STRATEGY ▶▶▶
A range has Ruud Zanders preference, but it shouldn’t be as large as is usual in organic production. “That would be a waste of land.”
He became CEO of the Rondeel and lectured on the Healthy Poultry Industry at Aeres College in the Dutch city of Dronten. He started developing the Kipster concept together with his partners in 2013. After years of masterminding and preparing the concept, they started the construction of the modern Kip- ster house for 24,000 chickens in Oirlo in 2017. The farm is pri- vately funded. Kipster is more catholic than the pope with regard to the principles of circular agriculture. Mr Zanders: “Secretary Schouten (the Dutch Secretary for agriculture) says that we can also use regionally grown grains, if we practise circular agriculture. We say, using only residual flows is better. In oth- er words, we need to prevent human-animal food competi- tion. Good, fertile soil should not be used for the food pro- duction for pigs, laying hens or broilers. You should feed these animals with existing residual flows and use dairy cows to graze on marginal soil. That way, you use all available farm land as efficiently as possible for feeding humans.”
‘Plant based is the future’ Mr Zanders eats almost completely plant based by now. His wife and children initially thought: ‘sure, whatever’. By now, they have started to embrace his way of thinking. “The global community cannot be completely fed with vegetables, be- cause that would mean we have to stop using our marginal soil and residuals flows and we would not produce enough
16 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 1, 2019
food for the entire global population,” he laughs. “I do take the current level of technique into account. Because we can consume far less meat with this way of thinking, I see meat substitutes as a good development.” Kipster laying hens are fed with left over rusk, knäckebröd, rice cakes, rejected ice-cream waffles and eggshells from bak- eries. These are leftovers, which means the chickens are not organic. Mr Zanders: “The organic sector grows (organic) grains and corn to feed laying hens. It is better to give them residual flows, to keep the grain and corn for human con- sumption. Furthermore, I think it is a complete waste of land that so many hectares are used for organic laying hens, while the animals often do not even use their free range. Those hectares could be used for human food production.” Kipster talks to everyone, even the most extreme animal wel- fare and environmental organisations. “If we engage with these organisations, we are not interested in what they mini- mally want, but what the maximally want right now.”
Construction of a second farm By now, Kipster has applied for the environmental license in the district where it wants to build a second farm. This will be a copy of the current farm in Oirlo. Kipster hopes to start con- struction in March of this year. The reason to build a second farm is that the demand for Kipster eggs, only sold by the su- permarket Lidl, is permanently larger than supply.
PHOTO: DICK VAN DOORN
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