3. Transitions are made by people | Part 3

3.3.    Analyse what current developments are going on the desired direction; and which not?

A) The local consumer and D) the tourist industry

The trends described in the former paragraph are in line with the development we pictured to reach the 100% self sufficiency of the island. We think it’s important to focus on a (social) change amongst the consumers. In order to create a 100% self sufficient island we want to close the cycle, by focussing on locally produced foods. This does mean that, ultimately, the everyday diet of the residents becomes more limited. It will mostly consist of only locally produced foods, and to promote this new lifestyle we think it’s best to create a platform that promotes these kinds of products. A platform that publishes a magazine highlighting the products, the connected companies.

The Tasty Tour is a magazine that follows this principle, but we think it would be better to make this a more regular event. Not just a route for during the summer or the winter, but a monthly magazine that highlights seasonal products and accompanied products. This could be combined with food related events, such as a harvest fest. An event around the birth of the new lambs.

The current trends, such as the Tasty Tour, Texel Culinair, Texelse Kost and the brand Echt Texels Product could all help to realize this goal. The first event to introduce this new program could be Texel Culinair, to show the people the new magazine that starts with focussing on products with the label ‘Echt Texels product’. The current trends can also help increase the goal of awareness about the different foods that are consumed.

The more personal trend of people becoming more and more conscious about their food would is also definitely a good one. This will help the consumer and the tourist in accepting the more locally produced food, even if it might restrict their diet a little. The only trend that would be counter-productive is the superfoods trend, but then again aslo some very basic foods such as kale are suddenly regarded as superfoods in this trend. Since we also think that this will mostly be a short-term trend, this is not seen as a real threat.

B) The Local Producer

The social initiatives found are great for educative purposes. People will come closer to food and know more about whether or not food is sustainable. The luxurious goods mentioned are good for the appreciation of local food. Also it engages mostly tourists to buy the goods, for instance Texel’s beer.

The meat trends are considered unsustainable. Like Pimentel and Pimentel (2003) state in their research, meat requires more land, water and energy resources that vegetarian alternatives. So meat can be seen as an inefficient nutrient source. For the fish caught it is a little different since we do not need water, land or energy to produce them. Whether the fish catch is sustainable depends on the management, if the fish stock still can grow and the fishery does not damage what nature cannot recover, it can be considered sustainable.

Maybe the local food producers should focus less on meat and more on basic foods. This moment, all kind of luxurious products are being produced, admittedly often ecological. But those luxurious food are exported or fed to tourist (or bought by them as souvenirs). Focussing more on basic food is better for the self sufficiency of Texel.

Concluding, farmers on Texel are very active regarding research in food technology. They try to get efficient as possible and try to use every leftover like the sea lettuce which is by-catch from shrimp fishery. Technologies like the potatoes which can grow on saline ground go beyond the borders of Texel so world can benefit from it. Furthermore there are very promising experiments with green fertilizers (sea lettuce as fertilizer research on Texel) and farmers are experimenting with measures against soil compaction [1].

[1]. interview