Rogier Schulte is a name that will be familiar to many readers of the Irish Farmers Journal. For almost 20 years, Schulte worked as a researcher with Teagasc in Johnstown Castle in Co Wexford. During his time with Teagasc, Schulte rose to become the state body’s lead researcher on sustainable farming and much of his work was often recorded in these pages.
In late 2016, Schulte returned to his native Netherlands where he took up a position as chair of the Farming Systems Ecology group at Wageningen University, often referred to as the world’s leading university for bioscience and agricultural research.
As head of this group, Schulte has spent the last three years building a small network of 11 farms located all over the world, which he believes are leading the way towards sustainable food production in 2050.
He calls them “Lighthouse Farms”, because they are lighting the way for other farmers to follow.
“The world today faces two enormous challenges,” said Schulte (pictured left), who delivered a stirring presentation on the future of global food systems last month at Wageningen.
“The first challenge is that by 2100 we have to feed 11bn people. Feeding 11bn people is easy.
“We already know how to do it. But we have a second challenge. And that is to feed the world within the resources of our planet so that we can produce this food for 11bn people over and over again,” he said.
“At the moment we’re already breaching two of the planet’s boundaries. The first is the biochemical cycle.
As a world, we’re using too much nitrogen and we simply cannot continue to do that.
“The second one is the loss of biodiversity from the planet. We are losing biodiversity at such a rate from this world that we simply cannot sustain it,” he said.
In order to solve both challenges, we need solutions
On top of this, Schulte says the world is well on the way to breaching two more planetary boundaries, which are rising carbon emissions and increased changes to land use
“In order to solve both challenges, we need solutions. We don’t need one solution, but we need many solutions.
“We need solutions for different farm types, for different soil types, for different climates, for different crops, but also for different farmers, for different cultures and for different dietary preferences. Not one solution but many solutions,” he reiterated.
Schulte said that farmers are being pushed to do more and more in terms of finding solutions to environmental and climate challenges, yet the market is not rewarding sustainable agriculture.
“If we push farmers closer and closer to the edge of the solutions, there is a point where they fall off a cliff.
“And that is usually an economic cliff where the farmer can’t make ends meet. I think it’s fair to say that we have reached the edge of that cliff.
“The world is literally on fire and we have reached the end of our known solutions,” he said.
Lighthouse Farms project
However, the 11 Lighthouse Farms from around the world that Schulte has selected (see map) are his way of showing that sustainability can be profitable for farmers. Each of these farms is very different.
They include an industrial cattle farm in Latvia, a city farm in Cuba, a community-based land management system in Ethiopia, an agro-forestry enterprise in Brazil, an organic strip cropping vegetable farm in the Netherlands, a rice farm in Indonesia, regenerative farming in Spain, and a tillage farmer in Austria using vermiculture.
Most encouraging of all, from an Irish perspective, Schulte has selected Devenish’s research farm in Dowth, Co Meath, as part of his Lighthouse network.
The Devenish research farm at Dowth, Co Meath.
The farm at Dowth is located within the Brú na Bóinne, an incredibly sensitive World Heritage Site, and is home to a herd of suckler cows and calves.
Through a range of practices including multi-species swards, sylvopasture and soil improvement, the Dowth farm is aiming to become an accurately measured carbon neutral suckler beef farm, which would be a world first.
They’ve shown that sustainability can pay for itself
In his address at Wageningen, Schulte was not remiss about the challenges facing farmers in the years ahead. Transitioning to farming practices like those employed by his network of Lighthouse Farms is a daunting challenge.
“Each of the Lighthouse Farmers have reinvented their farming system to be sustainable, but at the same time they’re making ends meet. They’ve shown that sustainability can pay for itself,” said Schulte.
“And together they’ve shown the diversity of solutions that is out there for us to meet the challenges of 2050.
“These farmers have combined food production and the environment, by combining two ingredients; complexity and knowledge,” he added.
In order for more farmers to transition to farming practices similar to those employed on these Lighthouse Farms
It’s an understatement to say that these farming systems are complex and require a great deal of skill for any farmer to implement.
As Schulte himself said, if farmers transition to these sustainable, production- focused practices over the next 50 years, it will be the greatest transformation in global agriculture since the advent of the plough.
In order for more farmers to transition to farming practices similar to those employed on these Lighthouse Farms, Schulte says it is the responsibility of all actors in society to help with this dramatic change, particularly when it comes to making sense of the vast amount of information out there on sustainable farming techniques.
That means policymakers, the food industry, consumers, research institutions, farm advisors, financial institutions and regulatory bodies need to work with farmers to enable such a major transition.
Society already expects so much from farmers while at the same time demanding cheap food. It cannot expect farmers to shoulder the climate burden alone.
