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The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#21

Post by thriftwy »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #15
thriftwy wrote: post #14

There will be 10 billion people on Earth. Growing food for them needs a tiny area in highly developed countries via industrial farming. But what would that 10bn people do then?

Are you seriously asking what productive work people can do other than farming?

I'm seriously asking what productive work can billions of people from underdeveloped and unstable countries do. Without access to lucrative markets, too.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#22

Post by krastanov »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #15
thriftwy wrote: post #14

There will be 10 billion people on Earth. Growing food for them needs a tiny area in highly developed countries via industrial farming. But what would that 10bn people do then?

Are you seriously asking what productive work people can do other than farming?

Even a person with mimimal education and access to some resources can contribute to society (ugh, and the economy) in so many amazing ways, but it is fair to be worried that the first generation (and more) in the places with exploding population will probably lack those initial resources. As always, it is not about the availability, rather the distribution (of opportunities and resources).

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#23

Post by andreapaiola »

pjc50 wrote: post #20
cirrus-clouds wrote: post #10

Here in the UK, tomatoes from the Netherlands are the most common sold in British supermarkets. Unfortunately, they are quite flavourless. The type of tomato (and price) makes no difference (organic, vine-ripened, salad). Most of them are usually semi-ripe. Even if you allow them to ripen at home for a few days, they are still quite tasteless. Presumably, Italy keeps its best tomato produce for themselves and I don't…

Italian tomatoes are just better to an extent that's almost magical.

And probably you don't know the best... have you ever try a "cuore di bue"?

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#24

Post by erdewit »

cirrus-clouds wrote: post #10

Here in the UK, tomatoes from the Netherlands are the most common sold in British supermarkets. Unfortunately, they are quite flavourless. The type of tomato (and price) makes no difference (organic, vine-ripened, salad). Most of them are usually semi-ripe. Even if you allow them to ripen at home for a few days, they are still quite tasteless. Presumably, Italy keeps its best tomato produce for themselves and I don't…

In Germany the tomatoes from Holland are called 'Wasserbomben'.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#25

Post by user5994461 »

cirrus-clouds wrote: post #10

Here in the UK, tomatoes from the Netherlands are the most common sold in British supermarkets. Unfortunately, they are quite flavourless. The type of tomato (and price) makes no difference (organic, vine-ripened, salad). Most of them are usually semi-ripe. Even if you allow them to ripen at home for a few days, they are still quite tasteless. Presumably, Italy keeps its best tomato produce for themselves and I don't…

It's not just the tomatoes. Everything in the UK supermarket is quite bad. It's a cultural thing I suppose.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#27

Post by maxerickson »

cirrus-clouds wrote: post #10

Here in the UK, tomatoes from the Netherlands are the most common sold in British supermarkets. Unfortunately, they are quite flavourless. The type of tomato (and price) makes no difference (organic, vine-ripened, salad). Most of them are usually semi-ripe. Even if you allow them to ripen at home for a few days, they are still quite tasteless. Presumably, Italy keeps its best tomato produce for themselves and I don't…

The problem with tomatoes is that if you pick them ripe they are fragile. So if they are picked ripe, it makes it more difficult to ship them.

And then this gets exacerbated when the varieties are selected for shipping and shelf life rather than flavor.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#29

Post by harigov »

madmax108 wrote: post #3

Coming in from a country (India) which even today has a large agricultural community which still uses ancient tools for farming (tractors are pretty much the most many get up to, with proper cold storage facilities, greenhouses etc practically a pipe dream), looking at countries improve their techniques in such a manner makes me wonder what it will take to move my country to similar scale. Is it simply technical, or…

We are still struggling to get away from dependence on monsoons for our farming, forget actually moving away from dependence on soil or other resources. Also, some of this is self-inflected because of our insistence on farmers owning land. By trying to force socialism at the level of property ownership in a capitalist market, we are making ourselves poorer.
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