Voedselpark Amsterdam's mission is to liberate land from speculation, transforming it into a commons dedicated to biodiversity, community engagement, and local food production. We are building a food system that ensures accessibility for all—including low-income communities—while securing ecological livelihoods for farmers.

Voedselpark Amsterdam began in 2018 as Platform Behoud Lutkemeer, a grassroots movement dedicated to protecting the last fertile soil of the Lutkemeerpolder in Amsterdam Nieuw-West from industrial development. While the movement continues to resist further industrialization, winning the municipal tender for the 9.5-hectare agricultural Plot N5 has enabled Voedselpark to move beyond defense. We are now actively building a food park based on commons principles, envisioning sustainable, socially engaged, and innovative land use.

The Netherlands is currently facing multiple transitions—in energy, care, housing, the circular economy, and food systems. The food system, in particular, exposes the contradictions of modern prosperity. Today, approximately 75% of food consumed in the Netherlands is imported. Supermarkets offer every kind of product year-round, at prices that conceal their true ecological and social costs. Intensive agriculture depletes the soil, while agriculture uses roughly 70% of the planet’s accessible freshwater, largely for livestock feed. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warns that, at current rates, we may have only sixty harvests left before fertile soil is exhausted.[1]

Citizens concerned about the climate crisis are increasingly convinced that the Dutch government is not doing enough to support sustainable agriculture. Meanwhile, the price of agricultural land—around €80,000 per hectare, with peaks up to €200,000—makes it almost impossible for farmers to make a living, let alone work ecologically. In this context, citizen-led movements such as Voedselpark have emerged, seeking to organize as commons to protect fertile soil, reclaim land, and reimagine food production as a collective good rather than a private commodity.