The food of the future is already being made in North Holland. In Enkhuizen, Ayoub Louihrani sees how climate change is already taken into account when creating new seeds. The seed breeding company where he is a guest produces seeds for tomatoes, which still grow well with less water and higher temperatures and retain their flavour. And the young farmer can go back to school, at Inholland University of Applied Sciences he learns how the field bean should play a role as a replacement for soy.
Ayoub is in West Friesland, Seed’s home base Valley, which is recognized worldwide as the place for plant breeding and seed technology. And this one seeds are sold worldwide. Enza Zaden in Enhuizen is one of dozens of companies within Seed Valley, where Ayoub has agreed with distributor Emiel Dijkstra. He is proud of his work: “When you’re in the supermarket, you see something you’ve made,” Emiel tells Ayoub. “That’s really mighty beautiful.”
Million
Emiel takes Ayoub to the greenhouse, where tomatoes are pollinated. Several varieties are crossed here to breed a new tomato variety. And no bees are needed for that, but Marianne Kouwenhoven, who shows Ayoub how pollination works.One pollination produces up to 50 new tomatoes, to Ayoub’s surprise: “I put in a million, but only one comes out!”
After examining a leaf from the tomato bush in the laboratory, Ayoub sees that this plant is also resistant to certain fungi.
Expedition North Holland with farmer Ayoub
Ayoub is a young farmer with a huge passion for his work. In the series Expedition North Holland he investigates what farming life will look like in our province in the future. Are we going to produce our food in a different way? Ayoub is curious and travels through our province looking for answers!
At the HBOstudy Food Commerce & Technology in Amsterdam, Ayoub meets Health & Food lecturer Feike van der Leij. Together with his students, they are looking at innovative methods to handle food in a healthy way.
“Food innovation means that we work with students to discover new products, so that we can also make the food system more sustainable,” explains Feike. “It can no longer be done the way it is now, so we have to make sure that healthy products that come from the land also come into their own in what we eat.”
The students are working on field beans, which are grown in the Netherlands. They are experimenting with this bean as a protein substitute. For example, a garlic sauce is made from it, or the dried beans are ground into flour, which is used as an ingredient for board. Ayoub is surprised when the bread actually just tastes like everyday bread. “That is also our mission,” says student Stan Smit. “We try to make it resemble normal bread as much as possible, so that people also like to eat it.”
Now it is still normal to import soy from abroad to use as a protein substitute. But if Dutch field beans could replace this, it would be much more sustainable, according to the students.
Everything tastes good to Ayoub, until he arrives at the field bean as a substitute for milk. The product is clearly still under development, something he finds out experimentally. “Actually, it tastes like ditch water mixed with goose poop,” is Ayoub’s frank opinion.
In any case, Ayoub, who has a lot of experience as a dairy farmer, is somewhat critical of these types of milk substitutes. Lector Feike says that this is an intermediate product that is still being worked on. But he also thinks that these types of products are very important for the future: “We don’t have to completely do without cows or pigs, but a little less will help the earth, I think.”
For Ayoub, this ‘milk experiment’ with field beans is clear: “As a substitute for soybeans, I think it’s perfect! But as a substitute for cow’s milk, it doesn’t come close…”
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