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Herenboeren Excursion - Report
On October 20th we visited the Herenboeren farm. This farm has generated quite a bit of public interest over the past few years for its novel approach to farming. The concept is simple. Find 100 families that want to have co-ownership of a farm and you are not restricted to the rules of the game of conventional farming. Given that the farming on this farm was based on agroecological practices while being situated in the heart of industrial pig farming country, the prospects are indeed promising to say the least.
On our way to the Herenboeren farm I feared for the worst. The sky was the greyest grey and rain tormented our car window. But once arrived we had a great excursion. After we had a really informative talk about why the Herenboeren can revolutionaize farming in the Netherlands.
During the talk lasting a little over an hour, Geert van der Veer, the pioneer of the Herenboeren concept, explained why he was first pushed to start thinking about an alternative farming model. He explained that at his time with the LTO (the biggest of Dutch farmers organisations) he found out that all farmers are basically broke and that this also limits them to embrace experimental sustainable practices.
It took a few years before he got the idea for the concept of family co-ownership and before he started to put it into practice. Interest was higher than expected and in 2014 they could start up.
The concept is the following; if you can find 150 families that all invest 2000 euros in a farm than you can start one without having to go to the bank. Subsequent income is generated in a rather familiar CSA model. People pay 10 euros per family member per week. If this is the way in which you can get 75% of your food this indeed an affordable way of acquiring locally produced organic food.
After the story we had a short walk across the 20 ha of land that is part of the farm. We witnessed a beautifully set up diversified farm with space for an apple orchard, free roaming pigs, a vegetable garden and a big field for free roaming cattle.
Given that this farm is only 3 years old and it already appears so established & the return is coming up so quickly there seems much promise for further development. One of the projects that will come about is the establishment of a food forest.
We are very grateful for the enthusiasm with which we were introduced to the Herenboeren on this cloudy day.
Geert, thank you very much!