About

Born in 1964 in the Netherlands Roland always had a curiosity for nature and cultural diversity. In 1998 he started a career in the organic food industry as the manager of what became in 2000 the very first organic supermarket in the Netherlands (Estafette de biologische eetwinkel). In 2013 he discovered permaculture and from that moment he was at the beginning of his genesis. In 2015 he moved to Curacao in the Caribbean with a solid mission in his mind: to research how permaculture could make a difference in a drougth stricken deforestated area. With zero budget he established a food-forest around his house and started to give workshops. In the same time he started a weekly organic food subscription for about 80 subscribers bringing organic food direct from the farmer to the consumer. In 2018 he was personally asked by the minister of agriculture Sra Suzy Carmelia Romer to build up a few permaculture plots for educational purposes and in 2019 he organised an intensive course about syntropic agroforestry with teachers from Brazil. He is still leading a project with the aim of implementing this farming technique in Curacao. In 2019 also he has been asked by the government to become a mentor for the Regenerative Organic Agriculture Program provided by the Maharishi University in Iowa. In June he started a function as a mentor for courses hydroponics presented by the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. Till the end of November 2021 he and his colleagues were setting up syntropic agroforestry plots every weekend with students of the online syntropic farming course provided by the ministry of agriculture. Recently they trained also about 50 people in Ghana and also about 50 people in Zimbabwe. In November he founded with Esther Njeri their company Syntropic and Permaculture Solutions Limited in Kenya and received a work permit for Kenya. He is convinced that he could offer solutions with their company for drought stricken areas in Kenya. Up till now he trained about 1200 people in the Caribbean and larger parts of Africa and established about 50 farms.