STRATEGY ▶▶▶
Leftovers as main feed ingredient
BY DICK VAN DOORN H
is parents grew up just after World War II in a large, poor farmer family. They never threw out leftovers, but fed them to the pig. Once fattened, the pig was slaughtered and eaten. In hindsight, this was
circular agriculture in its purest form. Being an entrepreneur at Kipster, Ruud Zanders (45) is certainly not afraid to say what he thinks about that. “When sustainability is important for you, you do not serve turkey for Christmas. In circular agri- culture, you convert residual flows into animal protein as effi- ciently as possible. A hen that lays an egg does exactly that. Fattening animals for their meat is far less efficient.” Mr Zanders follows the principles that stem from circular agri- culture research conducted by WUR professor Imke de Boer and Dr Hanna van Zanten. Ruud Zanders: “According to these principles, you use good and fertile soil for human vegetable consumption. Marginal or poor soil that can only sustain grass should be used for dairy cows or goats. Goats belong to the more woody crops of Southern Europe and North Africa. Residuals flows from the land and from human consumption are fed to animals that convert them as efficiently as possible into animal proteins. This way, it will become clear that you use dairy cows, laying hens and pigs optimally in the food system.”
Other role for animals Generally speaking, Mr Zanders thinks that the role of the an- imal in food production should change. “I always ask people how ethical it is to feed good raw materials that are very suit- able for human consumption to animals bred for that pur- pose, knowing that almost 1 billion people on earth are starv- ing. In other words, we have 1 kilogram of grain that can feed ten people, but we give it to a pig or broiler and to two to four people. This is very inefficient and does not only ask for a new way of producing, but also of consuming.” In addition to the conscious prevention of food competition, Kipster also connects town and country, according to Mr Zanders. Literally, because two entrepreneurs that have Kip- ster shares live in Amsterdam and are true city dwellers. One is sustainability expert Maurits Groen. Mr Groen has pub- lished, among other books, the Dutch version of Al Gore’s book about the dangers of the greenhouse effect. The other
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In the Kipster poultry-housing concept, sustainability is key. Ruud Zanders, the concept’s founder, was declared the second most sustainable person in the ‘Duurzame 100’, a Dutch sustainability top 100. The company also won the Rabobank Sustainable Innovation Award and the Mansholt Business Award for sustainable entrepreneurship this year.
urban dweller is communications strategist Olivier Wegloop. Mr Zanders: “They have a completely different angle than we have. People from the city often have an opinion about food that matters more than the sector wants to believe or recognise.”
Feeding only residual flows Mr Zanders used to have an international poultry company with poultry houses in several countries around the world. As a result of avian flu, among other things, the company went bankrupt in 2007. “Luckily, my wife and I managed to stay away from debt restructuring. When something like this hap- pens, you start thinking about life in general. I decided to do things completely differently. It was clear to me that I wanted to stay in the poultry sector.”
Ruud Zanders sees the role of the animal changing in food production, leftovers from human con- sumption can be used for feed for different spiecies.
PHOTO: DICK VAN DOORN
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