
How the Netherlands Feeds the World (2017) - UFOFlyer
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/holland-agriculture-sustainable-farming/
======
jeeeeb
Not to talk down the Dutch achievement too much but the quality of statistics
used in this article is terrible.

Total monetary value of agricultural exports is a terrible way to measure
output. It doesn't take into account: 1\. Re-exports (Rotterdam is the largest
port in Europe) 2\. Specialisation in the production of certain goods (i.e.
high imports and exports) 3\. The high price of agricultural goods in Europe,
driven by high trade barriers. 4\. Low domestic consumption compared to more
populous nations.

For a better analysis of the monetary value of Dutch agricultural exports see
here: [https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2018/03/dutch-agricultural-
exp...](https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2018/03/dutch-agricultural-exports-at-
record-high)

Note for example the 22.5 billion Euros in re-exports of agricultural goods.

90% reduction in water usage is also hard to judge without looking at changes
in other advanced agricultural nations.

It would be more interesting to see the yields per-hectare the Dutch are
achieving compared to other advanced agricultural nations.

~~~
nroets
One would not expect The Netherlands to export so much in the presence of
"high trade barriers". But I strongly suspect that trade barriers between
European Union Members to be very low.

Low transport costs also helped The Netherlands achieve this position.
Numerous highways, railways and waterways connect it to it's neighbours.

~~~
jeeeeb
The Netherlands is in the EU. They have total unrestricted access to the EU
market, which is exactly where the vast majority of their agricultural exports
go.

~~~
avar
The EU isn't a free market when it comes to agricultural produce at all,
thanks to the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy)[1].

E.g. just in the last year[2] central planning for how much quantity of sugar
beets each country could produce was finally phased out, with the Dutch
expecting in production of up to 25% as a result[3].

This was one of the grand bargains of the EU. In exchange for the likes of
France, Spain etc. joining the union they wanted guarantees that these
politically sensitive sectors of their economy wouldn't be subject to real
competition.

So production in countries like The Netherlands is artificially low since a
combination of quotas and other central planning restricts production.

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Agricultural_Policy#Equ...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Agricultural_Policy#Equity_among_member_states)

2\. [http://europa.eu/rapid/press-
release_MEMO-17-3488_en.htm](http://europa.eu/rapid/press-
release_MEMO-17-3488_en.htm)

3\. [https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2017/01/dutch-sugar-
cooperativ...](https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2017/01/dutch-sugar-cooperative-
expects-a-surge-in-production/)

------
pasta
What is kind of funny is that people here like to pay more for 'organic' food
because they think it's more healthy. But what comes from the greenhouse is so
lab-grown it's more healthy than anything. Those labs also don't like to use
pesticides because it's unhealthy for the workers and plants as well. They use
insects to control pests.

The only problem with greenhouse food is that it tastes like nothing. A tomato
grown on soil has much more taste than grown on water.

~~~
misja
It's not the soil but the lack of sun that deprives the tomatoes of their
taste.

Greenhouses in the Netherlands are heated with natural gas. The Dutch
government subsidises the gas so they can keep their costs low and be
competitive. So that's another reason to eat organic food; it is more
sustainable because it uses natural sunlight. And tastier as well!

~~~
Aeolun
I’m fairly certain nobody would buy the Tomatoes if they didn’t have any
taste.

~~~
tluyben2
Depending where you live you probably already do and think that ‘no taste’ is
the taste of tomato. In the Netherlands (where I am from) and the south of
Spain (where I spend a lot of time) the difference is huge in taste buying an
average tomato; the ones in NL taste like nothing compared but seems people
are used to it.

------
tbarbugli
Only problem is that dutch vegetables have no taste and are still insane
expensive compared to meat (which is also tasteless). So yeah, awesome
thinkering and efficiency here, but quality is not there.

~~~
jillesvangurp
Actually a bit of a myth (I'm Dutch). It's more a case of targeting different
markets with different price and quality ratios. E.g. Germans love to complain
about Dutch water bombs but buy them by the kilo anyway because the stuff is
cheap. They don't realize the more expensive varieties also available to them
come from the same country. You don't have to buy the cheap ones but they do;
it's their poor tastes that are driving the demand for this.

Likewise, Italy imports a lot of tomatoes (more than they export according to
this: [https://www.freshplaza.com/article/2158667/italian-table-
tom...](https://www.freshplaza.com/article/2158667/italian-table-tomato-
imports-grew-in/)). Most of those come from the Netherlands. Italians are of
course famously picky when it comes to their food. Yet they seem to buy Dutch
produce.

