b'WHY SUSTAINABILITY FELL IN LOVE WITH LESSAND WHY THATS A PROBLEMSCIENCE JOURNALIST HIDDE BOERSMA ON HOW A 1970S WORLDVIEW CAME TO DOMINATE ENVIRONMENTAL THINKING, AND WHY HIGH-YIELD INNOVATION DESERVES A DIFFERENT STORY.BY: MARCEL BRUINSI n todays sustainability debate, pro- with nature narrative emerged, why itSEED WORLD EUROPE (SWE): HIDDE, gress is often treated with suspicion.continues to shape public opinion andYOUR WORK SPANS MICROBIOLOGY, Growth is framed as excess, technologypolicy, and how it has left high-yield agri- JOURNALISM, FILMMAKING, ACTIVISM, as hubris, and productivity as somethingculture, including plant breeding and theAND EVEN THEATRE. WHAT PERSONAL to be restrained rather than refined. Yetseed sector, simultaneously indispensableJOURNEY OR PIVOTAL MOMENT LED this dominant narrativethat protectingand misunderstood. Boersma explainsYOU TO DEDICATE YOUR CAREER TO nature requires doing less, producing less,why sustainability framed as sacrificeCHALLENGING DOMINANT SUSTAINA-and scaling back human ambitionisstruggles to inspire, and why an alterna- BILITY NARRATIVES AND ADVOCATING not as timeless or inevitable as it appears.tive story rooted in abundance, innovationFOR A MORE TECHNO-OPTIMISTIC, In fact, it has a very specific origin, and anand land-sparing may be better suited toHIGH-YIELD VISION FOR THE FUTURE increasingly uneasy relationship with thethe challenges ahead. In Part 2, we followOF FOOD?realities of feeding a growing world. what happens when that alternative nar- HIDDE BOERSMA (HB): I often explain This two-part conversation exploresrative moves from theory into action,this in two layers. The first is why I felt a that tension through the work and think- through NGOs, films, campaigns and cul- new sustainability narrative was necessary ing of Dutch science journalist, filmmakertural storytelling aimed at changing notin the first place.and activist Dr. Hidde Boersma. In Partjust minds, but the emotional language ofI grew up with a deep love for nature. 1, we trace how the prevailing harmonysustainability itself. My father worked his entire life for the Hidde Boersma (right) and Karsten de Vreugd (left) visiting a barley field in The Netherlands. Source: Hidde Boersma24ISEED WORLD EUROPEISEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE | FEBRUARY 2026'