Hi there!

 

My name is Howard and I am the Wageningen Student Farm (WSF) Field Commissioner, basically a fancy word for ‘head farmer’! It will be my pleasure and honour to talk during this conference.

 

Following a career in the Dutch Army I realised the time had come for me to pursue my ideals, but first I had to discover what they were. I travelled extensively through South- and North-America and seeing the natural devastation caused by our global food production system I realised I wanted to learn how to produce food within natural ecosystems. To achieve this I am currently obtaining my Master’s degree in Organic Agriculture in Wageningen.

 

I manage to balance my academic learning with practical experience through my activities at WSF, where we have 0.5 hectares of experimental farming / playing ground. Here we (try) to grow whatever we want; we make our own compost; practice growing a winter cover crop; green manuring; mulching and anything else we have learned or read about and want to put into practice. Personally I will use these skills for a thesis and internship in South America where I will cooperate with local farmers in order to implement farming practices that will help regenerate their soils.

 

I look forward to telling you more about WSF and myself, so see you the 13th of March!