Dieuwertje Crasborn - The Venlo Burger

Diewertje Crasborn is on a mission. She wants to make the world healthier. Not only the people who are in desperate need for healthy food, but also the planet which needs us to think carefully about alternatives for eating meat. Being a health scientist Dieuwertje was asked to work in Malawi for three years. And so she built her career in a third world country. She noticed the malnutrition and underfed people, which really put the overconsumption of food in the western world in perspective. “When my children were born, it forced me to look forward. This changed me and the way I look at food. People don’t realize how well off we are over here.” Dieuwertje encourages the eating of beans as a substitute for meat. She has a very specific way of doing this. How? Come and experience it at her talk.

In a conversation with Annika Pelgrom, Dieuwertje tells us about the importance of eating more beans. “We don’t eat healthy and sustainable enough.” We all lead busy lives. We work, do chores and when it comes to food we chose for flavour and convenience. Which often means meat, fast food or food which can be quickly prepared.

But eating as much meat as we do, is not good for us or our environment. Dieuwertje explains: “Meat is very unsustainable. It has a 45% higher carbon footprint than beans.” There’s a lot of land and water needed to provide the meat we consume. In addition, eating a lot of red meat can cause diseases.

“Beans is a better protein source than meat. We dutch people eat too much meat and too little beans.” We often don’t know what the right choice is, or are not strong enough to make it. “It sounds easy, but it is not.”

The VenloBurger offers a solution! The VenloBurger is a 100% plant based bean burger, made from local produces. There is a saying: You are what you eat. “Burger in Dutch means Citizen, so if we eat healthy burgers. We can become healthy citizens.”

YUM!