"Beautiful to see young people telling their own stories"

Social significance

"Some 30 years ago, I could never have imagined that I would end up in the green field," Cramers continues enthusiastically. "It is a great challenge to fathom a new world. To discover what the issues are and how we can tackle them together. Especially the social mission makes the work in this sector particularly interesting."

With some 3,000 students spread across locations in Den Bosch and Venlo, HAS Green Academy is a relatively small institution. This naturally creates challenges.

"Our institution is indeed of a different stature than, say, TU Eindhoven. For example, I talk to SURF about cybersecurity topics. About how we ensure that we provide secure, affordable infrastructure at our level and how we do that in a smart and affordable way."

From farmer to plate

"As far as I am concerned, the answer lies in cooperation. In the green domain, we are making great strides in that direction in groenpact. That is a partnership of institutions from vmbo, mbo, hbo and wo. We work on joint programmes and share information, activities and projects. And that is very nice, because we are in the same sector and speak the same language."

HAS Green Academy offers training from 'farmer to plate', or 'soil to mouth', as some say. "Those are terrible expressions, but they make it very clear how broad our curriculum is. Our largest course is Applied Biology. We have courses in Environmental Science, but also in Environmental Management, which is a bit more on the governance and policy side."

New generation

The field of work in which HAS trains its students has many current challenges that Patrick Cramers certainly does not shy away from.

"When I started at the HAS," he says enthusiastically, "I watched the programme Food For Thought by photographer and filmmaker Kadir van Lohuizen. He mapped the food system. The opening of each episode was always the same: he indicated that products for an average meal have travelled some 30,000 kilometres (!) in total before ending up on a Dutch plate. Should we want that? And couldn't we do it smarter? These are challenges that concern the vast majority of our industry."

“You can't just leave it up to farmers to find solutions. It's also about the role of retailers, banks, technology and influencing consumer behaviour. It's a huge issue with a social responsibility attached to it. So we train young people here who can make a difference to society.”

Bringing polarisation inside

Social issues are increasingly creating tensions. Especially at a time when we have almost forgotten how to have a good, open discussion with each other. "The more complicated society is, the more interesting that is for educationalists. So we bring that polarisation inside. I don't have to do that, the boys and girls do that themselves. We have students and teachers who are protesting on the A12. Who stand up for the environment and are very passionate. And we have students who occupy the Malieveld with their tractor. They say, 'Hold on, the work we do matters!'"

Spontaneous conversations

"We gathered around 300 second-year environmental science, horticulture, animal husbandry and management students. The first questions were: 'Who are you, what do you do, where are you from?' We then organised a number of lectures and film evenings. Not to go straight into debate, but if this arose, that was fine."

In the second round, they went to the theatre performance Something With Farmers by Bureau Pees. "They had collected all kinds of stories from our students beforehand and turned them into a performance on a farm. That was fantastic. Afterwards, spontaneous conversations arose and that helped enormously to take away the discomfort around some of the themes."

Food in the future

In the third round, small groups were made. Each group of students was tasked with writing a letter to Alex Datema, Rabobank's Food & Agri director. "In these letters, they had to say what the food system will look like in 2040. And how we will keep it affordable. We then invited Alex and several MPs and the letters were read out. That made for fascinating conversations. It's nice to see young people standing up and telling their own story."

The question, of course, is whether this has also created greater long-term understanding. "Understanding, but also insight. You can be educated here as a livestock farmer with knowledge of business administration. But if you don't understand environmental legislation, you still have some work to do. Of course, we have built on the success. For instance, we now offer a class on food and - to put it flatly - the dilemmas between vegan versus meat. On how to make our food healthier."

"Based on all these experiences, we are trying to redesign the whole curriculum. With curricula that deal with working from systems in which polarisation can play a role. You are allowed to express various views at the HAS. But ultimately you will have to demonstrate on what basis you do so. And you have to accept that someone with a different perspective will counter that with his or her story."

Connected to the region

"I like to talk about our role for the region. Last week I was at our open day in Venlo. There, a lecturer told me that he has 80 business cards for students in the second semester. Each card provides access to a company and contains a specific assignment. He says: 'Go there and ask them all about it; about business administration, applied biology, you name it.' An initiative like this shows that we are very strongly connected to the region. And want to stay there."

Towards independence with education 

"That is also my message to the new cabinet: work on the position of education in the region. Look at the province of Zeeland, for example; it has a huge task. If you shut down laboratory technician training in Zeeland, the hospitals there could close down. Then there will be no one left to make a diagnosis."

"In addition, I hope that with a new government we will succeed in becoming less dependent on big tech. With the help of European and Dutch initiatives, let's take control of our destiny ourselves. If we collectively put our shoulders to the wheel, this should succeed. And if one organisation in the Netherlands can take the lead in this, it is SURF."

Text: Edwin Ammerlaan
Photos: Vera Duivenvoorden