Chicken farmer Ruud Zanders tirelessly on the sustainable path

Who thinks that Ruud Zanders of Kipster, after introducing a climate-neutral egg and the most animal-, environment- and human-friendly chicken farm in the world, has rested on his laurels is wrong. Tirelessly, the chicken farmer from Oirlo continues to work on making the agrofood sector more sustainable, looking beyond his chickens. In addition to a major expansion beyond the borders of the Netherlands, he is also working on an egg that does not require any chicken and a sustainable and animal-friendly pig house.

International

Nearly a year ago Ruud Zanders opened two brilliant new Kipster houses in Beuningen, Gelderland. The chickens live there in the same animal-, environment- and human-friendly house as at the first location in Oirlo. This week De Limburger announced that, thanks to a capital injection from Brightlands Agrifood Fund, the Kipster concept can now also be realized at sustainable chicken farms in the US, the UK, France and Germany. In Europe, Zanders wants to start with one to three farms per country. As in the Netherlands, Lidl is the buyer of the climate-neutral eggs. In the US, supermarket group Kroger is interested in working with what will soon become four American chicken farms.

Veggs

Another concept by Ruud Zanders is VEGGS. If all goes well, these plant-based eggs will be for sale in the supermarket next pet day. He explains: "In the laboratory we do the same as on our farm. We have plant-based raw materials and we turn them into an egg. At the farm, we put those raw materials into a chicken. In the kitchen of the lab we put it in a kettle. No animals need to be exploited for VEGGS and if in the future we manage to provide our food with far fewer animals, or perhaps no animals at all, then with VEGGS we still have the option of a delicious scrambled egg for breakfast."

More than two years have been spent developing the vegan egg. Not only the taste, but also the mouth feel has to be right. To get to where the vegan egg is today, Kipster is working with food technologists from TOP BV, students from Wageningen University, top chefs and numerous other parties.

Pigster

With the plans for Pigster, Ruud Zanders is taking a foray into pig farming. The concept revolves around an idea from Kees Scheepens, a pig farmer in Brabant, in which the pig does its needs on a intelligent pig toilet. The animals are enticed to do their need on the poop or urine section in the pen, which collects manure and urine separately and reduces ammonia production by up to 90%. Not only is the emission reduction good for the environment, but the pigs can walk around without grids on the floor and in clean air. The collected pig urine can be used as a fertilizer as a replacement for artificial fertilizer, while the solid manure can be composted.

Scheepens and Zanders want to build animal and environmentally friendly pig houses in which this pig toilet is central. Scheepens has already secured almost a million euros in subsidies through the subsidy scheme for emission-free stalls. Under the name Pigster, both farmers are working together to innovate pig farming. They hope to build the first barn in the Netherlands next year.

Would you like to follow the developments around Ruud Zanders and Kipster? On the website of Kipster you'll be kept up to date with everything.