4.2 & 4.3

VISION

We aim to design a system that makes food independency of the Texel community possible. We learned in the lecture of Antoine Maarten from Urgenda that Texel has nowadays a very strong relation with the mainland and is very depending on the supplies and the services of the mainland. Therefore a lot of transport takes place between the mainland and Texel. A transaction towards a more self-sufficient food system could bring this transport rate down and make Texel more independent. Unfortunately we also learned that since Texel is a part of the North-Holland province, it is very hard to make big changes on governance level. We are aware of the enormous changes that have to be made in the political, cultural and economical field, in order to guarantee Texel a sustainable future.

GOAL

The exact goal we want to reach to turn our vision into reality is: A total self-sufficient sustainable food system in 2065 by non-importing food from the mainland and still being able to feed the customers on Texel. In order to achieve this goal we set up a strategy.

STRATEGY

We realize that it will be very hard to offer a varietal diet to the local people of Texel when food may not longer be imported. The 14.000 people who live together at Texel have no great purchasing power to steer economies in a direction that provides such a varietal diet as they are used to at the moment. We are fully aware of the fact that there is a huge cultural change to be made, to show the population of Texel the usefulness of adapting their usual diet. Our design will have the main objective to change the buying behaviour of the demanders on the market. In addition, the farmers and other links in the food industry that produce the demand of the locals also need to change their supply. They will have to offer a more varied diet and not only grow potatoes on their land. We have to design a system in which the demand and supply change in such a way that they are still profitable for each other and finally for the planet. Therefore we need to design two interventions for the nowadays system. These interventions should take place at the same moment in order to strengthen each other’s developments.

1.    First we have to guarantee a broader choice of locally produced goods, focus less on luxurious (touristic) food and more on basic foods. Since the island exists already for big percentages out of agricultural land, we think the intervention should be made on exactly this land. We do not believe in the added value of green walls and green roofs in such a non-densely populated area. We believe in a carefully designed cultural transition that values local products and promotes the consumption of these local products. We should stimulate the farmers to produce instead of one crop for export, produce a variety of crops by permaculture or ‘vollegrond-groenteteelt’ crop production for consumption on the island. Together with the farmers we should Synchronize their performance to meet the demand for different periods throughout the year. During the summer period there has to be produced more food to feed the two times bigger population. Therefore we think we have to create a strong communion of farmers, players in the hospitality industry and regulators to design together a pathway to the goal. We could design the platform on which these negotiations towards a self-sufficient system could take place. We could be the sustainable advisers, who accompany the negotiations. Making moments to signify could be a strategy that connects the farmer with the hospitality industry, the local population and the tourist. Imagine the promotion of a ‘first lambs in the fields’ week that could attract extra tourists to the island. Texel could signify specific moments in the year that could attract extra tourist and could make the local people proud of their area and its products.

1.    Next to the fact that we have to guarantee a broader choice of locally produced goods we also have to design a change in the buying behaviour of the local people. We have to create enough engagement in order to guarantee that the people do not import goods from the mainland. Unfortunately there are no regulations possible that simply could prohibit people from importing goods. We have to design a marketing strategy that creates enough engagement with our vision. Therefore we came up with the idea of producing a kind of ‘Allerhande’ magazine, the ‘Texelhande’ including stories of local products, recipes and bonuses for buying locally produced foods. We see this magazine as the binding factor of the ‘Local Products Community’ and as a marketing tool to change the buying behaviour of locals and tourists. Besides, this should make customers clear that eating (a much a currently is done) dairy products and especially meat will not help to make the island self-sufficient.