N. (Noortje) Wauben, Dr

Solving the regenerative puzzle: From ill-fitting pieces toward synergy in regenerative agricultural systems in Zuid-Limburg, the Netherlands.

The focus of the Dutch agricultural system on maximizing food production and decreasing production costs has contributed to the deterioration of ecosystem health and socioeconomic wellbeing. Consequently, there is increasing interest among scholars and practitioners in transforming the Dutch agricultural system, but it remains unclear what the new agricultural system will be. The regenerative lens offers useful guiding principles for its design, but the implementation of these principles is still not well understood. Therefore, this research embarks on a collaborative journey to create a regenerative agricultural system in Zuid-Limburg. The creation of a regenerative agricultural system is approached as a puzzle because there are numerous parts across domains (i.e., social, economic, ecological) and scales (i.e., plot, farm, region) that need to fit together for the system to be fully regenerative. This research will follow three phases in the development of a new system, namely: 1) diagnosing the present condition, 2) designing the desired condition, and 3) doing what we can to realize the desired condition. These phases are expected to address three important barriers in the transition to regenerative agriculture, which are: a) lack of knowledge on what enables or impedes regeneration, b) absence of a regional vision for the future, and c) challenges in navigating uncertainty.