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I was not aware of this criticism. I also do not know if the expressed criticism is valid for every farming co-op. The one I am involved with is working in clos

I was not aware of this criticism. I also do not know if the expressed criticism is valid for every farming co-op. The one I am involved with is working in close cooperation with the local government. Even the planting plans are agreed upon with the local government from which the lands are leased. The farmers I have talked with seem knowledgable and one of them has been running her own biological farm for 29 years. I am not sure whether it can compete with commercial farming. At the start of year a bio-deversity measurement was performed at which at three places one square meter was examined. I understand that only one earthworm was found. This year, a lot of rye was sown (together with flowers) in order to improve the quality of the soil. I understand that soil improvement is a slow process and needs many years. From what I hear in the news, I understand that food production in the Netherlands is strongly influenced by big agracultural companies (who focus on scaling up and reducing the number of farmers) and that farmers who want to transition to biological farming often experience a lot of resistance from banks.

Lutger 3y ago
Herenboeren doesn't have to compete with commercial farming directly. It only has to be good enough that participants are willing to join, which they are. So the overall deal needs to be attractive enough. And we have several important advantages. If there's a small piece of scab on an apple or a single harvest of beans fail, it is generally not a problem for us, whereas these things are problematic to regular farmers. Furthermore, we don't have to deal with supermarkets setting prizes and with logistics. Our 'customers' pay upfront and each month so the income is very steady - there is generally a waiting list for these farms. Finally, the farm(ers) are supported by a national network of specialists and advisors. I believe these advantages allow us to potentially outperform commercial farmers, although it might not make sense at all to compare the operations.

Lutger 3y ago

Herenboeren doesn't have to compete with commercial farming directly. It only has to be good enough that participants are willing to join, which they are. So the overall deal needs to be attractive enough. And we have several important advantages. If there's a small piece of scab on an apple or a single harvest of beans fail, it is generally not a problem for us, whereas these things are problematic to regular farmers. Furthermore, we don't have to deal with supermarkets setting prizes and with logistics. Our 'customers' pay upfront and each month so the income is very steady - there is generally a waiting list for these farms. Finally, the farm(ers) are supported by a national network of specialists and advisors. I believe these advantages allow us to potentially outperform commercial farmers, although it might not make sense at all to compare the operations.