Building together toward a new food system

Robin is working towards a new food system in which farmers and citizens work together. Farmers gain greater security and receive a fair price for their products, while healthy food becomes affordable and accessible to everyone. Together, we are building a fairer and more sustainable food system.

A Systemic Approach to Food System Change

The transition to a more sustainable food system begins on the farm, but it cannot end there. What a farmer does with soil, crops, and livestock is directly connected to how supply chains are organised, the prices paid by the market, and the regulations set by governments.

Robin was created from this understanding and is one of the initiatives supported by the ReGeNL programme. While many transition projects focus primarily on farming practices, Robin looks at the entire system: from farmer to consumer, from production to distribution.

Looking Beyond the Farm Gate

Regenerative agriculture requires the restoration of healthy soils and biodiversity. However, meaningful change remains difficult as long as farmers operate within a system driven by volume, low prices, and short-term contracts.

Many farmers face the same structural barriers: price pressure from retailers and processors, long-term supply agreements, high financing costs, and regulations that are still designed around scale and standardisation. These are classic system lock-ins: structures that once appeared efficient but now hinder innovation and transformation.

Rather than working around these barriers, Robin seeks to reorganise the system from within.

A Cooperative Market of Farmers and Citizens

Robin is designed as a cooperative marketplace in which farmers and citizens share responsibility.

Five to ten farmers produce food for approximately 2,500 citizens. The range includes vegetables, fruit, bread, meat, and dairy products. In addition, the assortment is supplemented with European products that are not, or only minimally, produced locally, such as citrus fruits, olives, and pasta.

This creates a complete range of healthy products for breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout the year.

The first Robin location will open in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Participating citizens do not purchase food as anonymous customers but as active members who contribute through a monthly payment.

Contributions are adjusted according to household spending capacity and are, on average, 10 to 25 percent lower than typical market prices. Households with lower incomes pay 20 to 50 percent less than average, while households with higher incomes pay the standard rate. This social pricing model ensures that healthy food remains accessible to everyone.

Security and Stability for Farmers

A key success factor for Robin is bringing together enough citizens to form a strong and committed community. This collective demand creates market power.

Farmers produce directly for this community and therefore gain greater certainty regarding both sales and pricing. This enables them to invest in more sustainable farming practices.

Unlike transitions such as conversion to organic farming, farmers within Robin do not carry the costs and risks of change alone. These costs and risks become part of the agreements between farmers and citizens. The cooperative therefore shares not only the benefits but also the risks, lowering barriers to change and creating space for social innovation within the agricultural sector.

Collaboration Is Essential

Supportive public policy is essential to make this transition possible. Governments can contribute through environmental and land-use permits that facilitate sustainability rather than obstruct it.

Financial institutions such as Rabobank can help by enabling investments at farm level. Robin also requires collaboration with existing supply-chain partners such as FrieslandCampina and Cosun. As mentioned earlier, many farmers are tied to long-term contracts that limit their ability to market part of their production through alternative channels.

Greater flexibility within such agreements could help new initiatives like Robin grow and succeed.

Practical Challenges

There are also practical challenges to address.

Food production naturally takes place in specific regions: fruit in the Betuwe, arable crops in Zeeland, and dairy farming in peat meadow areas. This raises important questions about logistics, regional production, and scale.

Should every region strive to produce everything it consumes, or is specialisation and exchange between regions a more effective approach?

Another challenge is whole-product utilisation: how can all parts of an animal or every component of a dairy stream be used as efficiently as possible? Addressing these issues requires smart collaboration and the development of new distribution channels.

Reconnecting Soil, Farmer, and Citizen

Robin is part of Landschappij, an ecosystem that reconnects citizens with the soil through the farmer.

Rather than viewing farmers solely as entrepreneurs—or even as polluters—this perspective emphasises their role as stewards of soil, plants, and animals. This societal role deserves recognition. However, genuine appreciation can only emerge when citizens are actively involved in understanding how their food is produced.

That is exactly what Robin seeks to organise: a system in which farmers and citizens share responsibility. Not by standing opposite one another, but by working side by side towards a food system that is fairer, more sustainable, and more socially inclusive.

The transition may begin on the farm, but it can only truly succeed when society moves forward together.