Media In Residency
It was time for the media to step into the greenhouse! 🌱📰
During this In Residency, we had the pleasure to welcome Jaco Kaijen of ANP and Merijn Kramer of Omroep West for a one-day immersion in the horticultural world of the Westland region. And with our razor sharp new colleague-for-a-day Youp! 💚
A day filled with critical questions, surprising perspectives and valuable conversations on the topic of crop protection, robotics and automation and the output of vegetables.
Thank you to Frestia, Certhon, Koppert Cress, Division Q and Koppert for opening your doors and sharing your stories. We hope to see that the world of food production makes a closer connection with media in this way, we hope to invite more media in the near future!
“Having been born and raised in the Westland, I thought I already knew a great deal about horticulture. Yet this tour of the Westland and surrounding area gave me many new insights. The developments are moving fast: tomatoes that can be grown in ten weeks, biological crop protection used with great precision, and the way growers deal with energy and CO2. It was very valuable to hear about all of this directly from growers and experts. The knowledge and contacts will help me contribute to balanced reporting on the sector.”
– Jaco Kaijen
At Frestia, we discussed what “100% green growing” really means. It is no longer about simply replacing chemicals with biological alternatives, but about maintaining a complex biological balance in the greenhouse. Every crop has their own challenges and biological alternatives are not becoming available quickly. A hot topic in (regional) politics as we speak.
At Certhon, the technology already seemed ready for the next step! Robotisation is advancing rapidly, but who will be the first to implement it at scale? Together with Lotte van Rijn, we explored the future of horticulture, collaboration with global players like DENSO and the opportunities of highly controlled growing.
At Koppert Cress Cress & Division Q, the conversation moved beyond production. Food carries cultural, social and sensory value. We experienced the power of taste, storytelling and an organisation that does not wait until innovation is necessary, but remains continuously hungry for new ideas. And who better than Bart van Meurs could guide us through all.
Finally, at Koppert, we were welcomed by Peter Maes to learn about how Koppert started in 1967, pioneering biological crop protection and how they reached the worldwide impact of today. We discussed the european and national political issues on crop protection, which is a complex file, for regulators, producing companies and suppliers of green crop protection.