Our systems approach

We view the farm as a system consisting of different elements, such as soil, crops, animals, machinery, employees, farmer, family, etc. All elements are interconnected and influence each other directly or indirectly. The farm is part of larger systems, such as the agri-food industry (supply and sale of products,...), society (consumers, neighbors,...), the ecosystem (soil, water and air) and nature (biodiversity: functional, neutral and harmful organisms).

Systems thinking seeks to maintain an overview of the whole, rather than focusing on individual elements. It places an agricultural problem in its broader context, thus allowing us to consider the extent to which the problem is determined by the smaller (farm) system, or by the contextual systems. The goal is to understand how elements and systems are related and how they influence each other within a whole. After all, systems rarely behave as simple chains of cause and effect, but as an interplay of interacting subsystems, in which feedback loops play an important role.

We prefer a preventive approach when we want to solve research questions instead of focusing on symptom management. We look at the question from different points of view, we combine multiple types of expertise and knowledge (practical and fundamental research) and we bring interactions into focus. We zoom in and out when examining the problem to see how the context influences the problem, and we examine how the elements of the system influence or reinforce each other.