Science - January 5, 2012

Press Prize winner Arend Voortman passed away

Arend Voortman passed away in his home in Ruurlo on Monday at the age of 81. A well-known public figure, he won the four-yearly Press Prize awarded by the Wageningen University Fund two years ago.

Voortman and Rudy Rabbinge after the presentation of the Press Prize in Wageningen
Voortman was the founder of Spil, the occasional 'critical magazine on production and food consumption'.  In the 1980´s and 1990´s, Wageningen professors such as Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, Rudy Rabbinge and Johan Bouman aired their opinions - backed by figures - about agricultural policies in the magazine.
After graduating from the Agricultural College in Wageningen in 1957, Voortman worked at the National Spatial Planning Office and was a member of the Dutch Labour Party in the Dutch Lower House for ten years. After his political career, he was associate professor of agricultural orientation in the university in Wageningen. He then set up his own agency in the 1980's to publish Spil. He was considered as an opinionated expert in Dutch and European agricultural politics. He received the Press Prize in Wageningen two years ago for his journalistic exploits.