As society, we have lost connection to our food and how it is produced. The international market in which Dutch farmers operate has elongated the path from farm to fork and created an anonymous food chain. Food production has been intensified over the years with agriculture pract
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As society, we have lost connection to our food and how it is produced. The international market in which Dutch farmers operate has elongated the path from farm to fork and created an anonymous food chain. Food production has been intensified over the years with agriculture practices evolving with a focus on efficiency and high yields. This has resulted in a highly polluting sector that is responsible for 34% of human caused greenhouse gas emissions (Crippa et al., 2021). The current agri-food system is therefore environmentally and socially unsustainable. Alternative food systems are being explored which might offer a solution to these challenges. The implementation of nature inclusive farming focuses on realizing an agriculture sector that integrates food production and nature preservation. Project client Caring Farmers aims to stimulate nature inclusive farming in order to tackle the environmental and societal challenges of the agri-food system. The design challenge of this project was: How can the transition towards a nature inclusive agri-food sector in the Netherlands be accelerated through the enhancement of the relation between farmer and consumer? With a systemic design approach and qualitative research, it was concluded that the role of the agri-food sector is changing. An opportunity exists to reintegrate farming in society and create a system that expands its focus for farming beyond economic production towards its societal relevance. The environmental and societal services that farmers deliver to society should be valued to ensure a fair income for them and for the sector to become more sustainable. The thesis proposes a three-horizon strategy on how to create value for the ecosystem services that farms can deliver to society. By implementing a system that monitors ecosystem services like biodiversity, soil quality, and carbon sequestration, these values can be quantified. In the first horizon, a product-service system is designed to make farms more accessible for citizens. With an application, citizens can visit farms and learn about sustainable agriculture. The second horizon embeds this application in a platform that enables farmers and citizens to monitor the ecosystem services on farms. Through citizen science projects, visitors help farmers to collect data about these services. This facilitates research about the impact of sustainable farming on the environment so that the vision of the third horizon can be realized. This vision shows a societal system in which farmers and citizens collaboratively work towards a sustainable agri-food sector where ecosystem services are valued and appreciated. The strategic roadmap is supported by visualisations of the application and platform. Furthermore, an implementation roadmap was created to support the organisation in the implementation of the strategic advice and design products. This project provides a different view on the role of agriculture in the Netherlands by looking beyond the need for fair food prices. It provides a vision where the appreciation for the work of farmers is divided into multiple services instead of embedded in the price of a carton of milk.