We will particiapte in the symposium:

The Groeneveld Forum

Linking culture and agriculture as a strategy for a meaningful countryside

Sunday 9 November, 2008 1 Monday 10 November, 2008 1 Kasteel Groeneveld

The Groeneveld Forum 2008 is a two-day symposium to explore whether it is possible, or even desirable,
to forge a link between culture and agriculture. The question will be examined from different perspectives
in workshops and a mock court case. What would be the best way to achieve these links and what are
the possible consequences?

The changes in agriculture and the rapidly decreasing number
of farmers are generally seen as part of an economic transition.
But it can also be seen as a cultural transition with serious
consequences for the rural area and the relationship between
town and countryside. We already see how food production
and the experience of landscape and nature are becoming
increasingly removed from people’s own experience and understanding.
Their impression of the countryside has largely been
reduced to the mostly nostalgic images produced by marketeers.
Many observers now see increasing alienation between people
and farming, food and nature.
At the same time we are seeing a strong need among people
to find some sense of their origins. People want to see
coherence instead of isolation, experience wonder at how
things grow instead of taking satisfaction from a guaranteed
annual yield.
Changes in agriculture and the search for our origins are
taking place in a global context. Can sustainability, in the
sense of respect for nature and environment, be advanced
by re-connecting culture and agriculture?
The Groeneveld Forum will give a much needed platform for
these themes to be brought to the heart of policy making.
The organisation of the programme reflects the content.