With a quotation attributed to the medieval philosopher Bernard de Chartres, Minister Verburg launched the Antibiotics-Free Chains Innovation Programme (in Dutch): "We are dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants. We see better and further than them. It is not because our sight is sharper or because we are taller, but because their immense bodies carry us and lift us up."

Some twenty entrepreneurs, civil servants and journalists had gathered together in one of the splendidly refurbished rooms of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) in The Hague to mark an important milestone. Both the pork and poultry food chains are taking steps to banish the use of antibiotics. “So this is what a bunch of pioneers looks like,” the minister said in her opening word of welcome. “I asked our very own InnovationNetwork to bring together all the parties that need each other. And by combining their strengths, they have pulled off something very special: not just a fully developed idea but, what is even more important, clear prospects of concrete action.”

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My thoughts returned to the end of 2008, when our Director Ger Vos promised the LNV’s top officials to draw up an innovation programme centring on antibiotics. The primary aim was to illustrate the differences between innovation and research. Antibiotics-free production emerged as the most ground-breaking option. Several sessions with pig farmers, led by Ineke Eijck, revealed a lot of interest in the idea. Next, in the summer of 2009, Albert Meijering from LNV proposed to take things a step further and put together a full-blown innovation programme together with the pork, poultry and veal sectors. Within three months we managed to get the vertically integrated companies of De Hoeve, GPS and Lagerweij Broederij to put their weight behind this ambitious project. The veal sector saw the antibiotics-free objective as a bridge too far and pulled out - which was a pity, but the enthusiasm among the parties who decided to press on amply made up for that disappointment. Looking round I saw Lenie Klein Holkenborg, the future project manager, sitting beside the entrepreneurs with a beaming face. We’re onto something good, I thought to myself.

The project is attracting a lot of publicity: that morning the radio news show BNR nieuwsradio had called me for a live interview. And no sooner was the interview over than a board member of InnovationNetwork rang me with an enthusiastic reaction. Later, Hans Verhoeven, the driver behind the pork chain, also faced some robust questioning on radio. And in the evening Hans van Egteren, one of the participating poultry farmers, appeared on the Dutch national news (NOS-journaal). Their task now is to live up to the high expectations.

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This is a responsibility they are clearly well aware of. During the launch meeting, they pledged to go all out to achieve antibiotics-free production, but could obviously not give any guarantees. The minister gave them a morale-boosting talk: “I admire your courage. It is not easy to follow the road that irrevocably leads to a whole new business mind-set and one that possibly entails extra risks. But it is the road to the future. With hindsight you will say: thanks to experiments with innovations in the past, entrepreneurs of today have a sustainable and viable alternative. We helped to do this by standing on the shoulders of giants!”

That final sentence set me thinking: is innovation something that builds on what exists, or does it entail a break with the past? At InnovationNetwork we assume the latter. Either way, the gathering provided a great ending to a fascinating initial phase. With the preparations now over, let’s start getting things done!