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Netherlands is the second-largest exporter of agricultural products
- 082349872349872 3y agoThe Netherlands is a good example of intensive agriculture: not only have they put heavy capital investments into the land they already had, they even invested substantial amounts of capital in creating new land.
- Reubend 3y agoIf you'd asked me which country was the 2nd largest exporter of agricultural products, I certainly wouldn't have said the Netherlands. It's cool to see what they're doing to maximize efficiency, and I hope that efficiency can be replicated globally as well.
- throw_pm23 3y agoThat efficiency has huge externalities and I hope it will not be replicated globally.
- FranzFerdiNaN 3y agoIt’s completely destroying our nature, air, water and soil. So no, it should decubitus be replicated.
- fransje26 3y agoNo, this is not an efficiency you want to replicate elsewhere. It come at huge costs, monetary and ecological. This is a model pushed to the level of absurdity.
- VeejayRampay 3y agovery poor quality though, if you've had dutch tomatoes or peppers, you'll know I'd be interested in the nutritional value of said products as well
- Rinzler89 3y agoYep, the tomatoes coming from Spain, Italy, etc have a lot more flavor. NL is more like the Shenzhen of agriculture (not saying it like it's a bad thing)
- belter 3y agoThere is nothing like driving from the Netherlands to Germany, going to the Supermarkt and buying cucumbers branded Origin Netherlands at 60% of their price in the Netherlands... https://northerntimes.nl/dutch-shoppers-flock-to-german-supermarkets-for-cheaper-prices/ https://northerntimes.nl/dutch-shoppers-flock-to-german-supe...
- canadianfella 3y ago[dead]
- Rinzler89 3y agoGermany is the black hole of supermarket prices. Even shit made in Austria is cheaper once you cross the border to Germany than in the country where it's made. It's insane.
- extraduder_ire 3y agoThe single market at work, and such a small amount of a product's cost is from making it. I am always sad about not being near an internal EU border for this reason. (though, if my time were worthless, I'd probably come out ahead buying plane tickets)
- TheAlchemist 3y agoI lived near an internal EU border and I can confirm - you can get the best of two countries ! I guess over time the differences in EU should diminish, but it will take decades.
- 3y ago
- ragebol 3y agoBig discussion in the Netherlands now, and going on to some extent for decades already, about: does it make sense for such a small country to have this much intensive agriculture? As the article mentions, the nitrogen deposited in the little patches of what should pass for nature are killing it. Nice to be self-sufficient in food, but we're more than that in some areas. But say something negative about farmers and you'll have protesters in big tractors blocking highways and city centers. The parties currently trying to form a government will only let these problems fester and not make hard choices to put an end to them one way or another.
- DrSiemer 3y agoOne of the four forming parties IS the farmers... They keep holding up these signs that say "no farmers no food", while we all know a huge part of it is for export. Practically nobody is against the small farmers, which is the sad image they like to prop up, but there are plenty of them that drive around in a Tesla while their fully automated factory chomps through the never ending supply of animal carcasses.
- coldtea 3y ago>One of the four forming parties IS the farmers... They keep holding up these signs that say "no farmers no food", while we all know a huge part of it is for export. Well, export or domestic, the "no food" part still stands.
- RetroTechie 3y ago> Well, export or domestic, the "no food" part still stands. More & more I tend to regard Dutch farmland as a factory: one that happens to 'manufacture' agricultural products (mostly grass & maize to feed cows), using land as part of the machinery. The "feed own population" is 2nd tier consideration. And as an industry, it uses a big % of the surface area in our densely populated country, while adding relatively little to our economy (~2% or so, iirc). Now if land were plentiful that wouldn't be a (big) problem. But with agriculture taking the space of almost non-existant 'nature', all the environmental problems resulting from its intensity, animal welfare issues etc, this is a problem. Dutch population is a bit 50/50 on this I'd say. Much sympathy for farmers but yes the problems are real. But farmers have a strong lobby here so probably not much will change. More automation, faster-growing crops, bigger farms, lower prices for what's produced, middlemen (like supermarket chains) squeeze them like crazy while raking in profits for their owners or shareholders. Not a great time to be a farmer in the NL. Edit: the high-tech agri & research stuff (as described in article), that is good stuff though.
- ragebol 3y agoBig discussion in the Netherlands now, and going on to some extent for decades already, about: does it make sense for such a small country to have this much intensive agriculture? As the article mentions, the nitrogen deposited in the little patches of what should pass for nature are killing it. Nice to be self-sufficient in food, but we're more than that in some areas. But say something negative about farmers and you'll have protesters in big tractors blocking highways and city centers. The parties currently trying to form a government will only let these problems fester and not make hard choices to put an end to them one way or another.
- MaximilianEmel 3y ago[^duplicate comment] @dang
- danlugo92 3y agoDoes the "@" really do anything "special" though?
- NicoJuicy 3y agoYeah well. Those things grow the quickest because they were cultivated to absorb the most water. So there's little taste and advantages with those, compared to others. So yeah, great. But numbers only say part of the story.
- maxglute 3y agoSo they're like broiler chicken? I'm always impressed by US chicken breasts until it goes in my mouth.
- viburnum 3y agoThe bummer is how much of it driven by fossil fuels: greenhouses heated with gas, air pumped with CO2 to speed up ripening, fertilizer made from fossil fuels.
