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Afaik potatoes still need manual sorting in the end. There's also the fact that mechanization is expensive, while the eastern European labor used to be extreme

Afaik potatoes still need manual sorting in the end. There's also the fact that mechanization is expensive, while the eastern European labor used to be extremely cheap and Germany doesn't have growing season all year around. So, many German farmers temporarily hire cheap labor, instead of investing in expensive machinery that just costs money outside of the growing season.

jelliclesfarm 8y ago
I understand the Dutch are doing a good job but it’s all indoors. Spain and Portugal has the right climate for other crops grown outdoors. The Dutch have been working on saline water crops and so far they have done a great job with potatoes. Also working on carrots, beets, cauliflower,kale etc all grown in salt water. Non GMO. They are testing in Kenya, bangaladesh, Vietnam and places where salt in soil makes it impossible to farm. I want to say I am really impressed with Dutch Ag. I also understand EU got a lot of produce from Africa but placed restrictions about it being non GMO. Now that China has taken over management of Africa and spending on infrastructure (their belt and road initiative) so they can outsource farming to feed their billion plus population. In the US, they bought Smithfield foods to start exporting pork to China and they also own a lot of farmland in the USA, the pork operation because regulations are lax in North Carolina rather than in China. (Open air lagoons with pig poop...disastrous with ). But I digress. Different topic. I am trying to get back to my initial thought which is that..local food is food security. We live in a globalized world where we can and do ship food all around the world, but a fundamental self sufficiency to feed the local population is a food security issue and I would say..even national security. But this has also gone horribly wrong with stockpiling(corn and grain subsidies in the states leading to surplus leading to HCFS, ethanol and then animal feed..) and to entirely handicapping certain industries(like our dairy sector that is highly subsidied ..bottled water is cheaper than milk. Dairy farms can’t make it anymore). It’s a balance. I am afraid I might have digressed..thanks for reading!
- freeflight 8y ago
  Dutch being so great at indoors doesn't surprise me the least. They've had plenty of reason to perfect that considering their history of Cannabis legalization. > Open air lagoons with pig poop...disastrous with Wasn't there recently some tornado/flood going through a US farm area spreading the literal "shit", out of these lagoons, everywhere? > I am afraid I might have digressed..thanks for reading! Heh, I think not digressing is sometimes impossible, especially on such topics like farming and food production, which are often rather wide-ranging if not all-encompassing. Agriculture is the basis of our modern human civilization, at some point or another, it's all leading back there.
  - jelliclesfarm 8y ago
    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/why-is-china-treating-north-carolina-like-the-developing-world-122892/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/why-is-c... : this is the link reporting on the pig poop open air lagoons and the sorry state of North Carolina where Smithfield food is located. It was purchased by Chinese company. Incidentally, this article is dated March 2018. Way before the hurricane disaster. Sitting in my California bubble, I find it unbelievable that this is happening in North Carolina. It was a horrifying read and I learnt many things. If jobs are the reason environment is to be sacrificed, perhaps here is a good reason to implement UBI.

jelliclesfarm 8y ago

I understand the Dutch are doing a good job but it’s all indoors. Spain and Portugal has the right climate for other crops grown outdoors. The Dutch have been working on saline water crops and so far they have done a great job with potatoes. Also working on carrots, beets, cauliflower,kale etc all grown in salt water. Non GMO. They are testing in Kenya, bangaladesh, Vietnam and places where salt in soil makes it impossible to farm. I want to say I am really impressed with Dutch Ag. I also understand EU got a lot of produce from Africa but placed restrictions about it being non GMO. Now that China has taken over management of Africa and spending on infrastructure (their belt and road initiative) so they can outsource farming to feed their billion plus population. In the US, they bought Smithfield foods to start exporting pork to China and they also own a lot of farmland in the USA, the pork operation because regulations are lax in North Carolina rather than in China. (Open air lagoons with pig poop...disastrous with ). But I digress. Different topic. I am trying to get back to my initial thought which is that..local food is food security. We live in a globalized world where we can and do ship food all around the world, but a fundamental self sufficiency to feed the local population is a food security issue and I would say..even national security. But this has also gone horribly wrong with stockpiling(corn and grain subsidies in the states leading to surplus leading to HCFS, ethanol and then animal feed..) and to entirely handicapping certain industries(like our dairy sector that is highly subsidied ..bottled water is cheaper than milk. Dairy farms can’t make it anymore). It’s a balance. I am afraid I might have digressed..thanks for reading!

freeflight 8y ago
Dutch being so great at indoors doesn't surprise me the least. They've had plenty of reason to perfect that considering their history of Cannabis legalization. > Open air lagoons with pig poop...disastrous with Wasn't there recently some tornado/flood going through a US farm area spreading the literal "shit", out of these lagoons, everywhere? > I am afraid I might have digressed..thanks for reading! Heh, I think not digressing is sometimes impossible, especially on such topics like farming and food production, which are often rather wide-ranging if not all-encompassing. Agriculture is the basis of our modern human civilization, at some point or another, it's all leading back there.
- jelliclesfarm 8y ago
  https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/why-is-china-treating-north-carolina-like-the-developing-world-122892/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/why-is-c... : this is the link reporting on the pig poop open air lagoons and the sorry state of North Carolina where Smithfield food is located. It was purchased by Chinese company. Incidentally, this article is dated March 2018. Way before the hurricane disaster. Sitting in my California bubble, I find it unbelievable that this is happening in North Carolina. It was a horrifying read and I learnt many things. If jobs are the reason environment is to be sacrificed, perhaps here is a good reason to implement UBI.