Agrifirm is investigating the feasibility of food forests in the Netherlands

At the time of writing, the website Voedinguithetbos.nl shows 164 registered food forests, together accounting for 369 hectares. In reality there are probably more, but harder figures are missing because CBS does not register them. In addition, the vast majority of food forests are still 'under construction'. That is to say: already built, but not yet in production. In any case, the surface area remains peanuts, compared to the total agricultural area in the Netherlands of 1.8 million hectares, says Marc Buiter, board member of the Food Forestry Foundation Netherlands. Wind in the sails Yet food forests have the wind in their sails. They are a blessing for biodiversity, require no fertilizer or crop protection agents, bind CO2 on a large scale and deliver a variety of healthy products almost all year round. In short, food forests seem to be the answer to almost all social issues that agriculture and horticulture are currently grappling with. The advance of the Dutch food forest ...