Jolijn Zwart-van Kessel, Lead Circular Agrifood
At conferences, farmers’ meetings and government events, I as a lead working within Foodvalley on regenerative agriculture collaborations hear it again and again: we need a Just transition towards a more sustainable agrifood system. Fair prices, respect for craftsmanship, real partnership and value chains instead of only supply chains. I fully agree. But as a family farm owner, together with my dad, I also notice I am getting a bit impatient, if I am honest.
We all talk the talk, but too few value chain partners really walk it. Not only in pilots or experiments, that’s all nice and jolly to flash around on Linkedin, but I mean at a scale that starts to matter. That really shows farmers your respect for their role in the value chain!
If we want regenerative agriculture to become a serious basis for food production, farmers cannot carry that shift alone. All other agrifood ingredients produced through regenerative practices need long-term value chain collaboration, clear agreements, shared risks and mutual commitment for farmers to transition into these practices for the long term.
From Foodvalley, I want to use what we learn in initiatives such as ReGeNL and our Thriving Together programme in development to build value chain collaborations with real impact. Collaborations that could help develop a precompetitive sustainability standard, based on practical experience, science-based input and financing models that actually can create market growth for sustainable products, as the Dutch SER advises to develop and apply. This value chain partnership collaboration should become the new normal. Farmers should be able to count on a real walk by now, and not only hear a talk. Over and over again about fair prices bla bla.
A glimpse of Jolijn’s family farm in the Netherlands
So where to start? What can I contribute from within my role at Foodvalley? For me, it starts with matching and building new connections for long-term offtake and value chain collaboration around regeneratively produced ingredients.
That is fundamentally different from today’s supply chain thinking that I encounter on talks with my dad on our farm on a daily basis on prices, low and lowest. Producing food really is not just about moving products efficiently from farm to fork. It is about nourishing ourselves with respect for our planet, in balance, form farm to fork, and this requires partnership, trust, respect and recognising interdependence across the value chain.
That is why it is called a VALUE chain, let’s remember this!
This transition asks something from everyone: farmers, processors, retailers, foodservice companies, financiers, policymakers, knowledge partners and enabling organisations. So please do not only start with farmers again!
This is a big mistake in my view! We should start on the other end of the value chain and work with propositions towards the farmer. For every landscape and every crop own challenges and pace of change is required.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach.
That is exactly why we need to learn, connect and build together, from farm to fork, from landscape to landscape, all over Europe exchange on practical positive examples and copy paste these.
Within the Regenerative Agriculture Community at Foodvalley, and through programmes such as Thriving Together and ReGeNL, we connect partners who want to build the conditions for regenerative agriculture to work in practice. In the Netherlands and across European regions, in short and long value chains, from farm to fork.
To build strong collaborations in these programs I am looking for value chain partners with bold ambition and the pizzazz to really walk the talk with us.
Food manufacturers, ingredient producers, foodservice companies and retailers who dare to start, show what can be done and grow from there. Who is serious about taking action? Send me a DM, and let’s build new value chain collaborations from farm to fork.