- thijson 3y agoMy cousin works as a farmer's hand in the Netherlands. He had an interesting anecdote about liquid manure. They used to spray it over the land, but people living nearby started complaining about the smell, so they started injected it underground. They found that yields improved after that. They stored the liquid manure in a big bag. I stood on it, it was a bit like a water bed.
- anthomtb 3y ago> They stored the liquid manure in a big bag. I stood on it I am certain its a sturdy bag but why risk it?
- bcrosby95 3y agoThat would make an even greater story. "Let me tell you kids about the time I had to swim through a literal pool of shit."
- mjhay 3y agoThat actually does happen. Industrial pig and chicken farms often have manure lagoons, which are exactly what they sound like. Do not do an image search for manure lagoons. There's been quite a few instances of people falling in and being overcome by fumes. I'm sure there are worse ways to go, but not many of them.
- arp242 3y agoI would imagine that if people are overcome by fumes, they lose consciousness quite quickly. So in spite of the unpleasant imagery it might not be too bad and I can think of quite a few worse ways to go. What we need is some data; has anyone done a poll to measure people's satisfaction with their manner of death?
- OJFord 3y agoI think manure here is used (not incorrectly, but uncommonly) to mean fertiliser but not perhaps animal excrement.
- aqme28 3y agoTo the extent that the greenhouses are a significant source of light pollution, and every once in a while (faulty coverings, or for a holiday) the sky will be bright purple[1,2] [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/10mc6ah/can_anyone_tell_me_why_the_sky_is_purple_at_5_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/10mc6ah/can_an... [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Rotterdam/comments/ylmcgy/bright_purple_sky_in_rotterdam_around_2am/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Rotterdam/comments/ylmcgy/bright_pu...
- lispm 3y agoIt's also one of the largest importers/re-exporters.
- jauco 3y agoHere’s a chart that shows how the two compare: https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2024/10/dutch-agricultural-exports-worth-nearly-124-billion-euros-in-2023 https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2024/10/dutch-agricultural-exp... (cbs is the government bureau for statistics)
- jurschreuder 3y agoFun fact: In open fields in Spain you can harvest around 4 kilograms of tomatoes per square metre. A Dutch high-tech greenhouse produces 80 kilograms per square metre and with four times less water.
- mongol 3y agoHow much more energy spent though?
- bavent 3y agoAlso how do they taste? My recollection of Dutch tomatoes is they they are not very good. Bland, watery.
- temporarara 3y agoGenerally in agriculture (and other domains too) when you maximize output the quality suffers. And tomatoes are no exception. Growing your own or finding a small hobby grower and greatly appreciating their efforts are your best bets for having actual tasty stuff. Tomatoes are no longer true luxury food but tasty tomatoes are.
- chris_va 3y agoWell... (if I am calculating correctly) A tomato plant is roughly ~40lbs/sqft/year (hydroponic... at 40W/sqft). That's a bit higher than the 80kg/m^2 estimate, but I don't have the wattage requirements for the lower yield. But, assuming it is linear, about 20Wh/g-tomato. And then, from a climate impact standpoint... The marginal CO2 emissions factor in the Netherlands is pretty high at ~0.6kg/kWh, so ~2kg-CO2 for every (~6oz) tomato. That is about 200-300x higher than the CO2 from trucking (refrigerated) tomatoes from Spain to Netherlands (~30-40kg-CO2/ton-tomato/1000 miles ~= 7g-CO2/tomato). The local ecological (water+fertilizer+pesticide) impact is probably higher in Spain (vs the greenhouse construction and land use in the Netherlands), though it is hard to know how much to trade that off.
- 3y ago
- joegibbs 3y agoAccording to Statista this is just a statistical anomaly as a result of the Netherlands having such large port facilities - the agricultural products are imported to the country and then exported elsewhere in Europe, which artificially bumps up the export statistics without any correlation to the actual production amount. Which makes a lot more sense, because even an efficiently-run farming sector surely couldn't be so efficient that it can produce almost as much as the US despite being 1/50 the size. If you look at actual agricultural production the Netherlands isn't at the top of anything - the best they're doing is world #5 in cheese production.
- huytersd 3y agoThis makes a lot more sense. In no universe can Netherlands compete with the output of the US and China.
- paradox460 3y agoThe Netherlands are actually 237x smaller than the United States, not 50x smaller
- getwiththeprog 3y agoASML? (but that is not agricultural)
- pipodeclown 3y agoThe explanation I have always been given is that we're quite large in very high value agricultural products such as flowers and that is what bumps up the export figures (measured in monetary value of the exports)
- AlecSchueler 3y agoIt makes me curious, is there anywhere we can see the figures accounting for point of production?
- qazadex 3y agoRe-exports are only 1/3 of their total exports - it's still incredibly impressive to have such high production for such a tiny country. https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2024/10/dutch-agricultural-exports-worth-nearly-124-billion-euros-in-2023 https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2024/10/dutch-agricultural-exp...
- class3shock 3y agoSlightly related, the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam has an interesting exhibit looking at global agriculture trade (which the Netherlands plays a large role in). https://www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.com/whats-on/exhibitions/food-for-thought https://www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.com/whats-on/exhibitions/fo...