~~~
harryf
The other problem is the Netherlands are at risk of getting wiped out by
rising sea levels.

Your example of Italy is bad news - in effect countries that could produce
their own are buying Dutch because it’s cheaper, presumably because economies
of scale now work in Holland’s favor.

In other words we depend on a country that’s at risk of being wiped out by
flooding for food _and_ that same countrys dominant market position is also
holding back food production in other countries.

Sounds like the back story for a bad movie.

~~~
jillesvangurp
Sea level changes are not that much of a challenge. We have centuries of
experience building infrastructure to manage that and decades more to leverage
that. Much of the country is already below sea level and already well prepared
for extreme water levels. Some of the infrastructure will need some upgrading
of course. The reality of sea level changes is that they will be most
devastating in places where they won't be able to pull together the economic
resources to put infrastructure in place or where they are making the historic
mistake of assuming it won't happen.

------
russellbeattie
"Food Valley"? Oh, come on... they could have done better! How about
"Sustenance Valley"? But that brings up a secondary point... a valley?? In
Holland??

~~~
skrebbel
Yeah, it's nuts. Every region and a half in the Netherlands that specializes
in something calls themselves "something something valley".

That said I was once in Silicon Valley and there were hills on the left and
water on the right. Not really much of a valley either.

~~~
tomsmeding
I live in the Netherlands, and I've never heard anything like that before. I
live in The Hague, maybe it's a regional thing?

~~~
sytse
I used to live in the Netherlands and I'm writing this from Utrecht. The
valleys are regional:

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Valley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Valley)
in Wageningen

2\. [https://www.healthvalley.nl/](https://www.healthvalley.nl/) in Nijmegen

3\. [http://www.metalvalley.eu/nl/home](http://www.metalvalley.eu/nl/home) in
Brabant

4\. [https://www.immunovalley.nl/](https://www.immunovalley.nl/) in Utrecht

5\. [https://legalvalleynederland.nl/](https://legalvalleynederland.nl/) in
Arnhem

6\. [https://www.energyvalley.nl/](https://www.energyvalley.nl/) in the
northern provinces

If you like partying you can always go to:
[https://dancevalley.com/](https://dancevalley.com/)

~~~
Aeolun
Coming back to the Netherlands from abroad it often feels like they’re pretty
good at coming up with what I would consider fairly cringeworthy names.

~~~
skrebbel
Yep! I myself live and work in the area (Eindhoven) that willingly calls
itself "Brainport". I hear the word almost daily for ten years and I still
cringe.

------
userulluipeste
_" A farm atop a former factory in The Hague produces vegetables and fish in a
self-sustaining loop: Fish waste fertilizes plants, which filter the water for
the fish."_

If people should know something about how diseases & parasites appear and
develop is that the existence of exactly this kind of "self-sustaining loop"
is _the_ essential part. Even in the outside environment, any given organism
bares the risk of taking part in development of a new parasitic creature's
life-cycle, but that risk is greatly reduced by having an inconsistent pattern
of interaction with other symbiotic creatures. Here the people involved are
just asking for it (unless they go out their way to sterilize the substances
circulating in that plant-fish loop).

------
gattr
Impressive, to be sure, especially the technical side of things.

However I really dislike greenhouses like these for the huge amount of light
pollution they cause (speaking as an amateur astronomer). Sure, it probably
doesn't matter much in a densely populated area like the Netherlands, but they
start to also pop up here in Eastern Europe, in (previously-) dark-sky
locations.

------
ggm
Google Earth to the greenhouse complex is southern Spain is visually
entertaining. Similar giant single area in the NL?

~~~
oever
Westland south of The Hague

[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Westland/@51.9915637,4.190...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Westland/@51.9915637,4.1903113,13z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x47c5b7d4aa3838df:0x31ee3d1de87f506e!8m2!3d51.9991757!4d4.217457)

~~~
ggm
Ok. Keep scale same and look at El Ejido

[https://www.google.com/maps/place/El+Ejido,+Almería,+Spain/@...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/El+Ejido,+Almería,+Spain/@36.7544008,-2.7821377,11z)

------
MordodeMaru
I'm guessing that Israel and Spain might be behind the Netherlands in this
trend. Absolutely fascinating.

