More than two decades ago, the rallying cry in Netherlands was “produce twice as much food using half as many resources”. It is the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural products by value after the United States. The Dutch pioneered on cell-cultured meat, vertical farming, seed technology and robotics in milking and harvesting. Fifteen out of the top 20 largest agrifood businesses have their major research and development centres in the Netherlands. These include Nestle, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Cargill and Kraft Heinze.
Source: https://cdn.britannica.com
The Netherlands produces 4 million cows, 13 million pigs and 104 million chickens annually and is Europe’s biggest meat exporter. But it also provides vegetables for much of Western Europe. The country has nearly 24,000 acres — almost twice the size of Manhattan — of crops growing in greenhouses. These greenhouses, with less fertilizer and water, can grow in a single acre what would take 10 acres of traditional dirt farming to achieve. Dutch farms use only a half-gallon of water to grow about a pound of tomatoes, while the global average is more than 28 gallons.
More than half of the land in the Netherlands is used for agriculture. The Dutch often say their singular focus on food production is born of the harrowing famine the country experienced during World War II. But it could be argued that the preoccupation with food began in the 17th century, when the Dutch were at the centre of the global spice trade.
Surely, we have enough examples from Denmark, Netherlands, Thailand or Singapore to learn and adapt to our needs? Instead of doing another “lawatan sambil belajar”, we could secure services of key people to transform some places into “Agrocities” of the future and become a net food exporter and thereby control imported inflation.
Reference:
Cutting-edge tech made this tiny country a major exporter of food, Laura Reiley, Washington Post, 21 Nov 2022
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