Photographer Kadir van Lohuizen captures the food industry's attempts to meet the challenges of climate change and conflicts in his new book By Alex Wilkins Bathed in a ghostly purple-red light, these floating lettuces are barely distinguishable from those grown outdoors, but require one-tenth as much land. The high-tech greenhouse where they live, in Maasbree in the Netherlands, is one possible remedy for a global food industry in crisis facing a shortage of land due to climate change and conflict In his new book, Food for Thought photographer Kadir van Lohuizen captures the food industry’s struggle with these challenges taking a whistlestop world tour of how the sausage While high-tech solutions like the lettuce farm, pictured above, and Plenty’s vertical farm in Compton promise to deliver us from food apocalypse van Lohuizen doesn’t shy away from the low-tech dystopia of much of the world’s food production as it is Plenty is a new vertical farm located in Compton He hopes that giving an insight into the size of the industry might make it easier to answer questions such as: how will it change in a rapidly warming climate, and which solutions are feasible? His Food for Thought exhibition, featuring video, photography and sound is at the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam until 5 January 2025 You can read this article in 2 minutesAgnieszka Kulikowska - Wielgus the German A61 towards the Dutch border will also be inaccessible to traffic between the Het Vonderen junction and the Maasbree exit will be closed in both directions this weekend due to maintenance work The road will be impassable from Friday at 9 pm until Sunday According to Rijkswaterstaat (Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management) drivers are warned that detours could extend travel time by up to 30 minutes The A73 motorway between the Het Vonderen junction and exit (14) Maasbree towards Venlo and Nijmegen is closed along with the following entrances and exits: the German A61 motorway and the Dutch A74 motorway between the Kaldenkirchen (2) exit in Germany and the Tiglia junction towards Venlo and Nijmegen will be closed for the duration of the works on the A73 Rijkswaterstaat and Autobahn GmbH will close the following entrances and exits: Agnieszka Kulikowska - Wielgus Journalist Trans.info | 6.05.2025 Pölös Zsófia Journalist Trans.info | 5.05.2025 Fragrance on the Fly: Why Pocket Perfumes Are Perfect for Airplane TravelSponsored Article 6.05.2025 Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news You are receiving this pop-up because this is the first time you are visiting our site You are using software which is blocking our advertisements (adblocker) we are relying on revenues from our banners So please disable your adblocker and reload the page to continue using this site.Thanks A week after the bankruptcy of West Plant Group's parent company the group's own plant breeding companies have now been declared bankrupt West Plant Biological and West Plant Retail The liquidator is investigating the possibilities for a relaunch and is in talks with several candidates interested in (parts of) the company, he told De Limburger In order for a possible sale to go smoothly efforts are being made to continue plant cultivation Maasbree-based West Plant Group is a propagator specializing in cabbage, celery, leek, herb and strawberry plants in trays. The company is embroiled in a damages case following a claim after a faulty delivery of organic planting material West Plant Group supplied strawberry plants and patio roses West Plant Group had been struggling financially for some time The trustee appointed for the bankruptcy is like in the bankruptcy of parent company Anba Verhalle The receiver previously informed De Limburger that the plant nurseries were outside Anba Verhalle's bankruptcy as GFActueel previously reported without the official ruling the companies are also officially bankrupt The receiver has been asked for an explanation Anba Verhalle was declared bankrupt on 14 February West Plant Biological and West Plant Retail were declared bankrupt on 21 February The bankruptcy was published on 24 February and registered under reference: 03.lim.25.58.F.1300.1.25 FreshPublishers © 2005-2025 HortiDaily.com Sowing lines are restarted and new orders are being taken again. That is the result of the restart of Dutch propagator West Plant Group under the name WPG the focus of the new shareholder Erik Gubbels and a new management team will be on the greenhouse location in greenhouse horticulture area Siberia and on supplying cabbage plants and strawberry plants There was temporary uncertainty about this after the bankruptcy "It happened fairly spontaneously," says Erik who also owns pepper cultivation company Kwekerij Gubbels in addition to his new role Erik takes over WPG as shareholder of WPG Real Estate BV and WPG BV also because we ourselves are also in the greenhouse horticulture area of Siberia I talked to people from the company and from my network and see opportunities for the beautiful company that West Plant Group was There is room in the market for a company like WPG." New ordersAfter the bankruptcy in mid-February together with the people at the propagator The Limburg-based company specializes in cabbage and