information see the press release on the FloraHolland website.

Monday, 22 November 2010 14:04

The most recent issue of the journal 'Agricultural Systems' contained an article entitled Adaptive management in agricultural innovation systems: The interactions between innovation networks and their environment.

Innovative businesses always have to deal with an environment that affects the realisation of their innovation: the government may not be framing helpful legislation and regulations, other players in the market may be averse to supporting the innovation, and then what to do about awkward non-governmental organisations? The article describes how innovative businesses and the networks they create deal with these environmental factors and, in so far as they are able, turn them to account. The conclusion is that it is important to work towards 'adaptive innovation management', that is, to keep adjusting in line with the changing circumstances. This is because the intentional actions of the innovators can have unintentional consequences and because all sorts of aspects play at higher levels (such as market developments, political changes and public debates) where innovators lack any direct influence.

Adaptive innovation management is not easy in a network consisting of all sorts of players, such as knowledge institutes, entrepreneurs, NGOs, government agencies and intermediaries. Important considerations in this respect are:

Innovation networks must have a shared vision with which multiple parties can identify. Visualisation is highly important in this regard (see also the recent publication of the TransForum article 'Future sustainability and images), so that the vision becomes tangible. This vision needs to be sufficiently crystallised out while also being sufficiently flexible to encompass new players and their requirements. The networks need to have a large number of 'cross-border workers' capable of making connections with other parties in order to tackle problems.

Also evident is the value of a facilitator, such as TransForum, that is positioned above the parties and capable of making unexpected connections and acting as a mediator in the event of disputes.

The cooperation among the various cross-border workers and facilitators in an innovation network of this kind is the subject of another publication: Shaping championing and innovation intermediation in interaction: conflicts and complementarities in innovation communities. This article will probably be published shortly in an academic journal; in the meantime it has already been selected from 136 submissions as one of the three prize-winning articles at the 9th Wageningen International Conference on Chain and Network Management. (www.wicanem2010.nl) Researchers Laurens Klerkx and Noelle Aarts received the 'Emerging Scholar Award' for this work.