Jana van Hummel

Eetbaar Eiland

Edible Island
A landscape design for Texel as a plea for the food transition 


What we eat and how we grow food has always largely determined what our landscapes look like. During my development as a landscape architect, I’ve become increasingly aware of the reality of food landscapes. They no longer constitute a healthy and sustainable system. 

Edible Island is an agenda-setting design as a plea for the food transition. I hope my design helps people imagine what our future landscapes might look like, when their design is guided by societal values. After all, our landscape is a social good on which our health, safety and happiness depend. Farmers should not be held solely responsible for this - the transition is a responsibility for all of us. 

Edible Island shows what this means for Texel. Here, the vast majority of the land surface is used for agriculture, mainly for the production of animal products, fodder, flower bulbs and potatoes for the mainland. Current farming practices have damaged ecosystems and biodiversity. The island also faces challenges such as freshwater availability and salinisation and is looking for ways to become more sustainable and self-sufficient. How do we reconnect with Texel's farmland for local food, in balance with Wadden nature? I explored what the agroecological perspective can mean for the farmer, the consumer, the soil and biodiversity. 

In the first part, I focus on an island-wide vision of the future, with strategic choices for changes in the landscape system. Main points are increasing landscape gradients, increasing scarce freshwater resources and working with natural dynamics.  

In the second part, I show in a spatial design for the northern head of the island what this means for the most damaged areas: Polder Eijerland and Polder Het Noorden. The monocultural arable land makes way for healthy and productive ecosystems: food forests, saline agriculture, brackish reedlands and a tidal salt marsh with aquacultures. By adapting the water system and utilising natural processes, landscapes are created that are valuable for nature, farmers and visitors. The result is a diversity of experienceable food landscapes with year-round island-specific products: an Edible Island. 


Graduation date: 11 June 2024
Graduation committee: Roel van Gerwen (mentor), Saline Verhoeven, Lieke Jildou de Jong
Additional members for the exam: Remco van der Togt, Ronald Boer