How bad is it in agriculture?
Volkskrant, PETER DE WAARD – 05/12/12, 00:00
Yvon Jaspers has to recruit her television genius bachelors from just 69 thousand agricultural entrepreneurs these days. Since she started the ratings hit Farmer seeks wife in 2004, seven farmers a day have closed their farms, according to CBS. Although there does not seem to be a direct connection between the decreased popularity of the farming profession and the program, it does not help for the recruitment that they are now offered partners thanks to money from the broadcasting pot. The decline has been going on for decades. In 1950 the Netherlands had 410 thousand farms. In 2000 there were almost a hundred thousand. That number fell by another thirty thousand. Compare that to the number of professional artists. In addition to the two million who model, paint or write novels for their hobby, according to Eurostat there are now 110 thousand artists in the Netherlands who have to make a living from their work. In a few years there will be two artists for every farmer. In a way, that makes sense, since the Dutch now spend only 10 percent of their income on food – down from 30 percent in 1950 – leaving more to buy art. Only the Dutch don’t. As a result, the growing number of artists have less and less to distribute. Half of professional artists earn less than 10 thousand euros a year. In agriculture it is exactly the other way around. Today’s 69 thousand farmers produce just 30 percent more than the 100 thousand farmers in 2000 and five times as much as the 410 thousand in 1950. They also do so with less space, because the area of farmland has shrunk by 6 percent since 2000 and by as much as 20 percent since 1950. Agricultural productivity continues to rise dramatically, despite the increasing focus on landscape management and organic farming. On a square meter of land, the Dutch farmer now grows 66 kilograms of cucumbers compared to 45 kilograms at the turn of the century. In 1950 an average cow accounted for 4,000 liters of milk per year, in 2000 for 7,300 liters of milk and now for 8,100 liters. A one-hectare apple orchard now yields 50 tons of apples compared to 39 tons in 2000. Annually, Dutch chickens lay 10.6 billion eggs (1.7 eggs per Dutchman per day), 3.8 billion kilograms of consumption potatoes are harvested (0.7 kilograms per Dutchman per day), 4.9 billion kilograms of vegetables and 2.8 billion kilograms of meat are produced. Of that, roughly half is exported, generating 42 billion euros in foreign exchange. Even if all the Rembrandts and Van Goghs are sold to sheiks and oligarchs, the Netherlands does not earn that from art. Let the farmer plow. Yvon Jaspers can look for Artist seeks wife in the Amsterdam bohemia. That also counts more marriageable young people: of the peasants, only 5 percent are under 30.
