Excursion to food forests: Organised chaos with great biodiversity and a broad culinary yield

On 2 May 2024, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft (AbL) Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V. offered an excursion to the food forests in Schijndel and Groesbeek in the Netherlands as part of the ‘Rural Agroforests’ project, which is funded by the Stiftung Umwelt und Entwicklung Nordrhein-Westfalen. Our Agroforst Reallabor team and students took the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of food forests and learn more about food forests as an agricultural cultivation system with a wide variety of cultivation structures for perennial crops. Representatives of the city of Kleve from the ‘Climate Protection, Environment and Sustainability’ and ‘Green, Environmental and Landscape Planning’ departments as well as farmers and other interested parties also took part in the excursion. Wouter van Eck, pioneer of food forest development in the Netherlands and co-founder of the food forests visited, led the day.

The concept of the food forest

In a food forest, various edible plant species are cultivated in several layers of vegetation and – apart from the harvest – are largely left to their own devices. Each food forest is unique, as it is adapted to the specific conditions of the respective area. Numerous plant and animal species coexist in a food forest, growing and functioning together.

To establish a food forest on an empty field, fast-growing, native trees and hedges are first planted to provide wind protection and shade. Productive, edible plants are then gradually planted in rows. These include various nut trees such as hazelnuts and walnuts, berries, fruit such as apples and pears and herbs. Even if a food forest can appear chaotic to outsiders, every food forest is based on a detailed concept.

The concept of food forests completely dispenses with fertilisers, heavy machinery and pesticides. Instead, it relies on self-regulation and natural balance. The rule is: intervene as little as possible. Wild plants are not seen as a problem as long as they do not interfere with the cultivated plants. This approach leads to an extremely diverse and resilient agricultural area.

Food forests strengthen biodiversity and bind a lot of CO2. Depending on the species planted, it can take several years or decades for a food forest to grow and be harvested. After planning and planting, the greatest effort for farmers lies in harvesting. In the long term, food forests should be profitable.

Excursion to the Dutch food forests in Schijndel and Groesbeek

The excursion began with an exploration of the food forest in Schijndel, which at 20 hectares is the largest of its kind in the Netherlands. It is an initiative of the ‘Voedselbosbouw Nederland’ foundation in co-operation with ‘Groen Ontwikkelfonds Brabant’ (Province of Brabant) and the HAS Green Academy (university). At just five years old, the forest is still considered a ‘baby’. Wouter van Eck used the young forest to explain what is important when planning and planting. For example, the perspective of insects should be taken: What blooms at what time? Do insects find nectar when they fly out in spring? The business objective should also be clearly defined: What should be harvested and sold later? It is also essential that plants are planted in different layers of vegetation. To make harvesting easier, the plants are planted in rows. Several rows form an area of the forest that harbours up to 60 species.

Many people from the neighbourhood helped to plant the food forest in Schijndel. Good organisation is then essential: The plants are only planted once, so the planting should be done neatly and carefully. In addition to the practical benefits, there is also a cultural added value to the joint planting campaign: the participants remember exactly what they have planted and build up a relationship with the landscape, says Wouter van Eck.

In Groesbeek, the excursion group came together for a presentation by Wouter van Eck, who used pictures and facts to shed further light on the concept of the food forest. Frauke Ganswind, project manager of the AbL project ‘Rural Agroforests’, used the meeting in the Groesbeek community centre to introduce the AbL and the project. ‘We are convinced that agroforestry is a sustainable form of land use that can make an important contribution to increasing the climate resilience of agricultural land and promoting agrobiodiversity,’ said Ganswind.

The second expedition of the day took us to the 14-year-old Ketelbroek food forest. As one of the oldest and most diverse food forests in the Netherlands, it offered the opportunity to experience a wide variety of plant species up close and to perceive them with all your senses. Only a narrow path leads through the food forest. The paths to the individual plants are only cleared for harvesting and are otherwise left to their own devices. This minimises the impact on the plants, animals and, above all, the soil. Wouter van Eck draws a positive conclusion about the development of the Ketelbroek food forest so far: ‘No fertiliser has been applied since the food forest was established in 2009, but the harvest is becoming more abundant every year.

Food forests: An option for farmers on the Lower Rhine?

While around 230 such food forests already exist in the Netherlands, the sight of them in Germany is rather rare. One reason for this is the regulatory framework: In the Netherlands, the establishment of a food forest is subsidised, but not yet in Germany. Secondly, the establishment of a food forest is complex and represents a risk for farmers: A lot of money and effort goes into planning and planting the food forest. The actual harvest, which can generate income, only begins years later. However, according to Wouter van Eck, the production of the system increases exponentially and continues for many years with little maintenance. A food forest could therefore also be a sensible investment in a diverse product range and biodiversity for farmers in the Lower Rhine region. A visit to these unique agricultural areas is definitely worthwhile.

Conclusion

The conclusion of our agroforestry living laboratory team is that the food forest is an exciting agricultural concept because it requires a complete rethink of agriculture. Such systems can be overwhelming at first glance because they are complex. At the same time, the complexity of the system and the production of food with expressly minimal intervention by the farmer is very interesting, says project member Jannis Menne. Instead of completely transforming arable land into a food forest, individual concept elements can also be transferred initially, such as hedges and shrubs as windbreaks.