2023-05-24 21:29:23
‘Fifteen million people, on that very small piece of earth…’ The artists Fluitsma and Van Tuin sang it in 1996. We now have 17.5 million inhabitants. That is a lot of people, but the number is nothing compared to the number of animals that live in this small country. Roomy 115 million farm animals to take almost half of the Dutch soil confiscated. It concerns 21,000 square kilometers that is currently intended for livestock farming, an area the size of, say, the provinces of Limburg, Zeeland, North Brabant, North Holland, Groningen, South Holland and the IJsselmeer together.
Now imagine the following – for now completely unrealistic – situation. It is prohibited in the Netherlands to use land for the production of animal feed, meat or dairy products. There is no longer any meat or dairy in the supermarkets and catering establishments, and no one eats animal products anymore. What would our country look like then? It is a purely hypothetical question, but a relevant one. The choices we make with regard to our food have a major impact not only on our health, but also on the state of nature and the climate.
Suppose that the food choice has already been made: everyone eats plant-based. What would change in a vegan-eating Netherlands? In the series of articles ‘Vegan throughout the Netherlands’ we will elaborate on this thought exercise in the coming months.
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We were inspired by the project for our series Netherlands Veganland by landscape architect Berno Strootman and professor of Environmental Sustainability Jan Willem Erisman of Leiden University, in which they explore a future based on the assumption that we will all eat plant-based. If you only look at agricultural land, then no less than 71.9 percent of the surface intended for livestock farming, as grazing land and for growing green fodder crops such as silage maize. The remaining thirty percent is intended for arable farming and horticulture for human consumption. What if all that land were released from livestock farming?
“As a country, we have quite a lot to do: climate adaptation, housing, biodiversity, the nitrogen problem and the energy transition,” explains Strootman. “Plant-based food can be an interesting course to help solve all kinds of challenges that we face in the Netherlands. You can use land that you no longer use for livestock farming in other ways. What could that bring? We will delve into that. In addition, we are looking at the extent to which a vegan Netherlands can contribute to climate justice, an important theme of our time. In our country, the burden of climate change often falls disproportionately on people with low incomes. Would that change if the Netherlands became vegan?”
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Plan of action? Data analyses, map studies, brainstorming with each other and with other experts, making sketches, calculations and visualizations, in order to be able to present the insights by the end of this year. “We suspect that the Netherlands will become a better version of itself if everyone eats a plant-based diet. We will explore whether that is really the case.” With their research, Strootman and Erisman want to provide insight into the consequences of a vegan-eating Netherlands, so that we as a society can better conduct the debate on space and climate. “We are not going to draw an implementation plan. For us, it’s really about exploring the ‘what if’ question,” says Strootman.
Why we do this
The designers and researchers are mainly targeting changes in land use and the landscape associated with large-scale veganism. NEMO Kennislink goes its own way and broadens the theme. We also delve into the consequences of plant-based eating for public health, for example, or for the risk of diseases that jump from animals to humans (zoonoses). Or take the North Sea. What would happen to biodiversity if there were no more fisheries?
Don’t worry, this theme is not propaganda for a plant-based lifestyle. It is not our intention to encourage you, our reader, to immediately eliminate all animal products. We are not making this series because we think it is feasible or desirable for everyone to eat only plant-based. It is about thinking, to form a picture of what the Netherlands could look like if we change our current way of eating. Because it broadens our view and makes us look at the present and the future in a different way.
Also good to know: in our in-depth articles, interviews and reports, we assume that everyone already eats plant-based. So we’re not going to talk about how hard it is to change your behavior, or what to do with the annual neighborhood barbecue when there are no more burgers in the supermarket. It is about the bigger picture: the organization and health of our country. What will happen if the whole of the Netherlands becomes vegan? Discover it with us.
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