Shaping the transition into a fair and sustainable food system

Food Hub, RVO, TU Delft, Wageningen University & more

Shaping the transition into a fair and sustainable food system

Changing the food and agriculture sector in the Netherlands is inevitable. Currently, climate change, the nitrogen crisis, and biodiversity loss are daily topics in the Dutch news. It is time to transition to a fair and sustainable food system. But how can we produce enough healthy food for current and future generations? How do we relate to nature and animals in a future food system? What will the future role of the farmer look like? Together with a wide variety of stakeholders we have been working on this transition for over a decade. Below we describe a few of the projects we worked on.

Team
Arjen Oenema
Beatrijs Voorneman
Emilie Tromp
Femke de Boer
Kas Woudstra
Lotte Jacobse
Lucca Kroot
Minke Dijkstra

Partners
Food Hub
FETE
Ministerie van LNV
RVO
TU Delft
Wageningen University
& more

From excess to enough

Our current food system is grounded in assumptions about the need for excessive availability of food and choices and elaborate choice which comes at considerable societal costs of inefficient resource use and tremendous levels of food loss and waste. Instead of increasing efficiency within the current food system by optimizing planning and logistics, the FETE project aims to support a transition towards a different system that can cope better with unpredictable dynamics in demand and supply. The FETE (from excess to enough) research team consists of Delft Design researchers and people from Wageningen University, Groningen University and several food companies such as Iglo, HAK and Hello Fresh. To gain insight into what such a future food system could look like, FETE collaborated with Reframing Studio. We envisioned a food system where consumers, retailers, and producers fulfill different roles to provide our society with enough food. A system that helps to increase our appreciation of food and encourages us to purchase less without compromising on food quality, variety, or convenience. And that embraces flexibility, regulates vitality, recognises the value of food, and optimises through learning.

Fete New Food Systems Sketches Reframing Studio

Some sketches of the new food systems that we imagined for the FETE project

Food Hub

Food Hub works to transition to a fair, diverse, and sustainable food system by creating thought-provoking food education, promoting future-proof perspectives, and collaborating with new and established parties across the sector. We support Food Hub in their education programmes such as the Boerenversneller, where we help farmers and their families to define future proof ambitions. And at the SFYN Academy as well as the Flevocampus we help young food professionals with finding their personal mission as part of the transition to a sustainable food system.

more about Food Hub →

Photo by Charlotte Arend | Reframing workshop for the Slow Food Youth Network

Photo by Charlotte Arend | Reframing workshop

Reframing workshop at Flevo Campus

Flevo Campus: Guiding participants through the Reframing process

RVO

RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency) asked Reframing Studio to combine a selection of different future visions on sustainable agriculture and food into one shared vision. The debate around the future of our food system is however characterized by various opposites - nature versus agriculture, meat versus plant-based, intensive versus extensive, etcetera - and there is not one solution. A coherent future vision is about finding the right balance in an ongoing conversation. For that reason we designed a conversation starter that helps farmers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, nature conservationists, and other stakeholders to discuss how the use of land can be balanced sustainably.

A map that is part of the conversation starter for RVO.

Guiding the transition

Reframing Studio has been working on the future of our food system for over a decade. In this decade we had the honour to work with inspiring farmers, changemakers, researchers, policy makers, cows, and pigs.

2023

Sustainable agriculture for RVO

Minke and Beatrijs designed a conversation starter to discuss the future of the Dutch food and agriculture system for RVO and explored how RVO can contribute to the transition to a sustainable food and agriculture system.

2021

From excess to enough (FETE)

FETE collaborated with Reframing Studio to develop possible directions for the food system. We investigated how we can transition from having excess to having enough.

2020

Biodiversity

Femke and Sal worked on a shared perspective on biodiversity for the different departments of the government which brings people, planet, and profit together.

2019

Koetopia

Arjen and Beatrijs collaborated with farmers Christian and Sanne to design their dairy farm. It became a resting point in the busy and hurried lives of local residents.

more about Koetopia →

2018

The future of bread

Lotte and Minke investigated the relation of consumers with their daily bread in order to come up with interventions to market a new type of bread.

2017

Reframing manure

Reframing Studio researched the future of manure from the perspective of the consumer. What role will manure play in their future lives?

2016

Food Hub was founded

Joszi founded Foodhub together with Joris. Their aim is to guide the transition to a fair and sustainable food system. This started a long lasting collaboration. Up to today we continue to give yearly Reframing workshops for the Boerenversneller, the Rabo Foodtracks, and others.

2015

Slow Food Youth Network

Beatrijs decided to join the Slow Food Youth Network and meets Joszi. The next edition Lotte and Emilie gave a Reframing Workshop at the Slow Food Academy - which became a yearly favourite workshop amongst Reframers.

2011

Toys for pigs

Beatrijs graduated from the TU Delft with a thesis on toys for pigs. That same year she started at Reframing Studio and brought in a passion for food and agriculture.