I'm going to ask a question and you can’t Google it.
What’s the biggest agricultural power in Europe?
Who is the biggest food exporter in all across the EU?
Many will think Spain, Italy, or maybe France.
After all, these countries have good weather and thousands of hectares of arable land.
However, none of these countries gets close to THE NETHERLANDS, also known as HOLLAND.
To give you an idea, Holland is the largest food exporter in the world, second only to
the United States.
What are you saying?
You’re not surprised?
Well think about it.
We’re talking about such a small country, that they even had to build dams to gain some
land from the sea.
In fact, it’s one of the most densely populated countries in the world.
Which means, they barely have any land to cultivate.
To this we need to add the fact that they are one of the richest and most modern countries
in the world.
The first stock market created in history was the Amsterdam stock exchange.
And I’m sure you all know Dutch companies such as SHELL, PHILIPS or the ING bank.
Normally, when a country has many industrial or service companies, agriculture is placed
on the back burner.
You may be wondering: Why?
Well imagine that we have a piece of land, for example in Spain, that measures one hectare.
If we use it to plant potatoes, we can earn between 7,000 and 8,000 euros per hectare.
Now, imagine the amount of money that we could earn if we used that area to build a factory
or an office building.
Do you understand now?
Well, despite all this, Holland is the world leader in potato exports.
And is above France, Spain or even the United States.
I know what many of you may be thinking.
Agriculture in Europe?
I’m sure Brussels is giving out some grants somewhere!
Agriculture is one of the most protected sectors with the most aid in the entire European Union.
However, the Netherlands isn’t the country that receives the most money.
Of course, they receive aid like every other member country.
But they don’t get even a third of what Greece gets, for example.
And if we compare it with larger countries like France, the differences are abysmal.
So how is it possible that with so little land and so little help, Holland has become
the market garden of the world?
As you can imagine, the answer is simply defined in one word: TECHNOLOGY.
In a farm in the Netherlands we can find tractors that drive themselves, drones that monitor
crops and, of course, resource-optimization at the highest level.
However, there’s still a question: Why does Holland have a more modern agriculture than,
for example, Spain, which has more aid from Europe?
What has the Netherlands done that can be imitated in other countries?
Today we’re going to answer these questions but before, let’s take a look back at history.
FROM THE FIELD TO THE UNIVERSITY
In the 70s, Holland was one of the most prosperous economies in Europe.
Companies such as Philips or Airbus were conquering international markets.
And all this were good news.
But, as we always say in VISUALPOLITIK, not everything is a field of roses.
Imagine being 20 and living in the Netherlands back at in time.
Where would you have liked to work?
In an international company like Philips, with high salaries and good conditions...
or on your father's farm?
Exactly!
Dutch agriculture was on the verge of disappearing.
We have to add something very important to this.
As we said before, the Netherlands is very small and there’s hardly any space for large
farms.
For example, there’s plenty of land in the United States.
And that means that farmers can group and create large farms.
In fact, nowadays a lot of American farms belong to large companies.
This means that they can make scale investments and, for example, buy planes to fumigate huge
areas of land.
However, in the case of the Netherlands, farms are small.
With an average size of around 7 hectares, making large investments became really complicated.
To make matters worse, by the 70s, Dutch salaries were already much higher than in other European
countries.
In other words, unlike the farmers in Southern Italy, the Dutch couldn’t compete with low
prices.
And you may be wondering, why did they need agriculture?
After all, in those years, there was already a certain degree of international trades.
The Netherlands could import food while they manufactured televisions or airplanes, right?
Yes, you’re right.
From a purely economic point of view, they could’ve easily let go of their primary
sector.
But, my dear friends of VISUALPOLITIK, not everything in life is economy.
And in a country like Holland, peasant associations have a lot of power.
More than in almost any other country.
For example, in many other countries they have something called the Social Dialogue
table, which is an organization where the government, employers and unions meet.
Well, in the Netherlands they have something similar.
But along with employers and unions, farmers and rancher associations are also well represented.
And in the 70s, Dutch farmers and ranchers weren’t willing to change jobs.
So, put yourself in this situation: Holland had to maintain its primary sector at all
costs.
But, at the same time, all the odds were against them.
At this point, I know what you may be thinking...
Grants!
The solution would be to give subsidies to the farmers so they’d stop protesting!
Right?
Of course, it wouldn’t be the first nor the last time such policies are applied.
But the Dutch government had other plans.
Now that they had to maintain their primary sector, they wanted to do it well.
And, since they couldn’t reduce salaries or group farms, there was only one solution
left: to improve productivity.
That is, getting the farmers to produce more and better while working.
How?
We’ll see that right now!
THE UNIVERSITY OF WAGENINGEN
You’ve surely heard it a thousand times: Silicon Valley wouldn’t be what it is today
if it weren’t for Stanford University.
It’s the mecca of research in everything that has to do with electronics and telecommunications.
But they don’t only research!
They also train the best computer scientists in the world.
And as they leave the university, they go directly to big companies like GOOGLE, APPLE
or TESLA.
Well, as far as agriculture is concerned, the mecca of innovation isn’t in the US
but in the Netherlands.
Yes, friends of VISUALPOLITIK, I’m talking about the University of Wageningen, also known
as FOOD VALLEY.
Many of you might not have heard about this university.
That’s because they only work in the world of agriculture.
They don’t have degrees in law or art history.
Wageningen's motto is to improve food quality in the entire world.
