The Netherlands certainly does have profitable indoor farms, but the sort that the new startups are pushing are largely the uneconomic type. The two key factor

The Netherlands certainly does have profitable indoor farms, but the sort that the new startups are pushing are largely the uneconomic type. The two key factors: soil and sun. If you have to replace either, you're increasing your costs. Especially sun: if you use LEDs instead of solar illumination, it's hard to do it cheaply enough in the long run, nor produce calorie crops (as opposed to greens) -- there's simply an energy-in-energy-out balance that's hard to achieve. Well managed traditional greenhouses can do quite a lot.