Fifteen farms as a metaphor for our food system

“A good and fruitful first step,” Barbara Vos, creative leader of the Embassy of Food, reflected. Rabobank, partner of the Embassy of Food, suggested the Depot in the heart of Rotterdam as the stage for the kick-off. Within Boijmans Van Beuningen’s Depot, Rabobank has a space where it shares part of its art collection with the public. The bank has around 2,500 works of art, some displayed within its premises, while others are loaned to museums. We look back at 29 June with Barbara Vos, Verily Klaassen, head of art affairs at Rabobank, and visual storyteller Rogier Klomp.

Storytelling, research and mapping

“The world behind our food is complex,” states Vos. “There is a lot of data and research on, among other things, how much is produced and exported in the Netherlands, the state of the soil and the nitrogen crisis. It is also about identity and culture, something that is much harder to show in figures. It is precisely here that imagination can play an important role, to make these different values relate to each other and show new perspectives.”

To properly introduce the Embassy of Food’s new direction, different forms were chosen to show how design and food can come together. Photographer and filmmaker Kadir van Lohuizen used his photos to show what the Dutch food system looks like. Vos: “As the Netherlands, we are the second largest food exporter. Van Lohuizen’s photos captured the imagination. His work is agenda-setting. He wants to show something that is invisible to most people.”

Vos then entered into a conversation with Femke Coops, Industrial Designer and PhD student at Eindhoven University of Technology, Designer in Residence at the Design Impact Transition (DIT) Platform and the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT). Coops investigates the human side in transitions and how to shape transitions.

Vos: “Femke investigates people’s pain points and friction in changes. A different system also means saying goodbye. Femke has the gift of interpreting this in very clear language with her research and using workshops to test her findings. Experiencing it firsthand is an interesting design methodology to engage more people with the frictions.

These two perspectives formed the introduction to different approaches to looking at the food system. Then the attending designers, food experts, water experts and doers, got to work themselves with their knowledge at the mapping, created by visual storyteller Rogier Klomp.

From technologically advanced farm to wildlife manager

Klomp tells stories with images. “I make stories about complex systems like basic income, algorithms and polarisation on the internet. This can eventually take any form, but it starts with drawing and mapping all the factors and players.” In collaboration with Vos and Jelleke Raats, project leader Embassy of Food, Klomp sunk his teeth into depicting the Dutch food system this time.

Vos: “Rogier makes something abstract very clear. He gives the research, what has been said and done a face, so to speak. From the dilemmas you run into to the visions we want to move towards. That’s why we work with him. For the upcoming Dutch Design Week (DDW) expo, we are using the farm and what it could look like as a metaphor for the future of the food system.”

“What do you think of when you think of a farm?” asks Vos. “Some have a kind of idyllic image with happy animals, waving grains during golden hour and happy farmers. That image may be outdated. Our ideas of what a farm should look like are changing. Maybe the future farm will be a bioreactor, or a livestock farmer will become a cultured meat farmer.” Klomp created a map of 15 farms with a farm of today in the middle.

“Besides a romanticised image of a farm, there is also a purely profitability-oriented, super-efficient farm,” Klomp continues. The farms on the right are all future farms that have been technologically advanced. “For example, a farm as a kind of data generator that allows a farmer to engage in precision farming with data.”

To the left, it was mostly farms that formed a part of nature. Klomp: “Farms that come up with new ways of eating together with nature and where regeneration is central. The farmer with a primary role as nature manager. Or the hatchery as a community, a place to come together.”

Talking about ideas and concerns

During the kick-off, everyone placed post-its to their heart’s content. Verily Klaassen, head of art affairs at Rabobank: “That was also the question: think along. People wrote and thought along fanatically. Which in turn is fodder for Rogier for the next phase.” All the drawings were placed in a ‘Miro board’ that was shared with everyone. Vos: “To look back and reminisce. In the end, we didn’t have enough time after all.”

The drawing will also be given a place within Rabobank, Klaassen reveals. “This drawing is an insanely good way to start a conversation. It immediately shows what it’s about. That is the visual power of sketching possible distant horizons. We want to hear people’s ideas, fears, and concerns, engaging in conversations about each.”

To that, Vos adds: “We want to reshape the conversation about the future of our food with all the doers and thinkers. So that we can get started. It doesn’t matter that there are many different ideas about how. We want to create a place where you can learn from each other and find inspiration, which you can then use to get started. What we want is – and I’m ‘borrowing’ this phrase from Rabobank – to stand on ‘shared ground’. So that’s what we asked Rogier to do.”

Imagination and empathy

Klomp: “Of course, imagination is important here, but so is empathy. As a designer, you immerse yourself in the players. In a transition like this, it is important that it’s not just about technical developments, but that you also look at how you bring people along.”

The kick-off was, therefore, mainly intended to discover together what we are missing, Vos continues. “Both in the future prospects and within the group. We want to throw it open to look even more broadly at alternatives. What do we still need to clarify to create that shared ground? Who do we need to involve? This meet-up was a very good feed for the next step.”

Klaassen agrees. According to her, it is imperative for Rabobank to collaborate with the creative sector and establish a shared ground. “That is one of the main reasons why we became a partner of Dutch Design Foundation. Rabobank feels we have created a prosperous society together, but it is also unsustainable on a number of fronts. For example, our food system squeaks and creaks.”

“Rabobank is a system player, not only as a bank but also because we have a lot of food and agri clients. We also have many colleagues (43,000 worldwide, ed.), and they all need to eat. So food plays a key role. So, I see this kick-off as a promising start to approach the food transition in a different, and possibly better, way. At least by asking different and better questions.”

Vos: “That sense of need to do things differently was felt by everyone that afternoon. With that, I think we have already won half the battle.”

On tour

The success of the afternoon was also enhanced by being able to see each other in real life, Vos continues: “For such a first meet-up, I thought it was so important that we could see each other physically. That you could experience Rogier’s work and feel like you could influence the product and the research. Being surrounded by the work of designer Arne Hendriks and researcher and cartographer Carlijn Kingma shows that a different perspective can really shape the conversation differently.” The venue was made possible by Rabobank, which maintains its own exhibition space within Boijmans en Beuningen, where it shares a portion of its art collection with the public.

Looking back, Vos is adamant that she should take the Embassy on tour between DDWs. “It is essential to consider multiple perspectives, especially when discussing food, which involves farmers and horticulturists. Therefore, it’s not only about hearing how they do it, but also seeing it firsthand.

After DDW, the Embassy of Food will start with meet-ups across the country, such as at De Kleine Aarde in North Brabant and in Friesland.

In addition, the Embassy of Food organises meet-ups four times a year, with Dutch Design Week, from 21-29 October in Eindhoven, as the key moment.