On June 28th 2023, Gerda Verburg and Marian Geluk visited Future Food Utrecht/Utrecht University. This was the first partner visit of the Next Food Collective on tour to strengthen relationships, discuss the key transitions in the food systems that Next Food Collective aims to contribute to, ways of working and current topics.
Utrecht University is one of the valued knowledge partners and is currently involved in projects in the themes Sustainable Agriculture, Protein Transition and Healthy Diets. Dr. Johan Garssen is a longtime friend for health related TiFN projects, Rene Kwant active in a.o. Sustainable Food Initiative and Jerry van Dijk member of the core team of Re-Ge-NL, a program of Next Food Collective and partners, working on the transition to regenerative agriculture.
Future Food Utrecht is one of four hubs under the Utrecht University strategic theme Pathways to Sustainability. It offers a platform for scientists and external stakeholders on which they contribute to the transition of the food chain for a sustainable world, by means of unique transdisciplinary research and education.
Guido van den Ackerveken and Hedwig Teunissen presented the CropXR programme, which will work on making crops more resilient, sustainable and climate adaptive. We look forward to explore synergies between CropXR and Re-Ge-NL.
With presentations, tour of NPEC and discussions on topics ranging from food allergy to circular agriculture and from climate-proof crops to the protein transition it was an extremely interesting visit. UU students of various master's courses shared their personal views and challenges in the transition towards a sustainable food system.
We were happy to find from the various conversations that the mission of Next Food Collective to work collectively to accelerate the transition to a sustainable food chain and a healthy diet resonates with all. Thank you Simone Pekelsma and all at Utrecht University for making us feel so welcome. We are looking forward to a continuing fruitful collaboration in the years to come.
