When I was a kid my father had a small pig and dairy farm and sold animal feed for Hendrix Voeders, now For Farmers, now one of the largest feed manufacture in Europe. He taught me counting to 20 with the returned feed bags going to the deposit. 1,2,3,4….18, 19 and one around them makes 20. It gave me a head start in math on school. I was really proud of my father’s farm and farming in general and could not accept the critique that agriculture was unsustainable that was already voiced loudly in the early 1970’s in the Netherlands.
On my first speech in secondary school I told my class mates that pigs don’t eat loads of grain for every kg of meat they produce. In fact they are disposing of our waste. I passed around the composition tag of a bag of Hendrix pig feed to prove that pig farming was sustainable (and that was in 1974!). When I decided to exploit my analytical skills to study chemical engineering and develop a career that would earn me an easier buck than farming, my father expressed his hope that I would not be lost for farming completely. My analytical skills were the foundation of my first job and of a very diverse career at DSM. But for a long time I had no clue that they could play a role in animal nutrition. So it is really a coincidence that I find myself now back in the core of the ANH strategy, calculating the environmental impact of farms and providing insights in how we can reduce it. I am very proud to be a part of WE MAKE IT POSSIBLE new positioning. My father is now 86 and still a farmer in heart and soul. To make him proud we have to make it possible on the farms, otherwise it is just a nice talk. I surely want to make it possible working with you and our customers.
At DSM, we strongly believe in sustainable food systems and that the livestock industry can transform itself from within to be a part of the solution. We want to play a key role in this transformation and work at species and country level, with our partners, to provide tangible and actionable solutions to create brighter lives for all.
If not us, who?
If not now, when?
So, let’s make it possible!
Cheers,
Henk Bosch
Sustainability Manager
