Herenboeren
=Dutch project to create farming ecosystems where farmers, contributors and consumers collaborte. It aims to have farming communities occupy 700,000 acres of land by 2060. "Land is secured for seven generations and its financial value is kept outside the enterprise. We are looking for ways to make land a common good again".
URL = http://www.herenboeren.nl/ [1]
Description
"Farming Communities are based on three interlocking movements: nature-driven, socially connected and economically supported. Step by step, these three principles are encouraging a shift towards the landscape described above.
We are working to develop this in various partnerships and in our own knowledge centre. In theory, yes, but primarily in practice. Given the damage that nature has sustained in recent decades, we have no time to lose and theorising on its own won’t take us very far. But you only know if something will work when you actually do it, so we place a strong emphasis on action and action research.
As at the end of 2018, Herenboeren Nederland is already active in the following knowledge coalitions:
- WINK
- Farming Communities development and expertise programme
- Green Deal Natuurinclusief Grondgebruik Herenboeren
We are currently setting up the Herenboeren knowledge centre. Besides conducting research with others, it will also create its own experimental garden. This will be a place where we can learn and show what works and what doesn’t, where we can come together and where we can experiment, learn and conceptualise with the main goal of constantly improving our understanding and identifying what works and what doesn’t.
The Herenboeren knowledge centre is also a learning place for future farmers and parties involved in other forms of Farming Communities. What makes the centre special is that it is a sanctuary for learning, developing and working on our own and each other’s food skills.
One of the first knowledge coalitions developed a development and expertise programme in 2018. People wanting to master ways of producing food according to the three principles can participate in this programme." (https://www.farmingcommunities.org/)
Characteristics
"The three principles of Farming Communities are explained in more detail below. The principles reinforce each other and overlap, which is precisely where the ultimate goals become clear:
- Regenerative area development;
- Multiple value creation;
- Community development.
All of these trends are in line with what many people and organisations need and consider important in this day and age. We live in a small country that is increasingly developing the characteristics of a big city. A city in which nature, culture, agriculture, recreation and business overlap and can strengthen each other. The “2040 Manifesto” issued by Wij Maken Ruimte expresses it as follows: “We want the Netherlands to be the world’s coolest metropolis by 2040. Green, safe, prosperous and circular, so with minimal claims on water, soil, raw materials and fossil energy.”
Status
"In Boxtel the first Herenboeren Farm is up and running and is almost certain to be joined by two or three more in both 2019 and 2020. After that, things will probably snowball."
History
"Herenboeren began in Boxtel in the Dutch province of Brabant in 2015. Working with each other and a professional farmer, this Farming Community has succeeded in developing a different method of food production. All while attracting great interest from both home and abroad. We are convinced that what we have achieved in Boxtel can in fact be done anywhere. Because a vast wealth of knowledge and experience has already been built up and shared, and this will continue. The movement that has matured into Herenboeren is conquering the Netherlands from the bottom up. Step by step, this reproducible concept is working towards 700,000 hectares of food-producing landscape: the Farming Communities landscape."