46 / SEEDWORLD.COM FEBRUARY 2019 ON LOCATION: The Netherlands » cont.FoodLove ere in the United States, we love our food! And we’ve tons of it, in many forms from succulent BBQ to cool, crispy lettuce and from Mexican to Japanese and Cajun to Mediterranean cuisines. Flavors abound … but one might argue many are left wanting more. More of what? The answer eludes most who work in what I’ll call corporate U.S. food circles. Is it more flavor? Is it a feeling of satisfaction? Is it natural? Is it healthy? Is it good for the environment? Good for me to eat? Yes … to all of the above and that’s exactly what those who have a love for food and agriculture are looking to provide in the Netherlands. Representing the U.S. guild, I sat down with the president of Wageningen University and Research, visited a “Smaak Park” which translates to taste park, toured a Rijk Zwaan tomato trial center, met two innovative sons making cress a chef’s must-have ingredient, smelled dozens of roses at Dümmen Orange, had a gastronimical experience at a pop up restaurant with chef Soenil Bahadoer (holder of two Michelin stars), walked through the World Horti Center and witnessed the world’s largest daily plant and flower auction at Flora Holland and so much more. It is my hope that this compilation of short stories gives you some insight as to the Food Love culture that’s being curated in the Netherlands. —Julie Deering H Our Twisted Path to the Future and Farming’s Big Movement Wageningen University’s President Louise Fresco eloquently addresses the challenges set before agriculture and paints the vision for the next 100 years. S cientific progress has been a huge success story outlines, professor Louis Fresco who has served as president of Wageningen University & Research since July 2014, but it has also come with a number of costs. Pollution. Loss of diversity. Land degra- dation. Climate Change. Urbanization and an increasing divide between city and rural areas. “We are on the brink of enormous change,” she says, noting that farming used to be just the cultivation of food, pharmaceuticals and fiber. Today, and even more so in the future, farming is and will be much more than that, she explains. “I believe that agriculture — it’s using bio- mass for the future of mankind — will be far more influential moving forward,” Fresco says, speaking of an agriculture-food value chain that produces no waste, and where waste is pro- duced that it be recycled within the chain. Driven by need as the population is expected to grow from its current 7.5 billion people to 9.5 billion by mid century and farmers are expected to become even fewer, land in production will need to be even more efficient than it already is. Fresco speaks of an agriculture that is not negative or harmful to the environment; rather, it’s positive and contributes to an overall healthy ecosystem. It’s one where waste water through the use of enzymes and minerals is recycled and used to irrigate crops or to water livestock. It’s one where soils, trees and grasses capture carbon. It’s one where fruits and vegetables are grown in or near cities through vertical or indoor farming. It’s one that harnesses renewable energy. “We have to look quite differently at the energy industry,” Fresco says, taking the mind to a “post petroleum” world. Only agriculture can play this role, she says, emphasizing that she doesn’t mean taking land that’s suitable for producing food and producing biofuels out of production, but looking at how it can contribute to a post fossil fuel world. It will be location specific. Each country will be different, and each landscape offers unique and different opportunities. “Agriculture has a bright future, an important future,” Fresco says. “There will be no peace, no civilization, no stable society and no equity if we do not produce agricultural products for everybody. “For food, this means it should be safe; it should be sustainably produced; it should be affordable.” But Fresco says, there’s not just one pathway to this future. “I will not tell you that the whole world will move toward drones and mechanization. That will not happen,” she says. “But we will move toward technology dependent agriculture, and the technology has to be adapted to the situation and that adaptation will take different forms. Diversification of technology, she says, is key to the future. It’s trying to find technolo- gies, whether it’s mechanical or genetic, that fit the situation. This, Fresco says, is all the more important because public acceptance of technology in some countries is declining rather than increasing. “The challenge is to get an ecologically- based technology that feeds into that circular- ity,” she says. We need to make sure we don’t waste. We need to make sure we don’t replace labor when there is no alternative form of employment. “The only way we can restore farming is by making sure [farmers] have access to technol- ogy that fits their own situation and to make sure that they are proud of their profession. There’s nothing more important for a farmer than knowing that they’re part of a system that feeds other people … perhaps on the other side of the world.” Louise Fresco, Wageningen University & Research president