In between RSC Anderlecht’s training grounds you will find Brussels last small patch of countryside and the largest urban farming project of the Brussels metropolis. BoerenBruxselPaysans is a large-scale experiment that aims to bring about the transition to local food production in the Brussels-Capital Region. Employment and sustainability serve as the initiative’s core values. Behind BoerenBruxselPaysans is a coalition of public bodies and non-profit organisations that provides new farmers with pilot plots for three years, as well as relevant guidance and facilities. There is shared infrastructure for the production, processing and distribution of fruit and vegetables, for both aspiring farmers and budding chefs. This allows them to test their innovative activities in economic and ecological terms in life-like and safe operating conditions. In addition, as soon as the educational process has been completed, the organisation provides active support in finding permanent land, guidance in entrepreneurship, an extensive public programme with neighbourhood celebrations, cycling excursions and demonstrations, the compilation of composting schemes and cultivation plans, and a local farmer’s market and distribution network.
BoerenBruxselPaysans is unique because it harbours the ambition to grow and become the linchpin in a broader, suburban network. With the strategic combination of physical infrastructure, a growing alumni network of young, trained farmers and a facilitating government, the project is developing a set of basic measures to reintroduce farming in the city. The initiative can easily be replicated in the many pockets of open space along the regional border or in other cities in the country.