de historie van bio

Als aanvulling op het bericht van gisteren, is het niet zo gek om eens stil te staan bij de opmerkelijke ontwikkeling van biologische landbouw in Nederland. Dat leert iets over hoe transities verlopen: ze duren lang en zitten vol met onverwachte wendingen. Ik doe dat gemakshalve in het Engels, want ik schreef er pas iets over voor een internationaal publiek.


The movement started elitist in the 1920s in an artist colony in Domburg (including famous painters like Piet Mondrian) with converting a large (sic!) arable farm to Rudolf Steiner’s principles. It was at that farm that the Amsterdam-based hippy leader Roel van Duijn took a break in the summer of 1968 and learned the word Kabouter (Gnome), with which he labelled a new political movement. Then organics moved to ‘small is beautiful’ and the introduction of box schemes and specialty shops.
A new window of opportunity arose around 1990. In Flevoland the city of Lelystad created a cluster of organic farms on new land. These farmers produced more than they could sell in the traditional specialty shops and formed an organic cooperative (Nautilus). Soon they were joined by large scale arable farmers in Flevoland who faced a disruption in the cereal policy and baby food manufacturers as well as retailers started to look for organic supplies. With the help of the timely EU organic labelling directive, these farmers also started to deal with the international supermarkets.


Er liggen nog mogelijkheden voor een mooi paper, afstudeerscriptie of boek over deze historie.