strawberry plants in trays and also supplies strawberry plants and patio roses to retailers "The people of West Plant Group have continued to work with dedication during the bankruptcy Most urgent now is the delivery of cabbage plants we want to give them clarity quickly and continue to supply good-quality plants We want to convince customers who were temporarily forced to go to other suppliers to come back good-quality plants and continue with that." with Managing Director Wieke Grubben at the helm is now choosing to go back to basics first Wieke had been working at the propagator before the bankruptcy "We are continuing almost the entire product package The details about that have yet to crystallize A bankruptcy process is very short and fast you can't work out everything in detail already Cabbage plants will remain the main product and we will also continue to supply strawberry plants for those who think pepper grower Erik looks at this with a slanted eye "The current stands have little or no heating If you want to propagate fruiting vegetable plants Archive image propagation of cauliflower plants Focus on SiberiaAs part of "back to basics," the focus for now is on the Maasbree site in the greenhouse horticulture area Siberia West Plant Group was based at three locations "We will not take over the location in Lottum but we will take over the location on Venrayseweg in Venlo although the focus is now first on the location in Maasbree." At the Maasbree location there is an opportunity to expand in glass area Bundling activities at one location is something the new management team is considering with an eye to the future we offer continuity and stability within the market in which we operate." the focus is now first on continuing ongoing crops Erik will try to divide his time between pepper cultivation and breeding activities he says early Wednesday morning before entering a series of consultations with WPG people I can only do that thanks to a great team of good people who manage the day-to-day and weekly operations for Nursery Gubbels." another buyer has been found by the trustee For more information:WPG[email protected]www.westplantgroup.com At cucumber grower Paul van Lipzig of Hortus in Futuro in Maasbree the cucumber green mottle mosaic virus repeatedly popped up in the greenhouse in recent years but the virus spread much less than in previous years The grower managed to curb the advance of the virus well with strict hygiene measures An important part of this strategy is a special harvesting knife says grower Paul van Lipzig and crop consultant Herman Hermans Hortus in Futuro grows cucumbers in Maasbree The Top-Knife is an idea from cucumber grower Hans Houben and his cultivation consultant Herman Hermans of Innocrop Consulting decided to further develop and start producing the knife The collaboration with Hortiware with Dirk-Jan Haas as the contact person resulted in an expansion of sales points Top-Knife is already being used by cucumber companies at home and abroad Inhibiting spread of virus"Herman came to us with the idea of the knife," Paul remembers Hortus in Futuro has been suffering from the cucumber green mottle mosaic virus since 2011 "We know the virus well," the grower laughs with a hint of pain "All ideas in combating the virus are therefore welcome." The grower has three crops of cucumber per year in the greenhouse and a lot of attention is also paid to hygiene during cultivation hands are disinfected every half-row," he says The tricky thing with the cucumber green mottle mosaic virus is that the plant only shows symptoms of infection after about three weeks you don't see anything of it at first," Herman also knows the virus can quickly spread 'like an oil slick' through harvesting and crop operations once one plant is infected." growers started working with the Top-Knife "from day 1" The knife was already being tested last year "Our people didn't like it at first," Paul recalls Automatic decontaminationThe priority when developing the knife was disinfection A reservoir with disinfectant on the knife takes care of this Because the reservoir sits higher than the knife a small amount of liquid flows continuously over the knife All current systems used in horticulture depend on humans to operate properly This design ensures that disinfection happens automatically." A full reservoir holds 50 milliliters of liquid ControlThe amount of liquid that keeps flowing can be adjusted by the grower with a screw one blue and one red Paul: "When we have harvested a row The knife goes into a bucket with the disinfectant Virkon S we know that the employees are always working with a filled reservoir each color belongs to a side of the center aisle." Other growers use a different color at the odd rows than in the even rows it is easy to check that the employee is switching after each row," he says people are 'creatures of habit.' Therefore "Old knives had to be tilted all the time for disinfection This also prevents muscle and joint injuries that can occur with frequently repeated operations." Before the inventors arrived at this knife but there were many more than I can count on the fingers of one hand The first knife also looked very different from the prototype People have been working on it for more than a