‘A livestock farmer who switches from calving to mealworms immediately has fewer emissions’
Regional Deal Foodvalley: collaboration for sustainable livestock farming and healthy food
Eight municipalities, three knowledge institutions, farmers’ organisation LTO-Noord and the regional water board have concluded a deal: they will collaborate on sustainable farming and awareness about healthy food. Dick Heederik of Utrecht University and Henk Kievit of the Christian University of Applied Sciences in Ede are enthusiastic about the approach of Regional Deal Foodvalley. ‘We face a considerable challenge, but we are confident we can do it.’
‘Without the farmers, we won’t make it’, says Henk Kievit. He is a professor at the Christelijke Hogeschool Ede, lives in Barneveld and is surrounded there by millions of chickens. Kievit regularly has contact with farmers in the area. ‘We want to involve seventy farmers from the provinces of Utrecht and Gelderland in the deal. They are important. They must help to come up with solutions, test these and ultimately implement these.’
Dick Heederik, Professor of One Health Risk Analysis at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is coordinator of one of the three major projects part of the deal. The part of the Regional Deal Foodvalley that Heederik and Kievit are working on encourages sustainable forms of livestock farming. The aim is to increase biodiversity, clean air and water and reduce emission of nitrogen and particulate matter. One way of doing that is to increase the use of feed produced in the region. The programme involves 14.6 million euros of subsidies.
The aim is to increase biodiversity, clean air and water and reduce emission of nitrogen and particulate matter.
In the media, we mainly see angry farmers. How is the collaboration going?
Kievit: ‘The farmers are keen to collaborate. However, we do not impose any measures on them like Carola Schouten, Minister of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality, did with the protein measure. That does not work and upsets the farmers - and with reason.’
Heederik: ‘Back then, the Minister interfered with the details of how farmers should run their business.’ Kievit: ‘That is why we, together with farmers, search for solutions and sustainable production techniques. We start with the individual livestock farmer and subsequently Dick and his team analyse the effects at a wider level.’
What exactly are you going to do?
‘The livestock farmers set to work on sustainable production techniques, and we subsequently analyse the effects of the changes made’, explains Heederik. ‘What happens with the outside air, the health and wellbeing of the animals and the quality of the soil? It is important that we do not measure just one outcome, but all possible effects. That will prevent us from solving one problem, but causing another one elsewhere.’
‘The livestock farmers can also inspect the data’, adds Kievit. ‘That way, they gain direct feedback about their actions.’
We hope to reduce import of for instance soy by making use of local waste streams and feed streams
Do you have an example of such a sustainable production technique?
‘Take the use of waste streams from hospitals and care institutions for animal feed’, says Heederik. ‘Insects eat that waste and the chickens can subsequently eat the insects or the insects can be used to produce protein containing products for cattle. By making use of waste streams and local feed streams, we hope to limit import of large quantities of soy from South America and Asia. We are doing everything possible to reduce the ecological footprint. Such adjustments to the feed not only have potential consequences for emissions but also for animal health and welfare, to name two examples. Livestock farming is a complex matter. I think this collaboration is the only approach that offers the solutions needed to provide livestock farmers with a future.’
‘Another possible option is livestock farmers switching from cattle to insects’, continues Kievit. ‘They then immediately have lower nitrogen, particulate matter and ammonia emissions. And they can sell the insects as feed.’
What is your role within the Regional Deal Foodvalley?
‘My most important goal is to make the knowledge from this project available to the farmers who are not participating in it’, answers Kievit. ‘Seventy farmers are taking part, but there are more than 45,000 livestock farms in the Netherlands. We also want to involve the residents of the region and provide policy recommendations for the two provinces involved, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.’
What do you think is the biggest challenge?
‘Getting the farmers to adopt a learning mode. They’re working hard on their own farm, and farmers learn from other farmers. We therefore need to create an enthusiastic group of front-runners. They can then get the rest to follow suit. Livestock farmers also need to see that unity is strength. And with that, I don’t just mean joining a tractor convoy to a protest in The Hague, but jointly developing new knowledge just like farmers used to do forty years ago.’
How will you ensure that livestock farmers can earn a decent income?
Kievit: ‘We will work together with them on the business models. One livestock farmer might have a small plot on which he can start a mini camping site, and another could culture locust colonies. However, what plays a role in all of these cases is the succession problem among livestock farmers. Therefore one of our objectives is to ensure that, in ten years’ time, we still have viable farms in this area with a resilient future.’
A growing number of people in the Netherlands are vegetarians, flexitarians and vegans
It sounds like a fantastic project. But isn’t more needed to tackle the problems in livestock farming?
Kievit: ‘You’re right. We cannot solve the problems with sustainable production techniques alone. Such a solution would also require a change in consumption patterns and reduction of exports. And this is already happening. A growing number of people are becoming vegetarian, flexitarian or vegans.’
Heederik: ‘We want to make livestock farmers more aware of the changing demands of the consumer. As a result of this, some livestock farmers will produce specific niche products such as kefir, or sustainable, high quality cheese, dairy, eggs or meat.’ Kievit: ‘Sharing knowledge with the farmers is also a part of the project. During the workshop, we allowed an egg farmer to stand next to the egg rack in a supermarket for half a day to ask consumers how they chose which eggs to purchase.’
The integral approach is fantastic, but it also seems rather ambitious.
‘Yes, we face a considerable challenge’, says Heederik. ‘But we’re also confident about the project, and partners share a spirit of cooperation. Perhaps you should go and visit a few farmers after a while to hear how things are going?’