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PARALLEL SESSION 2A: LAND USE 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
138
Land requirements for food in the Netherlands, a historical analysis
over 200 years
Sanderine Nonhebel 1,* , Jan Hessels Miedema 1 , Thomas Kastner 2
1 Centre for Energy and Environmental Sciences, University of Groningen. Groningen, The Netherlands
2 Institute for Social Ecology, Alpen Adria University, Vienna, Austria.
Corresponding author E-mail: S.Nonhebel@rug.nl
ABSTRACT
The production of food puts a large claim on land. The land required for food depends on the menu and on the agricultural production
(yields per hectare). Both factors change over time. We combined data on food consumption over 200 years in the Netherlands with
data on agricultural yields over the same period and determined a time series on land requirements for food.
Large changes in the consumption patterns took place. In 1800 the largest share of the kcal in the food (90%) were obtained from
milk, wheat, rye, buckwheat, barley and potatoes. 200 years later milk, wheat and potatoes only contributed for 40% to the menu, and
pork, sugar and vegetable oils accounted for 40%. Crop yields went up with a factor 4-8. Combination of both made that in 1800 1.4
ha was needed to feed a person, while 200 years later only 0.2 hectare was needed.
Keywords: food consumption patterns, crop yields, land use, time series
1. Introduction
The production of food puts a large claim on land. On a global scale 30% of the land is used for the production
of food. Earlier research showed that large differences in land claim existed between various food
items and different menus required different land use. Luxurious menus with a lot of meat tend to require 5
times as much land as the menus mainly based on staple food like rice and potatoes. (Gerbens-Leenes and
Nonhebel, 2002). The change of menu is strongly related to economic development. With increasing welfare
menus change from diets mainly based on staples to diets including animal products, vegetable oils, vegetables
and drinks.
The land requirements for food are inversely related to crop yields, when yields double land requirements
for food halve. Crop yields per hectare are affected by changes in technology like the use of higher yielding
crop varieties, application of (mineral) fertilisers, use of biocides against pests and diseases etc.
Over the last 200 years large changes both in menu as in agricultural technology have taken place in the
Netherlands. In this paper we study the overall effect of changes in menu and changes in production techniques
on the land required for food in the Netherlands. This historical analysis provides knowledge on how
the need for land can change over time, insights can be of use when studying future global food supply.
2. Methodology
We constructed a historical database of food availability per person over 200 years using various sources.
Next we collected yield data for most important food crops grown in the Netherlands. Finally we combined
food availability data with the crop yields to determine the land required for food using the methodology
developed by Kastner and Nonhebel (2010).
2.1 Food consumption patterns
Data on food availability were obtained from different sources, using different food categories and different
units covering different timespans. All food units (kg, litres etc) were converted into kcal, and food categories
were adjusted (Miedema, 2011). Fig. 1 shows the result. Around the first (1914-1918) and second
(1940-1945) world war a large decline in food availability is shown. It is likely that in these years the availability
of food deviated from the non-war years, but during wars the collection of statistical data is in general
not the first priority of a government, so the quality of the collection of the data can also be a reason for deviation.
The total food availability increased in 200 years from 2500 kcal per person per day to over 3200 kcal.
Next to this, changes in the pattern are obvious: around 1800 over 40% of the food originated from livestock
(with dairy contributing virtually the whole share), this drops to 20% in 1900 and increases again to 35% in
2000 (Figure 1). In 1800, rye and barley were the cereals most consumed, while in 2000 wheat was the most
important cereal. While the consumption of relevant quantities of sugar only started around 1880, in 2000
15% of the calories in the menu were obtained from sugar. Further from 1950 onwards animal fats in the
diets were replaced by oils from the oilseeds.