For months, farmer Joop van de Wiel from Klundert has been looking forward to his organically grown green beans being ready for harvest. But now that the time has come, the local supermarkets no longer want to take them from him. That’s why his field was full on Saturday with local residents who were allowed to come and do their own thing for a bargain price. “I am sending a double message with this,” Joop explains.
Local residents are busy on Joop’s plot on Saturday. Tim is standing in the field with his two-year-old son, picking beans. “There are nice green beans among them. It’s a shame that they don’t have a place in the supermarket,” says Tim. “And it is a wonderful experience for my son to do this together with dad.”
In addition to green beans, farmer Joop also grows kale, peas, carrots, turnips and spinach. Three years ago he changed course and decided to start growing organically. Until now, his vegetables have always been purchased by supermarkets.
But this year Joop was suddenly no longer able to sell his organic green beans to the local Albert Heijn and Dirk. “The supermarkets charge double for green beans if they are organic. People don’t buy it, so the supermarkets throw it off the shelves.”
“This is how it ends.”
Now he suddenly finds himself with a field full of green beans, which he doesn’t lose on the paving stones. In order not to throw them away and still earn something from them, Joop invited the entire neighborhood. They can come and pick their own beans. “Ordinary beans are on the shelves for two euros per kilo, but here they can be picked for one euro per kilo,” says Joop.
It doesn’t make the farmer rich. Normally the plot would yield around 25,000 euros. Now Joop must be happy if he raises a thousand euros. “It’s a drop in the ocean,” he says. With his action, Joop hopes to send ‘a double message’: “On the one hand, we are encouraged by the government to grow organically, but this is where it ends.”
“We see every day how hard he has to work.”
Many local residents responded to Joop’s call and came to pick the crops themselves on Saturday. For example, around noon a woman has already filled a few bags with green beans. “Joop is my neighbor at the back and we see every day how hard he has to work,” she says. “The fact that this is now here and not being taken away is a financial blow for him. And with all the food waste that already exists in the world, it would be a shame to leave it alone.”
Will she also choose organic the next time she goes shopping? “I’m quite willing to pay a little more. But the question is whether the farmer earns from it or the supermarket. They are expensive on the shelves, but what goes to the farmer? I would like to know that first.”
Joop is happy that so many local residents have come. “I find the reactions heart-warming. That encourages me to continue,” the farmer concludes.
Tim and his son have picked a large mountain of green beans, which they are going to freeze. The entire neighborhood came by to support Joop (photo: Megan Hanegraaf).
2023-10-07 15:58:50
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