As the year draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on the months gone by. We are immensely proud of so many developments this year.
Numerous targets have been met in ReGeNL: farmers have joined, the innovation pipeline is full, regional collaborations are underway, and last but not least, a strong and energetic team is leading the program.
On Sustainable Products and Processes, Michiel Meeuse has now officially taken over theme leadership. He has steadily been building the basis for a Sustainable Ingredients platform – keep an eye out for a launch of this program in Q1 next year. Earmarked as one of the food & biotech flagships in the Wennink report (see page 82, program L10), this area could be seeing an enormous boost! Let’s make this happen.
On health, have you seen the announcement of the Eli Lilly investment in Katwijk for weight loss medication. Are we really going to outsource a healthy weight to pharma?? We urgently need an environment that helps consumers make the healthy & sustainable food choice. And this is not the responsibility of one individual partner – this needs support from all. So let’s make this happen! The Household program Arienne and Myrthe have designed over the past months is going to do exactly that. Please reach out to join this great impact program!
Also published last month: NL Foodsystem 2050 manifesto, signed by so many key players from the Dutch food systems, directed towards our new government. Gerda Verburg and Han Kolff have been leading this initiative. A key development and Next Food Collective is, through their leadership, helping to shape new innovation policies that will be key to all Next Food Collective partners.
All above developments were discussed at our Annual Partner day in November, kindly hosted by dsm-firmenich. A day packed with visions for the future, inspiring collaborations ánd achievements of our partners towards a more healthy and sustainable food system.
I would also like to take a moment to recognize the invaluable contributions of Carine Joosse to Next Food Collective. Carine will step down from the Supervisory Board in the coming weeks. Since 2022, Carine has relentlessly helped build Next Food Collective. She was vice chairman of the Supervisory Board and contributing actively through several board committees. Thank you Carine!
To close, I would like to wish you a wonderful festive season with family and friends and all the best for the New Year ahead.
Warm regards,
Marian