She is an organic farmer in training, a climate activist and also has an astonishing amount of scientific knowledge. Yet Ida Simonsen is only 25 years old. As a UN youth representative, Haarlem wants to fight for the voice of young people with regard to biodiversity and food. “I’m not short of passion.”
Rarely do you come across a 25-year-old who is more passionate than Ida. And also read and developed. After graduating from pre-university education at Het Schoter in Haarlem-Noord, she deliberately chose a university degree in International Law and later obtained a master’s degree in human rights. With this knowledge in her pocket, she did internships at SDG Netherlands (a movement that focuses on sustainable development goals) and Unicef. There she was involved in the rights of young people and the mobilization of her peers.
itch
Ida increasingly focused on nature and food. She realized that knowledge from books is not perfect and, as a girl from the city, she started training as an organic farmer. “I’ve studied quite a lot and my hands started to itch. I’m still in training, you know. But I love being outside. Literally close to the ground, the feet in the clay. I wanted biodiversity and nature so to experience from up close.”
“My focus is on nature and food. I embrace those two worlds in everything I do”
As a highly educated woman, from farming practice, she wants to work hard as a climate diplomat, so to speak, as a UN representative of young people. She will do this with three other Dutch envoys, each with their own themes. Ida mainly focuses on biodiversity and food. With only one opponent left, she is fighting for the place as Dutch envoy this week. “My focus is on nature and food. I embrace those two worlds in everything I do. I also rely on human rights and climate activism.”
To vote
Should she be elected (young people up to the age of thirty can vote for her until October 13) then she has extensive plans to interpret the voice of young people. Her task will then be to collect the opinions (“En perspectives and dreams”) of Dutch youth about biodiversity and food through guest lectures, events, dialogues and social media.
Then, as her slogan goes, Ida goes out on the field to represent these views at relevant ministries and at conferences and summits at home and abroad. “We are nature, that is the core message. Among other things, I want to take the young people outside, not to explain everything via powerpoints.”
Anyone who speaks to Ida will quickly notice that she is deeply involved in the subject and is very passionate. Such as the nitrogen problem that was in the news again this week. Young people in the agricultural sector need to be more involved in the future of agriculture and animal husbandry. “It’s about creating a future for young farmers. There are now too few successors in the farms. To make these industries sustainable, a lot more workers are needed. I think it is very important that young people also join the table. be invited.”
Province
She is full of ideas. Ida also wants to use her time as a voluntary UN youth representative to stimulate youth participation in the province of North Holland. “In our province, the young people are not sitting around the table while decisions are being made in very important policy areas.”
Also, Ida will not resist spreading her knowledge. That is about what she believes to be an unjust food system in the world. The fact that a small country like the Netherlands is one of the largest food exporters in the world is skewed, according to her. “I’m worried about the world and there needs to be a system change.”
“We don’t have a day to lose and a world to gain. It’s Biodiversity Time!”
Another spearhead can best be typified with remarkable figures. Three to five percent of the world’s population is made up of indigenous peoples. Let it be Wednesday Day of the Indigenous Peoples and that Ida likes to draw attention to these peoples who are daily threatened with extinction. “These people protect eighty percent of the earth’s biodiversity, on an area of twenty percent of the earth.” It’s clear, Ida wants to stand up for this.
Biodiversity time
As befits an organic farmer, the Haarlem-born as a UN representative wants to sow and then harvest. As she states on her campaign material, “I’m going to do everything I can to use my master’s degree in human rights and background in climate activism to empower the voice of young people and protect our future.” To end with her slogan: “We don’t have a day to lose and a world to gain. It’s Biodiversity Time!”
Here can you delve further? in Ida’s extensive pitch and vision.