I love to dream but at the same time I try to look at food forests from a research perspective. I think climate-robust production systems that feed both us and the ecosystem will gain importance. I don’t know exactly what that should look like, but food forests seem to contain many aspects that can meet those conditions. That makes them very interesting to research.
There is an increasing number of initiatives that work on transforming production, marketing, and consumption. Most of these initiatives work on better and fairer revenue models, with access to land and attention to the restoration of (soil) biodiversity. On top of the many small-scale food forest initiatives, the first 20 hectares and more food forests are now also being planted. And there is now even a policy ambition to realize at least 20.000 hectares of agroforestry by 2030, of which 1.000 hectares of food forest. In the meantime the Food Forestry Foundation has already achieved half of the ‘sustainable breakthrough project’ target of 150 hectares of food forests. So it is clear that is beyond the stage of dreams.
I am curious if and how your view on food forests changed now you have a third of your internship finished.