Banker Berry Marttin (Rabobank) advocates nature costing instead of true costing. Peter van Bodegom, environmental biologist Leiden University), doesn’t agree with Marttin. Nature costing will make us fall in the same trap as true costing. We musn't just register the damage, but we need to work on direct pay backs. “We need to do nature profiting as well”, Van Bodegom says. His colleague Koos Biesmeijer, professor of Natural Capital at Leiden University, explained in this interview that sound natural accounting unlike the risk of true costing is like - as one might say - islamic banking: money paying for nature debts must be put to good use creating tangible natural value instead of usurious interest rates just using nature as an endless lender in a spread sheet.

Natural capital accounting provides the balance assessing natural capital losses and real instead of just monetary paybacks. Natural capital is anything that is around in nature and can add value to human beings as part of nature.

Moderator Tiffany Tsui will talk with Anke Hamminga, Sustainability lead EU at Cargill to find out how her company is working on a new methodology to clarify contradictory choices modern consumers and their suppliers make with the intention of doing the right thing. Cargill intends to stay neutral but wants to raise awareness amongst their clients and consumer about the consequences of so-called sustainable choices serving nature and opposing climate change.

Anke Hamminga, Cargill


Is that enough to assure real natural paybacks or the end of doing harm to natural capital? Foodlog's Dick Veerman wil explain the notion of Natural Capital and the geopolitical and technical challenges to implement it.
Dick Veerman


AGENDA - Next chats (1:30 PM till 2:15 PM (CET) + 45 minutes of informal digital drinks)
  • April 28 (Please note: Wednesday): Transparancy by story telling: commercial opportunities

  • May 11: EU Green Deal: Assessing & Monitoring Environmental Impact

  • May 25: (Crypto) Currencies and the Fair Trade Revolution

  • June 8: EU Green Deal & Sustainability Standards: Transparency in Law, Industry and Brand Based Standards

  • June 22: From Soil to Stomach: Monitoring Health and Environmental Impact


PREVIOUS CHATS IN THIS SERIES
1. Digitisation will disrupt the food system as we know it

In the opening chat of the series, moderator Tiffany Tsui chats with panelists Paul Buisman (Moba, egg packing machines), Kristian Möller (GlobalG.A.P.), Hans de Gier (SyncForce, data integration), and Dick Veerman (Foodlog) to discuss the challenges ahead in the world of digital food.

2. Bye Manpower, Hello Machines and Value

In the absence of a global authority that is aware of the powers unleashed by the digitisation of food, what 'no-body' can guard the interests of the global community?
Hans de Gier (SyncForce) explains - during the second chat - the Consumer Goods Forum's Data Ports project. The project's goal is to make the myriad of product standards interoperable by a common basic taxonomy and connecting simple identifiers. The good news: it is fully feasible, as Hans explains in great technical detail.


3. The True Code - a free global digital Passport for every Farmer and Facility

Chat 3: in the near future, data will travel with products. Retailers and brands need fast, cheap, and reliable data. There are several platforms (blockchains, data lakes, ERP systems) that already contain supplier and product related-data. These platforms, however, are not interconnected. Data exchange is limited and complicated. Interconnectivity and the easy exchange of data cannot do without a reliable, yet simple identification of every individual company that has a role in the supply chain. This can be done by using a unique electronic passport connected to every individual facility that is an actor in the chain.

4. Blooming Africa - the transfer of practical know how, organising farmers, the AfCFTA free trade area and creating value with transparency

Tiffany Tsui discusses - during the fourth chat - with hands on expert Dutch strawberry grower and advisor Jan Robben, TRUE Code-developer Marjan de Bock-Smit, Victoria Madedor (African Farmers Stories), and Dr Ikechi Agbugba (Rivers State University, Nigeria) how recent border closures on the one hand and new trade opportunities on the other impact agriculture in Africa.

At 1:08:00 min. they were spontaneously joined by Memory Nyakwima Chakwita from Zimbabwe who showed the potential strawberry fields in which she would like to apply all that was discussed. It was a special moment in the informal part of the discussion, showing the potential of this way of connecting people, expertise and ideas.

5. How to unlock Africa’s agricultural potential?

In the fifth chat of the Digital Food series, Tiffany Tsui asked her panel of African experts about challenges to organize trust, capital and infrastructure for African smallholder entrepreneurs. Victoria Madedor (African Farmers Stories), Babatunde Olarewaju (Futux Agri Consult, Lagos, Nigeria), and Dr Ikechi Agbugba (Rivers State University, Nigeria) discussed the overcoming challenges to trade and export of crops. Marjan de Bock-Smit (founder ImpactBuying, former CEO SIM Supply) responds.

The first Digital Food conference in it's pre-covid physical guise in Amsterdam, 2019.