Regeneration at a distance from the state: From radical imaginaries to alternative practices in Dutch farming

Abstract

This article combines a ‘zoomed-out’ political economic analysis of Dutch agriculture with a more ‘zoomed-in’ empirical exploration of small new entrant farmers who are carving out space for alternative food networks and practices in the Netherlands. Developing a concept of proto-regenerative imaginaries, we define proto-regenerative farmers as those farmers whose work is driven by a desire to contribute to social and ecological well-being. The use of the term ‘regenerative’ does not imply just the use of practices associated with ‘regenerative agriculture’, but to regeneration as a holistic framework rooted in a paradigm of care in which productive activities (e.g., agroecology) go hand in hand with the reproduction of social and ecological well-being. Data comes from an in-depth ethnographic study on a peri-urban farm that expanded to other farms and initiatives ( n = 5) within the network. Strategies used by farmers to carve out these spaces of regeneration include de-commodification of their produce through ‘solidarity payment’ schemes, the forging of reciprocal relationships and networks with other farmers, and