Rogier Schulte is a name that will be familiar to many readers of the Irish Farmers Journal. For almost 20 years, Schulte worked as a researcher with Teagasc in Johnstown Castle in Co Wexford. During his time with Teagasc, Schulte rose to become the state body’s lead researcher on sustainable farming and much of his work was often recorded in these pages.
In late 2016, Schulte returned to his native Netherlands where he took up a position as chair of the Farming Systems Ecology group at Wageningen University, often referred to as the world’s leading university for bioscience and agricultural research.
As head of this group, Schulte has spent the last three years building a small network of 11 farms located all over the world, which he believes are leading the way towards sustainable food production in 2050.
He calls them “Lighthouse Farms”, because they are lighting the way for other farmers to follow.
“The world today faces two enormous challenges,” said Schulte (pictured left), who delivered a stirring presentation on the future of global food systems last month at Wageningen.
“The first challenge is that by 2100 we have to feed 11bn people. Feeding 11bn people is easy.
“We already know how to do it. But we have a second challenge. And that is to feed the world within the resources of our planet so that we can produce this food for 11bn people over and over again,” he said.
“At the moment we’re already breaching two of the planet’s boundaries. The first is the biochemical cycle.
As a world, we’re using too much nitrogen and we simply cannot continue to do that.
“The second one is the loss of biodiversity from the planet. We are losing biodiversity at such a rate from this world that we simply cannot sustain it,” he said.
In order to solve both challenges, we need solutions
On top of this, Schulte says the world is well on the way to breaching two more planetary boundaries, which are rising carbon emissions and increased changes to land use
“In order to solve both challenges, we need solutions. We don’t need one solution, but we need many solutions.
“We need solutions for different farm types, for different soil types, for different climates, for different crops, but also for different farmers, for different cultures and for different dietary preferences. Not one solution but many solutions,” he reiterated.
Schulte said that farmers are being pushed to do more and more in terms of finding solutions to environmental and climate challenges, yet the market is not rewarding sustainable agriculture.
“If we push farmers closer and closer to the edge of the solutions, there is a point where they fall off a cliff.
“And that is usually an economic cliff where the farmer can’t make ends meet. I think it’s fair to say that we have reached the edge of that cliff.
“The world is literally on fire and we have reached the end of our known solutions,” he said.
Lighthouse Farms project
However, the 11 Lighthouse Farms from around the world that Schulte has selected (see map) are his way of showing that sustainability can be profitable for farmers. Each of these farms is very different.
They include an industrial cattle farm in Latvia, a city farm in Cuba, a community-based land management system in Ethiopia, an agro-forestry enterprise in Brazil, an organic strip cropping vegetable farm in the Netherlands, a rice farm in Indonesia, regenerative farming in Spain, and a tillage farmer in Austria using vermiculture.
Most encouraging of all, from an Irish perspective, Schulte has selected Devenish’s research farm in Dowth, Co Meath, as part of his Lighthouse network.
The Devenish research farm at Dowth, Co Meath.
The farm at Dowth is located within the Brú na Bóinne, an incredibly sensitive World Heritage Site, and is home to a herd of suckler cows and calves.
Through a range of practices including multi-species swards, sylvopasture and soil improvement, the Dowth farm is aiming to become an accurately measured carbon neutral suckler beef farm, which would be a world first.
They’ve shown that sustainability can pay for itself
In his address at Wageningen, Schulte was not remiss about the challenges facing farmers in the years ahead. Transitioning to farming practices like those employed by his network of Lighthouse Farms is a daunting challenge.
“Each of the Lighthouse Farmers have reinvented their farming system to be sustainable, but at the same time they’re making ends meet. They’ve shown that sustainability can pay for itself,” said Schulte.
“And together they’ve shown the diversity of solutions that is out there for us to meet the challenges of 2050.
“These farmers have combined food production and the environment, by combining two ingredients; complexity and knowledge,” he added.
In order for more farmers to transition to farming practices similar to those employed on these Lighthouse Farms
It’s an understatement to say that these farming systems are complex and require a great deal of skill for any farmer to implement.
As Schulte himself said, if farmers transition to these sustainable, production- focused practices over the next 50 years, it will be the greatest transformation in global agriculture since the advent of the plough.
In order for more farmers to transition to farming practices similar to those employed on these Lighthouse Farms, Schulte says it is the responsibility of all actors in society to help with this dramatic change, particularly when it comes to making sense of the vast amount of information out there on sustainable farming techniques.
That means policymakers, the food industry, consumers, research institutions, farm advisors, financial institutions and regulatory bodies need to work with farmers to enable such a major transition.
Society already expects so much from farmers while at the same time demanding cheap food. It cannot expect farmers to shoulder the climate burden alone.
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