Dear friends,
We have an exciting internship vacancy for you today!
We’re looking for an intern who wants to help organize the Farm Experience Internship with Boerengroep and help develop the project of the Places of Hope and Resistance group in the national Agroecology Network. Note that this internship takes 5 months, from half of March until half of August. However, you are able to get an additional 3 ECTS for joining the FEI.
The first part of the internship will be more focused on the Places of Hope and Resistance project, while the second part will focus on the organization of the FEI. Next to this, it is recommended to include days working on a farm in the internship. Together with the Boerengroep supervisor, you will develop a realistic time structure for the internship at the start.
Organizing the Farm Experience Internship
For the Boerengroep part, you will be a fundamental part of the team organizing this year’s Farm Experience Internship (FEI). The FEI is a 3 ECTS summer course that focuses on agroecology from a theory, practice and movement-perspective. The course takes four weeks: the first week takes place in Wageningen, and is filled with lectures, workshops and excursions that inspire us to think about farming and agroecology. Then all participants do a practical internship on a farm for two weeks. The last week, everybody gathers back in Wageningen again and we reflect on the future and how to bring together and integrate the different forms of knowledge we have gained.
As an intern organizing the FEI, you will develop your skills as project coordinator, broaden your network and gain knowledge about agroecology as you will be involved in a wide range of activities: design the program for the course, invite speakers (researchers, farmers, peasant movements etc.), coordinate the subscriptions and promotions, arrange funding, update the website, keep contact with the students and the participating farmers/gardeners and set up the evaluation.
Project of the Agroecology Network
The concept, for now, has the title ‘places of hope and resistance’ and is a network, linked to a website, where agroecological farmers can open up their farms and gardens for activists to use for gatherings. In return, farmers could also use this network to put out a call for extra help on the farm/in their gardens. At the core of this project stands solidarity, reciprocity, exchange, horizontal learning and regeneration. The team behind the concept is a working group of het Agroecologie netwerk.
The concept is still in its early stages. An example of an already existing and similar network in Belgium is Brigades d’actions paysannes or Landbouwbrigades. The team is organizing a first brainstorm session mid-February with people interested to be part of the network to further discuss the viability of the project. Your presence at the brainstorm session is preferred but not a must.
The team meets on a regular basis (once a month) to give shape together to the project.
Your tasks as intern can include, in consultation:
– join the monthly meetings with the team
– fine tune the plan for giving shape to the network together with the team
– gather inspiration, do’s and don’ts from similar initiatives
– interview farmers about their needs and capacity in link with the project
– help organize brainstorm sessions with all people involved
– help set up a pilot project in a defined geographical region
Speaking Dutch is a preference but not a must. Experience in activism is a preference but not a must.
If you are interested in this internship, please send an email to st.boerengroep@wur.nl with a little introduction of yourself.
