Meet our keynote speakers

Jacob van den Borne, VDBorne Campus

Hi Jacob! We are so glad to welcome you to the conference. Could you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

My name is Jacob van den Borne and I am an arable farmer and entrepreneur based in the south of the Netherlands, close to the Belgian border. I run a third-generation family farming business focused mainly on potato production. Together with more than 100 partner farmers, we grow crops using a data-driven approach and have been working with precision farming since 2006.

Everything starts from daily farming practice. Innovation is not the goal itself; it is a tool to help farmers make better decisions and create a future perspective for agriculture. Alongside the farm, I founded VDBorne Campus, an open innovation environment where farmers, researchers, technology companies and policymakers work together on the future of food production.

What made you start working with precision farming back in 2006, and what was that journey like for you?

We started working with precision farming because we wanted to better understand the many fields we manage together with other farmers. We often had limited information about field history and local conditions, so we began collecting data to gain more insight into soil variability, crop performance and management decisions.

Over the years, precision farming has helped us improve efficiency and make better decisions based on facts rather than assumptions. For me, precision farming is not about technology itself. It is about understanding what is happening in the field and using that knowledge to farm more effectively.

Your mission statement is “Farming the Future. Together.” What does that mean to you, and why does that collaborative dimension matter?

For me, collaboration is essential. Farmers face increasing expectations from consumers, governments and society. Meeting all those expectations individually is becoming increasingly difficult. By working together with farmers, researchers, companies and policymakers, we can learn faster, innovate more effectively and achieve goals that would be impossible on our own. 

What do you hope conference participants will take away from your talk? 

I hope people leave with the understanding that sustainability and profitability should go hand in hand. For many years, innovation in primary production focused on producing a standard product at the lowest possible cost. In the future, we also need to recognise the environmental footprint of food production and reward farmers for the value they create.

At the same time, sustainability only works when there is an economic perspective. Farmers can only invest in new technologies and more sustainable production systems if those investments are supported throughout the value chain. Creating that balance will be one of the key challenges for the future of agriculture.

Johanna Olsson, RISE

Hi Johanna, and welcome as a speaker at Primärt! Tell us a bit about yourself, who are you? 

My name is Johanna Olsson and I am an agronomist. At RISE, I work on research in crop production, the bioeconomy and the transition to fossil-free energy in agriculture. In my work, I collaborate closely with farmers, companies, and other stakeholders in agriculture and food. I’m driven by turning new knowledge into practical solutions for agriculture, while also contributing to the systemic change needed for a more sustainable society. 

You are the project manager for AgroDrive, whose vision is for the Swedish food chain to be almost entirely fossil-free by 2030. What’s it like working towards that vision, and can you give an example of what you do in practice?

What I find most inspiring is getting to work alongside so many committed stakeholders who share the ambition of creating a fossil-free food system. At the same time, it’s a major challenge, since the transition calls for new technology, new business models and new partnerships, and a great deal needs to happen in a short space of time. 

In AgroDrive, we bring together 24 stakeholders from across the value chain. One concrete example is our work on fossil-free rapeseed cultivation, where we’re testing how the whole production chain can be made more fossil-free. We also work on machinery demonstrations, research and knowledge-sharing to make the transition possible in practice. 

I believe collaboration is key, but we also need to understand the people who will carry out the transition. For solutions to gain traction, they need to be grounded in farmers’ everyday realities, needs and motivations, and be both practically feasible and economically sustainable. 

What motivates you in your work?

I’m motivated by contributing to a strong, competitive Swedish agricultural sector that’s also developing in a more sustainable direction. What inspires me most is bringing different stakeholders together around shared challenges and creating the conditions for real change. Being able to help drive the transition forward is what gives me energy in my work. 

What do you hope conference participants will take away from your talk? 

I hope participants will leave with both optimism and a sense of agency. The transition to a fossil-free food chain is a major challenge, but a great deal of positive progress is happening right now too. I want to show that concrete solutions already exist, and that we get furthest when we collaborate across the entire value chain. Hopefully the talk will inspire new partnerships and new ideas for how we can drive this development forward together. 

Maria Lundesjö and Marit Toll, Axfoundation

Hello Maria and Marit, and a warm welcome as speakers at Primärt! Tell us about yourselves and your backgrounds.

Maria: I am a Food Agronomist but also hold a PhD in food science from SLU. I have worked in the food industry and on quality and sustainability issues in the grocery retail sector. At home, I run a farm with beef production and direct sales. 

Marit: I am a Horticulturist from SLU and have worked with both theory and practice in the land-based sector, including food production, quality and regional development. On our farm at home, my husband and I run pig production, crop production and forestry.

You both work within the Future Food programme area, which develops concrete, scalable solutions for a sustainable food system. How do you go from idea to practical solution?

We start with a specific challenge and bring together farmers, researchers and companies who can help solve it. We then test ideas in practice, including at Torsåker farm, and develop them further based on what we learn. This can involve anything from making use of raw materials and side streams that are underused today to trialling cultivation methods that strengthen soil health. For a solution to spread, it has to work on the farm, in the food chain and financially.

A chapter of Axfoundation's Progress Report is devoted to less successful results from the programme area, and the lessons you have drawn from them. What role does failure play in the search for sustainable solutions?

It's important to be transparent about less successful trials too. There's no time for others to repeat the mistakes we've already made. By sharing good examples and strong results, but also lessons learned, a failed trial can become a building block for the next solution. That is sustainability too. Even a less successful result can move the work forward.

What do you hope for conference participants to take away from your talk?

That a transition to more sustainable food production is possible, but it requires collaboration, courage and action on the ground. Primary production needs to be involved from the outset. Farmers need to be spoken with, not about. A solution isn't sustainable if it only works in theory or shifts risks and costs onto the farmer. Everyone in the value chain needs to benefit from it. We hope that conference participants will feel inspired to dare to try things out, collaborate across boundaries and think about what they themselves can contribute.

Do you want to know more?

Join the conference to hear the speakers on 25 November. Follow the link for further information!