Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

nationalgeographic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 297 posts

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#211

Post by bogomipz »

mcv wrote: post #53
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…

Netherland is quite famous for its ability to grow completely tasteless vegetables. After WW2, people didn't consider taste very important; only appearance, size, cost, and maybe nutritional value mattered, so lots of tasteless vegetables were bred. Eventually customers started revolting, and now there are plenty of very tasty tomatoes available. They're more expensive, though, and not everybody can afford them. To a…

>"After WW2, people didn't consider taste very important; only appearance, size, cost, and maybe nutritional value mattered, so lots of tasteless vegetables were bred."

Do you have a citation for or more info about this? Were genetically modified tomatoes introduced after the war? I would have thought that came much later with the rise of Monsanto[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavr_Savr

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#212

Post by mark_edward »

atmosx wrote: post #18
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?

Read Plato, Kant and Keynes. Possibly write new plays, enjoy wine and explore space?

The correct answer is most likely languish in poverty at the margins of society.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#213

Post by jules »

prophet_ wrote: post #201
jules wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy this type of cherry tomato, they're nice and still relatively affordable: http://rooi.versuit.nl/media/catalog/product/cache/6/image/9... They won't beat summer sun grown tomatoes in warmer climates, but they're available all year round. A bit of sugar and a bit of acidity can boost the flavor of sub-par tomatoes, for example for a sauce.

AH Tasty Tom are pretty decent too.

Tasty Tom is very nice, but they are 2.5x more expensive than these.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#214

Post by nickserv »

ciconia wrote: post #172

For all those complaining about the (lack of) taste - the best tasting tomatoes are the ones you grow yourself in your back yard, and this is from personal experience. You can muse all you want about how Italian tomatoes are superior to Dutch ones, but nothing can beat the knowledge that what you have in your plate was grown by yourself on your own little plot of earth, with just a bit of patience and diligence.

Quite right, and even apartment dwellers can easily have a few tomato plants. One thing that's critical is not to use hybrid (F1) seeds, they don't breed true / aren't reproducible, so you need to buy seeds every year. This means the plants will never adapt to your particular soil and climate. Unfortunately these are the most common seeds found on the market.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#215

Post by jacquesm »

holografix wrote: post #210
jacquesm wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smell and taste are so intricately related that loss of the sense of smell usually translates into a significant loss of the sense of taste so you are absolutely right. But smelling the produce before buying is considered pretty bad form where I live.

I find this really interesting, where in the world would it be considered bad form to sniff a tomatoe before purchasing?

Well, here in NL it certainly would if you went through a crate of tomatoes at the local supermarket and smelled all of them one-by-one.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#216

Post by jacquesm »

Udik wrote: post #186
jules wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy this type of cherry tomato, they're nice and still relatively affordable: http://rooi.versuit.nl/media/catalog/product/cache/6/image/9... They won't beat summer sun grown tomatoes in warmer climates, but they're available all year round. A bit of sugar and a bit of acidity can boost the flavor of sub-par tomatoes, for example for a sauce.

My favourites, I eat tons of them, from Albert Heijn (common Dutch supermarket). But they're better in the summer, if I'm not wrong.

Refrigerating tomatoes kills the flavor and the nutrients, so like all fruits and vegetables they are best consumed 'in season'.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#217

Post by rocqua »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #165
rocqua wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like a quote on the NPO there. That is a public non-partisan institution.

The links are quite clear and they are proudly advertising it. https://www.nieuweoogst.nu/nieuws/2017/01/19/objectieve-jour...

That reads more like propaganda than anything I've ever seen come out of the NOS.

It is however interesting that there is overlap between stichting wakker dier membership and producers of NPO shows. Moreover it is very worrying that Diederik Stapel has any public advisory function. I wouldn't call this 'evidence of close organizational ties' though.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#218

Post by johansch »

iagovar wrote: post #60
johansch wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Sweden we tend to get e.g. tomatoes from the Netherlands, Spain and Morocco. From a consumer perspective it seems random - the price doesn't really factor in at all. Tomatoes from the Netherlands are almost always tasteless. Tomatoes from Spain are often tasty, but sometimes tasteless. Tomatoes from Morocco are sometimes tasteless and sometimes horrible. So I look for Tomatoes grown in Spain and wish for the best.…

Do they tell you from which region?

Origin country is always clearly labeled. Not harvest date though. :(

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#219

Post by xbmcuser »

bogomipz wrote: post #211
mcv wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netherland is quite famous for its ability to grow completely tasteless vegetables. After WW2, people didn't consider taste very important; only appearance, size, cost, and maybe nutritional value mattered, so lots of tasteless vegetables were bred. Eventually customers started revolting, and now there are plenty of very tasty tomatoes available. They're more expensive, though, and not everybody can afford them. To a…

>"After WW2, people didn't consider taste very important; only appearance, size, cost, and maybe nutritional value mattered, so lots of tasteless vegetables were bred." Do you have a citation for or more info about this? Were genetically modified tomatoes introduced after the war? I would have thought that came much later with the rise of Monsanto[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavr_Savr

Most fruits and vegetables we eat today have been genetically modified but by selective breeding sometimes over hundreds of year. Take corn for example something that is found almost all over the world its current form is because of genetic modification natural corn looks quite different.

Re: The Netherlands has become an agricultural giant

#220

Post by to3m »

Eyght wrote: post #67
edwinjm wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dutch farmers recognised this and focused on new/other kinds of tomatoes with much better taste like cherry tomatoes and vine tomatoes.

I've been buying what they call "Plum Tomatoes" and they are much better than anything else I can get here in Sweden. Technically I think they are Grape Tomatoes, as they are quite small.

These are reliably at least fairly good in the UK, too, along with cherry tomatoes (about the same size, but round). Plum tomatoes are a bit firmer and cherry tomatoes are a bit sweeter.
Post reply on HN