Our network consists mostly of historians, but we welcome and encourage everyone who studies food and agricultural-related topics, especially early career scholars, to join us.
We organise various types of network meetings throughout the academic year including:
- Research presentations
- Book presentations / discussions
- Work-in-progress brainstorm sessions
- Excursions
We also distribute information on recent publications, upcoming events, calls for papers, conferences, et cetera in the field of food and agricultural history. This results in fruitful collaborations and creates a community for (junior and senior) scholars.
Anna Teijeiro Fokkema is a PhD researcher at the Athena Institute of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her political and environmental history project focuses on agricultural-related industries in relation to environmental issues in the Netherlands (1970-2000). Specifically, the project is centred around Dutch discourses on environmental issues concerned with the rising role of agricultural-related industries, such as the pesticide and animal feed industry.
The project
not only tries to add a different perspective on farming in a context of political and societal change, globalisation and environmental crises, it also aims to contribute to our understanding of a past that is so much intertwined with the future of our food system.
Together with Amber Striekwold she founded the Food and Agricultural History Network Netherlands. At the Athena Institute, she teaches on the relation between science and democracy.
Amber Striekwold is PhD-researcher at Utrecht University. She began her PhD titled “Food as a Tool for Social Change: How Ideas and Practices on Natural Food and Farming Entered the Mainstream in the Netherlands (1950-2000)” in October 2022 funded by the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
In her current project, Amber studies the evolution and circulation of ideas and practices in the Netherlands, with a focus on alternative agro-food systems. How have these alternatives and critiques evolved? Why did some take hold and others did not?
She focuses primarily on meat consumption and production.
This project aims to provide a deeper understanding of the historical rootedness of contemporary narratives and debates about the future of the agro-food system. It ties together her main interests: food, agriculture and environmental history.
Amber is part of the organising committee of the international bi-annual Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food. Together with Anna Teijeiro, she set up this food and agricultural history network in the Netherlands.