Don’t waste the corona crisis
Crises are an opportunity to review our present structures and habits; and to create new ones. Many observers judge that we wasted the 2008 financial crisis: the mechanisms that caused this crisis were largely restored afterwards. Will we wisely use the opportunities handed to us by the corona crisis? The Guardian ran a provocative article
Let’s have a better look at job quality, says Dutch WRR
The report The better job (in Dutch) by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) is ground-breaking. For the first time in forty (!) years, there is attention for job quality in Dutch politics. A subject that had been reduced to the point of oblivion by economic crises and neoliberal policies. Jobs, jobs, jobs
Education on strike
Dutch primary education has a huge problem, that also affects bio-economy developments. There’s a substantial shortage of teachers, the teaching profession is not appreciated much, and the pay gap with secondary education is decently described by the sector as ‘not appropriate’. Emergency measures like shorter school weeks or even closure of schools are not unthinkable
Introspection and innovation don’t easily match: ‘In the Netherlands we tend to think we are pretty good.’
The Dutch Cabinet has determined missions to tackle major societal issues, and Dutch knowledge sectors are currently drawing up Knowledge and Innovation Agendas on how to support the realisation of these missions. I just finished reading the joint innovation agenda by the three top sectors Agriculture, Water and Food, and was left with a vague
IPBES and after: do we need to fear global ecosystem decline?
A month ago, May 2019, a UN agency with the awkward acronym IPBES published a report on nature decline. It tells us: ‘nature and its vital contributions to people, which together embody biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are deteriorating worldwide.’ The report was met with mixed reactions – and actually, considering its dramatic message,
When upcycling, reach for the moon
In September 2016, Henk Kamp, then Minister of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands, opened Upcycling Gemert, a plant that processes mushroom waste into compost, fuel and heat. Only two weeks later, a press release announced another project, called BIOrescue, that aims to upcycle the same mushroom waste by creating new bio-based products. Although I was
Séralini disproven – what will the EU do now?
Anyone who opposes genetically modified (GM) food can tell you that ‘in France’ they found that GM maize causes cancer in rats. This study was conducted under leadership of Gilles-Éric Séralini, professor in molecular biology at the University of Caen. His results, published in 2012, caused an upheaval. They stopped short the very gradual change
Doing Dutch biobased business in Midwest USA
One month ago me and my two fellow interns arrived in Chicago and started our work here at the Consulate-General of the Netherlands. The focus of my specific project is to look into the opportunities that may exist and connections we could make for Dutch biobased business in the Midwest of the USA. Just a
