GOING AGAINST THE CURRENT fltr: Niek Vos and Jan van Geffen
GROWERS WHO SWITCH TO ORGANIC OR BIODYNAMIC FARMING TODAY CAN COUNT ON A MATURE MARKET. BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE PIONEERS WHO TOOK THE STEP DECADES AGO? WE ASKED THREE TRAILBLAZERS WHY THEY DID IT AND WHAT IT WAS LIKE. JAN VAN GEFFEN STARTED OUT AS A BIODYNAMIC GROWER IN 1979. NIEK VOS WENT BIODYNAMIC IN THE MID-1980S. AND ALEX VAN HOOTEGEM BEGAN HIS CONVERSION TO ORGANIC IN 1999.
JAN VA N G E F F E N: ‘ T H E N E W O R G A N I C Z O N E G AV E T H E SECTOR A HUGE BOOS T ’ With his sons Sam and Koen, Jan van Geffen runs the Arenosa farm and market garden at the edge of the Dutch city of Lelystad. The business covers 80 hectares and specialises in growing “forgotten vegetables” like parsnips, scorzonera, Jerusalem artichokes and parsley root. They’ve always worked biodynamically, and since 2005, also organically. Arenosa also processes and packages parsnips for sale to supermarkets. Van Geffen started out in 1979 growing biodynamic vegetables in the scenic Dutch Veluwe region.
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BEJO ORGANIC MAGAZINE
“I didn’t grow up with an agricultural background,” he says. “I’d already had all sorts of jobs by the time I was 23 and went to study at the Warmonderhof. Afterward, I had the opportunity to use a piece of land in Lunteren, in the Veluwe. We grew summer produce, like lettuce, bunched carrots and courgettes. It was 1979, in the period after the hippie era, and we were long-haired idealists. We used interns and volunteers. We got the land practically for free. It was a great time, but we didn’t actually make much money.”