You may be wondering, but what is so special about this University?
The first difference is money.
The Netherlands knew that it needed technology to improve its fields.
So what did they do?
They covered their scientists with money.
In just two decades, Wageningen University’s research budget doubled.
But wait a moment because money isn’t the only important thing!
Truth is, the most important thing wasn’t HOW MUCH but WHERE that money was coming from.
See... in many European countries and in most of Latin America, there’s a very clear line
that separates the public and private universities.
Public universities live from the State.
Period.
Of course they can have some kind of collaboration with private companies.
But... let's be honest, this barely represents a small percentage of their entire funding.
Wageningen’s case is different.
50% of their money comes from the Government, 25% from the university's own income and the
last 25% from private companies.
And I know what you’re thinking!
Private companies financing a university?
Does this mean that the university is private?
Of course not!
But it is a great advantage.
It allows the university to be connected to the rest of society.
Ok!
Sorry, I know that sounded like a politician’s bluff.
I’m sorry.
I'll explain with an example.
While preparing this video, we telephoned CESAR BRAVO, a farmer from Spain, more specifically
from the Canary Islands, to ask about how agricultural modernization works.
You may not know this, but livestock is very important in the Canary Islands.
Especially goats.
They have a specific type of goat, called PALMER GOAT, which is unique in the world.
And, logically, there are several institutes and foundations that dedicate to studying
this type of goat.
However, as CESAR explained, practically none of the studies they make are useful to farmers.
Think about it!
If you have a goat farm, what kind of research do you need?
You’ll want to know how to produce more and better milk, right?
Studies on how to better feed the animals, dietary supplements or even genetic engineering.
Well, if you go to the ICIA website, for example, which is the Canary Institute of Agricultural
Research, you won’t find anything like that.
There are tons of academic articles that explain the racial origin of the palm goat, whether
it’s related to other goats in Morocco or Tanzania or if they existed during the middles
ages.
Practical use?
Practically zero.
Meanwhile, according to the TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION ranking, Wageningen’s studies are the most
cited in their field.
But that’s not all!
I bet you can’t guess what the university’s official language is.
You surely think that by being in Holland, they’d speak Dutch, right?
Well, none of that!
We’re talking about the world capital of agricultural research!
But not only that!
Record numbers of foreign students at Dutch universities of technology
In this university, more than 40% of all students are foreign.
As is the research staff.
No matter where you’re from, if you have a talent for agriculture, you can get a place
in Wageningen.
Which is why the official language is English.
That explains why Wageningen is, for example, the pioneer in LED lamps for greenhouses,
allowing to create precisely controlled artificial microclimates.
Thanks to this, the Netherlands is one of the leaders in tomato growth, even though
in natural conditions, tomatoes would never grow in such a cold country.
But not only that!
In a country like the US, farmers need about 126 liters of water to grow 1 kilogram of
tomatoes.
Well, thanks to this university’s research, now one can produce the same amount with just
8 liters of water.
Imagine how much saving that means both from an economic and ecological perspective.
But wait a moment!
Research is good but… it really isn’t worth anything if it stays within the university.
And in that, Holland is again an example of how to do things right.
FROM THE UNIVERSITY TO THE FIELD
Let’s get back to Spain for a moment.
Imagine that we have a tomato garden and want to invest in this hydroponic technology that
will allow us to save on water.
The European Union, more precisely the Common Agricultural Policy, provides all kinds of
grants so that farmers can modernize their fields.
So we’ll go to the Agricultural Extension Agency, which is where all these grants are
managed.
Well, we’ll get our money there and they’ll make sure that we will actually spend it to
improve our production techniques.
So far so good.
But, how do we know what machines to hire?
One would think that the farmer would know, better than anyone, what their lands would
need.
But the truth is that the agricultural world evolves as quickly as Internet companies.
And if nobody advises us, we’ll have to find the information ourselves.
Well, that’s the situation in which almost every Spanish farmer is!
There’s a huge gap between the university and the field.
The Dutch case is entirely different.
In this country they have the so-called Agricultural Council Offices.
That means that there’s a person in charge of explaining what type of machines we should
buy and what technologies are best suited for our type of crop.
The result?
The Dutch field looks nothing like those of any other country.
While most of the European countries consume tons of antibiotics for animals, the Netherland’s
ranchers are already using the most advanced veterinarian techniques in such a way that
they can prevent diseases instead of curing them.
The same happens with plant pesticides.
In this country they noticed that if they use drones to monitor the crops, they can
control each and every one of the vegetables, and prevent them from becoming infected.
And in a country where almost half of the crops are irrigated, they have managed to
decrease their water consumption by almost 90%.
And agricultural product exports surpassed 92 billion euros last year.
And not only that!
Holland is also making money by exporting their own technology.
The UAE goes Dutch to ensure their food security So the question is, do you think other countries
can import these kinds of policies?
How far can the technologies developed in Holland help feed the entire world?
Leave your answer in the comments.
Before we finish, I want to thank CESAR BRAVO and ANGEL GAGO, from AGQ Nutrition, for helping
me in this video.
And if you’re interested in this subject, we’ll soon release another video explaining
the European Agricultural Policy, the so-called CAP, in depth.
Also, don’t forget to visit our friends from Reconsidera Media .com, the podcast that
provided the vocals on this video that were not mine
And as always, do remember that we publish brand new videos every week so hit that subscribe
button and you will not miss any post.
If you liked this video, give us a thumbs up and, as always, I see you next time.