Food futures from Amsterdam to Mercosur
In Amsterdam, seed exchanges still take place around kitchen tables, community gardens and small farms on the edges of the city. Growers swap tomato varieties that survive Dutch rain, beans adapted to sandy soils, and herbs passed down across generations. These small practices might seem local and informal, yet they shape resilient food systems that consistently place healthy food on our plates.
Our food systems are being threatened by Free Trade Agreements like the EU-Mercosur agreement. This deal, which has been negotiated for over two decades, will create one of the largest free trade zones in the world. The agreement would increase imports of soy, beef and critical minerals into Europe while expanding exports of European industrial and agri-food products. We spoke to Djuna Farjon, co-ordinator of HandelAnders (Trade Differently), a network of citizen organisations campaigning for fair and sustainable trade who have been working to halt the ratification of this agreement. Djuna told us that ‘Dutch farmers [will] have to compete with agricultural products from the Mercosur that are made under lower standards.’
She explains that European farmers have to adhere to strict pesticide limits and GMO regulations which are not in place in Mercosur countries. This creates unfair competition for Dutch farmers and floods the markets with unregulated products. On the flipslide in Latin America, the agreement will place farmers under increased pressure to produce and compete with European dairy farmers: ‘On both sides it's bad for the farmers’ she tells us.
HandelAnders proposes an alternative, ‘If you can protect your market more, you can give your farmers fairer prices’ Djuna explains, ‘but it also means that it becomes more worthwhile for farmers to produce local alternatives’. Djuna argues that instead of depleting workers’ rights and environmental standards, trade can be used to ameliorate farmers' lives and increase environmental protections.
In the Netherlands, farm numbers are already in decline due to economic insecurity. With climate change making harvests less predictable, unfair competition created by free trade agreements will have detrimental social and ecological impacts. If imports expand as local farms disappear, access to food will be increasingly organised by global commodity flows rather than landscapes, seasons and regional farming traditions. This reshapes everyday diets. Regionally adapted varieties suited to Dutch conditions are gradually replaced by uniform crops bred for transport and scale. Along with them disappears practical knowledge held by farmers. The concern is cultural as well as economic. Farming is not only production, but also keeping the landscapes alive: maintaining biodiversity, preserving culinary traditions and sustaining rural livelihoods. When production shifts outward, these functions weaken, and access to food depends increasingly on precarious markets rather than relationships between nearby growers and communities.
So how can we support biodiversity, farmers’ autonomy worldwide, and resilient food systems rooted in ecological heritage? In Amsterdam, the answers are already taking shape. Community-supported agriculture schemes, agroecological initiatives, and neighbourhood food projects are rebuilding relationships between growers and eaters. One such initiative is Reclaim the Seeds festival, which will take place on the 14th and 15th of March at Fruittuin van West. The festival offers the opportunity to meet and support local farmers and learn more about seed sharing. At the heart of the festival is the seed market, where local farmers, growers, and enthusiasts meet to exchange seeds, and the programme of talks and workshops highlight practical alternatives to corporate-controlled agriculture and open a space for collective action. These spaces are vital, since ultimately, the future of food is shaped not only in trade deals, but in everyday choices: which farms survive and what seeds are planted. At Fruittuin van West, that question becomes tangible, passed hand to hand in the form of a seed.