In reply to Jed Rothwell's message of Sun, 9 Jun 2013 17:14:34 -0400: Hi, [snip]
Holland is also a major export port for a large part of Europe, and does a lot of trade. So the export figures could include agricultural products imported from other European countries as well as those produced locally. >Harry Veeder <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> That is hard to believe. Perhaps they mean second largest food exporter >> per capita? >> > >No, the second largest in the world. I think measured in dollar value of >the exports, not food tonnage. > >Amazing, isn't it? A little country with 16 million people. > >They also export the technology, but that is accounted separately, says NHK. > >The website I found says: > >"Holland is the worlds 2nd largest exporter of agricultural products, >after the USA. Together with the USA and France, Holland is one of the top >3 exporters of vegetables and fruit. > >The total value of Dutch agricultural exports was 75.4 billion euros in >2012. > >The Dutch agri-food industry contributes 52.5 billion euros of added value >to Dutch GDP, and accounting for some 20% of Holland's total export value. > >The Netherlands is responsible for 22% of the worlds potato exports . . ." > >The Dutch experts interviewed on NHK emphasized that this is a high tech, >computer driven industry. One guy -- a farmer I guess you would call him -- >gets up at 7 am and drives to an ultramodern office next to his 30-hectare >food factory. He is sitting in an office looking at computer screens for a >while. He jokes, "things look good. I guess I can go home." He says he >often spends more time looking at data than actual crops. > >Inside the greenhouse factory the roof is high and everything is metered >and controlled to a fair-thee-well. It is all hydroponic. The incoming >water is cleaned, filtered and cleared of bacteria, and then mixed with >nutrients and iodine. The people picking crops wear haz mat suits and ride >on electric cars that rise up to the high end of the vines. A robot train >of picked crops threads its way to the processing building. Pretty soon I >expect robots will also pick the crops. > >- Jed Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