decade Each time it turned out to be too complicated to work with That is why it is so important that this knife is foolproof." it is important that the knife can be operated with one hand you have knives where one hand is for the knife and the other hand for holding the fruit Experienced harvesters do it with one hand we saw that the harvest figures declined slightly but soon the figures were back to their previous level the main thing is that we don't want any virus spreading Because this knife works easily and good disinfection is guaranteed I am really convinced that this has helped us keep the virus confined to certain spots in the greenhouse much better this year Development for other cropsThe knife does not prevent virus infection The cultivation process is too complex for that This is also equipped with a disinfection mechanism its developers also have good experience with leaf scissors for cucumber cultivation The prototype of tomato scissors is also ready For more information:Dirk-Jan Haas +31 (0)6 59695654[email protected] www.hortiware.nl  Tom Houben Top-3D +31 (0)6 29062877 [email protected]      www.top-3d.nl  and strawberries in their greenhouses in Uden The facility at Bovenstehuis in Boekel (6.1 hectares) is equipped with high-pressure fogging by MJ-Tech and insect netting from Holland Gaas The grower René Tielemans shares more about the use of both technologies A central climate computer controls the MJ-Tech high-pressure fogging system When a moisture deficit below the defined setpoint is detected the high-pressure fogging unit starts to add moisture to the greenhouse This does not depend on the relative humidity as the moisture deficit indicates how many grams/m³ of moisture can be added to the air "This is a safe way to control the greenhouse climate," explains Rob Kwinten from MJ-Tech "With a high moisture deficit and a high temperature All of that can be prevented by simply lowering the moisture deficit through high-pressure fogging the plant can maximize the absorption of the provided CO2 and sunlight." The amount of moisture that can be introduced - the pulse length - depends on the available solar radiation and the air exchange capacity of the greenhouse "This allows us to respond quickly to changes in the external climate we create exactly the climate plants need to continue to evaporate optimally." Insect NettingThe greenhouse has a 0.4x0.4 mm mesh to keep insects out of the greenhouse Holland Gaas reports that thanks to the netting of the greenhouse only 10% of the insects enter the facility but it's important to find a balance between reducing insects and providing proper ventilation "Where previously pest insects flew in all at once we can now effectively control them with biological control we reduce unpleasant surprises from occurring in the crop." This is especially important considering growers can rely on a very limited number of chemical products whose effectiveness has even decreased over time growers resorted to different solutions to keep pests away sparrows can carry the cucumber mosaic virus that growers do not want that risk to their crops Spider MitesRené uses predatory mites to combat spider mites and keep pest pressure in the greenhouse low The insect netting makes it much harder for thrips to enter the greenhouse and high-pressure fogging supports the biologicals: at high humidity and lower temperature the population of predatory mites is more active and fare better populated overall biologicals were mainly active in the lower part of the plant we see predatory mites are also getting to the top of the plant This results in less crop damage and biotic plant stress." At the same time biologicals are not the only ones benefitting from it as a cooler climate in the greenhouse is also desirable for farmworkers during warm periods Ventilation StrategyGrowing with insect netting also required some adjustments to the ventilation strategy a few percent of venting was enough for air exchange in the greenhouse After the installation of the insect netting a few percent more had to be added," René explains The combination of high-pressure foging and insect netting results in fewer fluctuations in the greenhouse climate and a healthier and more vibrant crop fogging was also used to create a vegetative climate to facilitate the formation of new tops Fog and ScreensBecause high-pressure fogging and screens are used there is no need to use chalk on the locations anymore "Since the installation of high-pressure fogging This allows for up to 150 W/m² more solar radiation to be received during warm periods," René says referring to the rule: 1% more light equals 1% more yield the stomata also remain open during warm periods Growers share information about the application of high-pressure fogging and insect netting by participating in study clubs "Install the insect netting before you install high-pressure fogging there is more workspace for the installation of the insect netting." Holland Gaas adds that the netting systems can be mounted from both the outside and the inside For more information:Fresh Valley Tel: 0777820170 [email protected] www.freshvalley.nl Holland GaasTel: +31 174 516 180[email protected] www.hollandgaas.nl MJtech Tel +31 (0) 76 597 45 03[email protected]www.mjtech.nl