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>Agriculture competes with urbanization and it will always lose, as it should, because it's not an inherently superior or moral use of land Easy for you to say

>Agriculture competes with urbanization and it will always lose, as it should, because it's not an inherently superior or moral use of land Easy for you to say when you have a full stomach. See what happened in countries that disregard their farmers or agricultural sectors. Food price soared, and social unrest set in leading to crime, anarchy and governments collapsing. People need to eat, simple. Hungry people will eventually turn to crime to survive, including the people paid form your taxes to protect you (police, military, etc) Being agriculturally self sufficient is essential for any country.

Scarblac 4y ago
The Netherlands is tiny and the 2nd largest agricultural exporter in the world by value, after the US. After the hunger winter in 1944 we became obsessed with food production but there is such a thing as too much.
- spiderfarmer 4y ago
  The “export” argument is so stupid when you see how far it is exported. On a US scale this mostly would be within state borders.
  - twixfel 4y ago
    It's not stupid, they're literally exporting it. And I have to add, it's a whole new level of Americentrism that I have never seen before to define the word "export" in terms of the distances between US states.
    - spiderfarmer 4y ago
      It is stupid, because it just makes sense to have agriculture in a fertile area like the river delta in NL. And it doesn’t make sense to focus on protecting the very species that are not able to flourish without human intervention. So, focus on protecting species that do well in nitrogen poor areas in the areas that are actually nitrogen poor. If we move production around to average everything out we’ll end up with a more homogeneous Europe, less production and less biodiversity.
      - Thiez 4y ago
        You're turning things around. These species are suffering because of human nitrogen pollution. Where does all the excess nitrogen come from that is preventing these species from flourishing? Oh hey, turns out it's mostly agriculture.
        spiderfarmer 4y ago
        Most species we want to protect now only thrived/peaked because people extracted nitrogen from the area, like in the case of heath fields and woodlands. Or became sand plains because we repeatedly burned down the forests for military reasons. I don’t know if you know the history of your environment, but farmers do.
    - em-bee 4y ago
      why? export within countries of the european union is comparable to export within states of the USA. i don't see the problem here.
cr1895 4y ago
>Being agriculturally self sufficient is essential for any country. This is nothing to do with Netherlands’ own food self-sufficiency.
deleted 4y ago
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Scarblac 4y ago

The Netherlands is tiny and the 2nd largest agricultural exporter in the world by value, after the US. After the hunger winter in 1944 we became obsessed with food production but there is such a thing as too much.

spiderfarmer 4y ago
The “export” argument is so stupid when you see how far it is exported. On a US scale this mostly would be within state borders.
- twixfel 4y ago
  It's not stupid, they're literally exporting it. And I have to add, it's a whole new level of Americentrism that I have never seen before to define the word "export" in terms of the distances between US states.
  - spiderfarmer 4y ago
    It is stupid, because it just makes sense to have agriculture in a fertile area like the river delta in NL. And it doesn’t make sense to focus on protecting the very species that are not able to flourish without human intervention. So, focus on protecting species that do well in nitrogen poor areas in the areas that are actually nitrogen poor. If we move production around to average everything out we’ll end up with a more homogeneous Europe, less production and less biodiversity.
    - Thiez 4y ago
      You're turning things around. These species are suffering because of human nitrogen pollution. Where does all the excess nitrogen come from that is preventing these species from flourishing? Oh hey, turns out it's mostly agriculture.
      - spiderfarmer 4y ago
        Most species we want to protect now only thrived/peaked because people extracted nitrogen from the area, like in the case of heath fields and woodlands. Or became sand plains because we repeatedly burned down the forests for military reasons. I don’t know if you know the history of your environment, but farmers do.
  - em-bee 4y ago
    why? export within countries of the european union is comparable to export within states of the USA. i don't see the problem here.

cr1895 4y ago

>Being agriculturally self sufficient is essential for any country. This is nothing to do with Netherlands’ own food self-sufficiency.

deleted 4y ago

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