Blog

Would you like to follow our journey? We regularly post a blog to keep you informed.

Sunday 21 May, 2023

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What began as the mandatory writing of a profile paper to complete high school has grown into an ambitious project. When choosing the topic for our profile paper, it was immediately clear that we wanted to work on a topic that was socially relevant, but that didn't make the choice any easier. In the end we chose food security, because healthy, affordable and accessible food is the basis of everything. The question that came to mind was how to provide food security for a growing world population if the conditions under which you have to produce food change due to climate change. And how do you make sure you produce that food sustainably? Slowly the idea emerged of a triptych of floating farms in which we combine horticulture, livestock farming and insect farming to produce food in a circular way. And by designing such a system together with stakeholders by literally getting behind the drawing board together. Indeed, we believe that the key to secure food security for everyone lies in connecting, collaborating and co-creating within and between sectors but also between sectors, governments, knowledge institutions and society. And so, a profile paper turned into a project whose first ideas have already been presented at VIV Europe (2022) and VIV Asia (2023). We set out on a journey without knowing where our profile paper would take us. 

Monday 29 May, 2023

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The first week of our project is over. And what a week it was! 

 

We have now raised almost 200 euros through the crowdfunding campaign and pledges have been made by two organizations. This coming week is all about preparing for the first dialogue session: asking illustrators to quote, thinking about exactly who we're going to invite, figuring out what would be a convenient location. So, doing our homework to get started as soon as we have received enough money.

 

 

It was also a week in which we learned a lot. Creating a website is one thing, but making sure it is also found in Google is another. Fortunately, it was soon pointed out to us that our website was untraceable if you didn't use the entire url. We quickly fixed that, but it took some puzzling what to do with the Google Search Console and what DNS has to do with our website.

 

 

Do you care about our project and want to support us with a donation or in some other way? Every contribution is still very welcome! And feel free to share the link of our website with others who might find this interesting.

Friday 9 June, 2023

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What a surprising and wonderful things happened these past couple of weeks! Former colleagues from our mother’s previous work supported our crowdfunding campaign. One of the former colleagues will be helping us with organizing the dialogue sessions. When asking for a price indication for an illustrator, one of the agencies responded enthusiastically to our website. The CEO of the Jaarbeurs and his colleagues were this interested in the concept, and donated 500 euros! And we also got the question whether we can be hired on a contract basis. Well, let’s start with finishing our assignment first ;-) 

Sunday 25 June, 2023

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Recently, Flatland Agency emailed us that they could help us with our design for free. Because of this we have some extra room in our budget that we can use for extra drawings or a scale model of our farms. We also had a first meeting with them which went well although we were pretty nervous. This was the first time we had such a meeting. We really appreciate the way they helped us and are going to help us and are exited to see the outcome. 

 

Today, we also emailed the first people to set the dates when they are available to participate in our dialogue sessions. We hope that the first of these sessions can be held in September. We are exited to see with who we will be getting around the table to make a more detailed design of the floating farms.

Saturday 22 July, 2023

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Actually designing a floating farm with laying hens, a floating farm with vertical farming of plants and herbs and upgrading organic residual streams through insects is getting closer. Over the past few days, we have emailed several stakeholders asking if they would participate in designing such a floating sustainable and circular system. The first applications are already in! 

We have also prepared the design sessions in terms of content. We spoke to an expert on reflexive interactive design. Based on the questions he asked and the tips he gave us, we have formulated a number of concrete questions that the participants in the design sessions will work on.

Did you not receive an invitation and do you think you could contribute during the design sessions on 13, 20 and 29 September? Then get in touch with us!

Sunday 10 September, 2023

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Last week, we had a meeting to prepare our dialogue sessions with a few experts and someone from Flatland Agency. In this meeting, we discussed some things like how early we need to be on the location for the dialogue sessions but also things like what we need to prepare in order to make the most out of the sessions. 


