The North of the Netherlands is one of the most important agricultural regions of the Netherlands. The Northern Netherlands is characterized by a lot of space for agriculture, distinct and leading specializations and intensive cooperation between producers and knowledge institutions.
Food production is one of the mainstays of the regional economy. At the same time, the sector faces major challenges. Food security is a huge challenge in view of the growing world population. Promoting biodiversity is important for conservation of natural values, but also for the sector itself because of the importance of ecosystem services. Pollution and landscape degradation affect human well-being, as well as opportunities for food production. Climate change, depending on the place and time, can lead to drought or abundant rainfall and requires greenhouse gas mitigation and climate adaptation. Meeting this combined challenge requires reinventing the food system, food production 2.0. As a powerful agricultural region, the North offers ample opportunities to further develop as a sustainable production region. But what exactly does its strength consist of? And where does it come from? In this longread I show where food production in the Northern Netherlands comes from, and how "food production 2.0" can develop in the future.
The north as an agricultural region
The vast cultivated lands of the northern Netherlands lie on the border between high and low lands. The main soil types - clay, peat and sand - are all found here. As a result, the North offers opportunities for various land-based specializations such as (seed) potatoes, arable farming and dairy farming. The increased ability to control water has increased the opportunities for food production in the North in recent centuries. Extensive land reclamation was carried out along the Wadden coasts and the Dollard. By stimulating alluviation and the construction of dikes, a piece of land could be reclaimed again and again. Reclamation of moorlands provided extensive agricultural land that was ideal for growing potatoes. Reclamation and improvements in drainage in the Frisian peat meadow area eventually produced grasslands that could be used all year round. Over the centuries, this provided more and more space for farming.
The amount of cultivated land increased until the 1950s, then some of it was converted to roads, housing and natural areas. Industrialization also affected the agricultural sector. An ever smaller portion of the North's population was directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. Yet food production, especially when compared to other regions, remains important to the North. Wageningen Economic Research calculated that the agrocomplex accounts for 14% of northern employment. These are not so much agricultural companies, but mainly companies in the agri-food chain as suppliers and processors. Companies are also partly dependent on the agricultural sector, think of an accountant who has many farmers as clients. The connection between agriculture and other businesses - the chain - has a long history. In the Northern Netherlands there was early cooperation between farmers and other parts of the economy, as will be shown in the following paragraphs.
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