Dr R.A. Hoon

Reinier Hoon is a grower, researcher and plant breeder working at the intersection of agriculture, ecology and philosophy. He holds an MA in Political Philosophy from Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, which informs his engagement with questions of responsibility, care and value within contemporary food systems.

His practice is rooted in organic vegetable farming, where he explores biodiversity, taste, seed sovereignty and regenerative land use through hands-on cultivation as well as critical inquiry. A central concern in his work is the ongoing loss of (genetic) diversity in agriculture and its implications for ecological resilience, cultural depth and nutritional agency.

His PhD project, OLERACEA, approaches agricultural practice as a site of cultural practice and academic inquiry. Taking the specie Brassica Oleracea (cabbage in all its forms) as a focal point, the project examines cultivation, selection and generation as cultural and creative gestures. OLERACEA questions the generative capacity of highly professional and capital intensive breeding projects by sidelining it with a participatory, creative and open-ended methodology.