5.1 Conclusions

5.1.    Write conclusions about the sub-system analysis and design.

In our research we detached 4 different actors in the process with other interests, influences and goals. I think in the conclusion we could shortly answer the following questions to describe the analysis:

A) the Local consumer

What is the interest of this actor in the subsystem?

The local consumer, the residents of Texel, are just like the avarege Dutch citizen used to a varied diet. We don’t just eat typical Dutch Food (potatoes, vegetables and meat), but we choose a different cuisine nearly every day and this also includes the more exotic types of food. The Texelaar is used to be able to choose from a wide variety of foods and they are most likely reluctant to their options/ choices being reduced.

 How influential is this actor in the subsystem?

Since the local consumer is used to being able to buy and eat whatever they like, they’re not really part of the current development. They don’t interact with the current food production, most of the residents will got to the supermarket and get what they need.

 But they could play an important role in whether or not this change is successfull. If the local consumer refuses to change their lifestyle and eating habits it’s most likely not beneficial to make this change. On the other hand, if the community wants to change, goverment and farmers will notice and will be more certain of a stable basis of new management.

What are his personal goals in the subsystem?

A personal goal of the local consumer would be making sure the new diet is sufficient enough. That there are still enough choices available, just like now.

B the local producer

What is the interest of this actor in the subsystem?

The interest of the farmer in the SS ‘Feed Texel’ is significant.

How influential is this actor in the subsystem?

Farmers on Texel are very influential. They produce food so they can initiate change. However, changing the management on a farm is risky and farmers will not do this except when they are sure they can sell what they produces. Looking on the influence of the farmer in this way, the influence is limited as they probably will follow the market. There allways will be farmers who are in front of the others but the mass will only change when the financial risk is covered.

 What are his personal goals in the subsystem?

The goals of the farmer are in the first place keeping the company financially healthy. Besides this, some farmers have idealistic ideas which they want to realize. Those could be ecological/biodynamic farming, innovative (sustainable) ways of fertilizing your land or animal friendly cattle breeding.

C) the local government

What is the interest of this actor in the subsystem?

The local government has a natural interest in this subsystem since they have a regulating function.

How influential is this actor in the subsystem?

The local government is influential but is not able, since it is a local organ, to change law or set subsidies. They can give advise to the people and steer the citizens by this way in there behaviour.

What are his personal goals in the subsystem?

The local goverment can not be biased. The goverment is a reflection of society and must therefore comply with multiple views of multiple actors. Their goals are also depended on the vision of the leading paty.

D) The tourist industry

What is the interest of this actor in the subsystem?

The tourist industry has an interest, because it want to provide food at the island in a way that is satisfactory to the tourists. Since 70% of the economy is based on the tourists, it is important to keep the tourists satisfied and as such make sure that the food that is available and prepared for them, meets their demands.

How influential is this actor in the subsystem?

This actor will be very influential in this subsystem since the economy of the island is so dependent on the tourists. A large part of the of residents is working for the tourists and as such, the interest of the tourist industry is also the interest of a large part of the residents. This makes this actor rather influential.

What are his personal goals in the subsystem?

The main goal of the tourist industry is to keep the tourist satisfied and as such make a profit out of it, but also to keep the island itself in a good shape. The latter one will in some cases rule over the profit goal, since the good shape in which the island is, is one of the main reasons tourists come to the island.

The Design

At this part we shortly describe our vision, goal and the design we came up with to achieve this goal. We found it also interesting to put down here what kind of behaviour change we expect from every actor.

Vison

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.

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.

A the local consumer

What has to change in the behaviour of the actor in order to achieve this goal?

In order to achieve a 100% self sufficient Texel on the level of the sub system ‘Feed Texel’ the behaviour of the local consumer has to change. They have to be willing to let go of the ‘free choice’  that is available now. They would have to surrender to a more limited diet based on locally produced foods. This does not mean there are only five options to choose from, but it means the local consumer would have to think about which products are available in which season. Especially eating less meat and dairy products is an important change.

 In order to guide this change as much as possible, a monthly magazine (inspired on the Tasty Tour) could be launched. In this magazine the foods with the ‘Echt Texels Produkt’ brand would be highlighted, background information on the production would be given and examples of possible dishes would be shown. The local consumer will be persuaded to this new diet by making it an easy accessible trend/ hype. A trend one does not only find in this magazine, but will be promoted at annual events and can be highlighted by ‘food routes’  on the island, like the tasty tour.

B the local producer

What has to change in the behaviour of the actor in order to achieve this goal?

The producer has to focus more on producing basic food instead of luxurious food for tourists to export. Nowadays locally produced food is to much a selling stragegy for tourism. Furthermore, they should focus less on meat (especially lamb) and dairy products, and more on agriculture and horticulture. Meat and dairy products are less efficient than vegan products. To get a change to get Texel self-sufficient considering food (also area-wise), this should be more in balance. Ecological farming or even biodynamic farming could be the solution because (especially biodynamic farming) have regulations on closing cycles on the farm, animal friendly management, fertilizing and overall sustainability.

C the local government

What has to change in the behaviour of the actor in order to achieve this goal?

The local goverments leading party should instead of making plans for the period they are leading, also make plans for a longer period. If you take the example of the island Samsø, Denmark, the great strenght of this project lay in the fact that there was a strong community with one long period goal: being 100% selfsufficient within 10 years. The goverment can play the keyrole in setting up this community and setting up a connective goal. They also have the power to set subsidies to make it finacially attractive for farmers to close their cycles. However we have to keep in mind that this will cost a lot of effort and time of the local government since Europe descides finally.

D the tourist industry

What has to change in the behaviour of the actor in order to achieve this goal?

The tourist industry will need to focus more on the local producers and actively try to use their products. In the end they are only allowed to use the products from the island itself, which means that they will need to change their menus accordingly. If they market this well and if the change is gradual they will be able to succeed in this hopefully and not loose any clients. In the end the products on Texel should be diverse enough to supply a proper diverse diet, meeting the needs of the tourist.