The Dick de Zeeuw Foundation is founded in memory of Dick de Zeeuw. Dick de Zeeuw passed away at the age of 85 on February 18, 2009. During his life, Dick de Zeeuw devoted himself to Agriculture, Environment and Politics, through his leadership of the Nederlands Landbouwkundig Onderzoek, chairmanship of Milieu Effect Rapportage commissions, chairmanship of the Catholic People’s Party (KVP) and membership of the Senate of the Netherlands. He was also a member of two independent international advisory groups of the World Bank: Chad-Cameroon and Laos, where he remained active until the day he passed away. The same accounts for his active role as chairman of International Dialogues Foundation, seated in The Hague.
The activities of the Foundation are based on the words of Dick de Zeeuw as expressed in his book Schrijven op Marmer (2007), on what political activity meant to him:
“Being politically active means to me: to do right to people, to make sure there will be no division between rulers and subjects, to make sure that everybody can participate in the process of decision-making, and to make people aware of the fact that they have to make a contribution themselves.“
The Foundation aims:
- to stimulate the ideas concerning the importance of agriculture for a sustainable society
- and to promote attention towards issues concerning development and environment.
The Foundation does this through:
- organizing an annual Dick de Zeeuw lecture;
- developing a platform wherein people from the field of politics, science, government and non-governmental organizations can exchange ideas on the mentioned purposes;
- organizing debates;
- distributing publications of and on Dick de Zeeuw.
