How my journey started 🪴
My personal journey started in ‘s-Gravenzande, a small village in the heart of Westland, the horticulture hub of the Netherlands. While my parents weren’t directly involved in horticulture, being a Westland girl, I naturally spent some time working in greenhouses. However, my true passion for horticulture started when, as an 18-year-old, I worked at the HortiFair for the Hillenraad100. It was there that my enthusiasm for organizing and the innovative sector started growing, eventually leading me to spend 7 years working for GreenTech, the international horticulture exhibition held at RAI Amsterdam.
A transformative year
The year before joining Plant Empowerment and after leaving GreenTech, I had a transformative journey with my boyfriend. Our mission? To document water issues worldwide. We created a nine-part documentary series named “Waterlanders,” exploring areas where water scarcity, water excess and water contamination was day to day business.
Since that day, I’ve had a new best friend: “Marie”! Curious about Marie? Check out my TedTalk here, where I share more about the year of creating the documentary and my learnings.
Starting at Plant Empowerment
Returning from this eye-opening journey, I was committed to work on sustainability. Then I crossed paths with Peter Hendriks, who introduced me to the philosophy of Plant Empowerment, offering a solution to the challenges faced by the horticulture sector. I was immediately enthusiastic.
For 4.5 years now, I’ve been working joyfully every day towards the foundation’s vision, driven primarily by all the amazing individuals I get to collaborate with. I am very grateful to work daily with such dedicated partners and members who consistently strive to assist growers in implementing sustainable practices and increasing yields. But also with a cool motivated team, exceptional growers who do their best on a daily basis to optimize cultivation and deliver healthy food worldwide.