Following this meeting, we are busy with preparing a planning and a presentation in which we will give a short introduction and tell a little bit about what we have done so far and what the participants can expect from the sessions. We also identified some synergies between the farms and between the farms and their presence on the water. We also identified some points of attention because they seem to be contradictory. These synergies and challenges will be our focus points during the dialogue sessions.


The first session is September 13th and we look really forward to it and are grateful for the people that are coming to the dialogue sessions. 

Saturday 7 October, 2023

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Over the past few weeks, we have done all three of the design and dialogue sessions. Participants in these sessions included scientists, a farmer, a chairman of an agricultural organisation, a representative of a non-profit organisation and a concerned citizen. 


Together, in the first two sessions, we explored how sectors can work together to use and strengthen each other. We thus looked for synergies between and within floating farms. We also discussed tensions that may arise, e.g. an outdoor run with free-range space for the chickens versus possible nuisance for local residents and the risk of bird flu infection. Together, we looked for solutions. We got lots of ideas and made the necessary choices. 


In the third session, we have been busy with designing the floating farms. We decided which compartments need to be put together on the several floating farms and how everything is going to be connected. For instance, we decided to have a food forest for the chickens as an alternative for an outdoor run, offering the chickens the possibility to supplement their feed. We also decided that the chickens should have the possibility to visit the horticulture farm, so a connection between both farms is needed.


We are really happy with the results and are grateful for all the people that put their time and effort in helping us! We are now heading to the final phase of this part of our project.

Thursday 16 November, 2023

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We are ready to go to the VIV MEA/Horti Agri Next fair in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)! Over the past few weeks we have worked very hard to get everything ready. Flatland Agency did a fantastic job completing the design. To top it all off, this design will become the back wall of the HubOranje inspiration square, where all kinds of Dutch innovations in the field of livestock farming and horticulture will be on display. And because we can go to Abu Dhabi ourselves to explain the design, we had business cards and flyers made. We have also made talking boards so that we can talk to visitors to the fair. From the HubOranje Foundation! and Koninklijke Jaarbeurs/VNU Exhibitions, we have received a lot of support in recent weeks with practical matters such as arranging the hotel. And now our suitcases are packed and ready to leave. We are curious to see what this journey will bring us!

Tuesday 28 November, 2023

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A floating food system. That attracts a lot of attention and raises even more questions. That gave us the opportunity to engage in conversation with many visitors to the HubOranje inspiration square. We believe that transforming the food system requires dialogue with all stakeholders who are part of it. Finding solutions together, looking beyond borders and starting with a visual design. This is how we arrived at the design of a floating food system that we presented in Abu Dhabi. Climate-adaptive, sustainable and circular by combining livestock with horticulture in a variable and modular system. Based on short chains, in which not only economic, but also other values count. The concept inspired not only visitors, but also the organizers, who allowed themselves to be informed in detail. After visiting Abu Dhabi, we are even more convinced that we would like to develop this concept further! But first, finish our paper!

Monday 22 January, 2024

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Today marks a new milestone: we have submitted the paper for feedback. In recent weeks, we have worked very hard on processing the insights we gained in Abu Dhabi, ensuring that the basic text of the paper remains compact while there is so much to say (all background information is now in the appendices), the design, writing the foreword, introduction, summary and conclusion. But now there is a beautiful piece that we are proud of. We are curious about the feedback. With that, we can certainly make the work even better!

Wednesday 14 February, 2024

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The profile project is ready! The feedback has been processed and we have made several major adjustments, especially in the chapter about our approach. We checked everything again and still found a few minor errors. Now we will draw a line under it and have the paper printed and bound. And then hand it in! When we started working on this project, we did not expect it to become such an extensive one. But what fun it was! The next step we will now take is to create a poster to present the paper to the examination committee. And we will start thinking about how we can continue this project. Because it is clear to us that we will continue with this! If you have any suggestions or would like to discuss this with us, please let us know!

Sunday 25 February, 2024

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Short update: the paper has been submitted! We will now start making the posters to present our project to the examination committee. And we will think about the continuation of this project. To be continued... ;-)