Dear all,
You might be wondering why the Boerengroep website is not really up-to-date anymore. This is because we are working on a brand new website, to which we’re moving all of our content. This costs us quite some energy, that we haven’t been devoting to the old site anymore. We hope to make the transfer soon, and to keep you up-to-date about everything Boerengroep is doing from there!
All the best,
Louise
Dear all,
The treasurer of Boerengroep will start her thesis in a couple of months, and therefore we start our search for a new treasurer, so that he/she can learn everything in time. The function is only a couple of hours per week and you can gain a lot of experience and knowledge about the financial side of an organization like Boerengroep! It would be nice to have someone who speaks Dutch, so therefore the vacancy here below is also in Dutch. If you’re interested, don’t hesitate to email st.boerengroep@wur.nl , and if you know someone who might be interested, spread the word!
BG vacture penningmeester 2019The academic year is just about the start. Are you still looking for an interesting internship to do this year? We have a grand opportunity for you! In collaboration with the university college in Ghent, Belgium, you can join a project that involves making agroforestry designs for estate gardens in Flanders.
See the details below:
Opportunity-for-internship-placementOn Thursday 20 of June, the Circular Farming Platform had its second episode of the series “Together towards circular farming”, with as guest speaker small-scale dairy farmer Roel van Buuren, from the farm Landlust. Roel told us about his diversified farm and his perspective on the problems of our current food system, and his own vision of circular farming and what it should be, and the future of farming.
Roel runs a dairy farm in Maasland (near Rotterdam), with 50 Jersey cows, 150 chickens and 58 432 234 worms in the soil. He has a low-input system (using no synthetic fertilizer), relying almost entirely on his diversified pastures (grass, clover, dandelion and plantain among others) to feed his cows, thanks to a high level of understanding of grass growth management. His horned cows do rotational grazing, and as their manure fall on the grass, the chickens nearby with their mobile coop eat the fly larvae and scatter the manure around. He also cares for biodiversity: Roel has a solar-fed pump that brings water from the ditch on the field, to provide a suitable habitat for meadow birds.
The audience was invited to interact by giving their opinion on a series of strong statements via the app Mentis.com. Statements such as: “Dutch agriculture has to continue increasing production to feed the world”, “To go circular we need to focus on high tech solutions” and “Consumers have to pay more for food because of ecosystem services provided by the farmer” were presented to them. The statements sparked a lively debate, during which Roel van Buuren also gave his opinion.
This event closed off the platform’s activities for this academic year. In October, the platform will hold an annualforum about assessing the work in progress in the Netherlands towards circular farming (many speakers to be announced!).
PS: The Circular Farming Platform is pleased to count a new organization as participant of the platform! Agriforum Wageningen, founded by a group of students-farmers from Biosystems Engineering and Plant Sciences studies, are looking to bring more awareness to the students about the current Dutch agriculture.
We are now looking for a new coordinator of the Inspringtheater (IT)! As a part of Boerengroep, the IT connects students to real-life challenges of rural life and rural people (and more). The vacancy for coordinator is for Dutch-speaking only. If you feel enthusiastic about bringing new perspectives to people and opening up discussions by using interactive theater, don’t hesitate to apply for the role of coordinator for the Inspringtheater! (or become part of the group ; ))
SENT YOUR MOTIVATION LETTER BEFORE 9th of August
See here the vacancy
Last month, the Circular Farming Platform organised the event ‘Together towards circular farming: collectively transforming the agricultural science paradigm’. WUR student/farmer Anouk van Bakel, from the family farm Vrebamelkvee B.V. talked about the measures that Vrebamelkvee is taking to become more sustainable. She also addressed the challenges that the farm encounters to shift from linear to circular farming.
Boerengroep organises an excursion to this farm on Saturday 15th of June!
Please register by clicking this link
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Each year Boerengroep organizes an agroecology summer course during the summer holidays! More information about the FEI you can find here: https://farmexperienceinternship.wordpress.com/
Registration for the Farm Experience Internship 2019 is open now! The deadline is 31st of May
Click here to sign up or copy the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfO5h8Kc-vMfvhZkSXshKLioGklNbHzoZcoiwc9fTNhJrjuNg/viewform
The FEI 2019 is a full time course and will take place from 22nd July – 16th August
PART I: lectures, workshops and excursions
PART II: Internship at a farm or garden (somewhere in NL)
PART III: Reflection / linking theory and practice
Costs: €100,- This fee includes organic lunch, snacks, drinks, workshops, excursions and lectures during the preparatory and evaluation phase (week 1 + week 4). Your stay at the farm is for free, but it would be appreciated if you give a present and/or financial compensation to the farmer.
More information will become available soon. After the deadline, your registration will be confirmed and you’ll hear if you are accepted. Participants will then also be informed with more information regarding the FEI.
More or less 40 000 climate demonstrators joined in Amsterdam on the 10th of March to protest the weak climate policy. They consisted mostly of that part of the population that is inexperienced with demonstrations, or for whom it has been a while since their last protest. But all of them worry about climate change in such a way that they are prepared to march through Amsterdam in harsh weather conditions, with lots of rain and lots of wind. The Dutch middle class was certainly present, but there were also, for example, many students who came in buses from Wageningen University amongst other places. And a very small group, among whom yours truly, who left Wageningen on a bike, seeking adventure on the way to Amsterdam.
After months of planning, Reclaim the Seeds, Wageningen Edition, took place on the 30th of March. It was a bright, sunny day, putting everyone in a summer mood, and making it a perfect day to celebrate agro-biodiversity, sustainable food production and to reclaim our right to freely swap and share unpatented, GMO-free seeds! The main location of the event was the Hoge Born farm, but there were also many food forest-related workshops that took place at the Droevendaal Farm.
A couple of hundreds of people showed up to stroll through the elaborate seed market and to take part in the workshop program.
