Henk de Zeeuw is co-founder and first director of the RUAF Foundation, the International Network of Resource centres on Urban Agriculture and Food systems.
Before he developed an interest in urban agriculture, he worked for twenty years as a rural development expert in various countries for organisations like the International Agricultural Centre in Wageningen, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ETC Foundation, Leusden, the Netherlands.
In the mid-nineties he initiated the RUAF network to create more attention and support for the urban agriculture at international, national and local levels. He coordinated major international programmes like “Cities farming for the Future” and “From Seed to Table” that operated in 25 cities in 17 countries.
He is the author of a numerous publications and academic papers. His most recently co-authored work ‘Cities and Agriculture: Developing Resilient Urban Food Systems’ (accessible at ruaf.org) is an experience and evidence-based ‘state of the art’ exploration of urban agriculture, providing policy makers, urban planners and urban agriculture practitioners an overview of crucial aspects of urban agriculture and its contributions to the development of sustainable, resilient and just urban food systems.