LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

PARALLEL SESSION 2A: LAND USE 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
This implies that the results presented should not be interpreted on face value. We did not calculate the
actual land required for food in 1800. For the determination of that value we should have included imports,
technological improvements etc and we should have had insights in the reliability of the data. The value of
the analysis presented here is in the developments over time and the interrelation in food consumption patterns
and agricultural production.
This analysis provides some interesting insights. In the first place it is striking that 200 years ago dairy
played such a vital role in the Dutch consumption pattern. This is in contrast with the patterns observed on a
global scale: namely that the consumption of animal origin products only starts when a certain level of welfare
is reached. The large consumption of milk in the early 19th century is also mentioned in more qualitative
food consumption studies (Jobse-van Putten, 1995) they mention that Dutch households consumed a milk
based meal (mainly porridge) 14 times a week (so 2 times a day!).
With respect to the production: the crop yields remained more or less constant in the 19th century and after
the second world war huge yield improvements were obtained. Crop yields went up with a factor 4-8. But
differences between crops were recognised. Some crops disappeared from the agricultural system like buckwheat
and others became of minor importance (rye).
The consequence of all these changes is a fast decline of land required for food per person from 1.4 to 0.2
ha per person. This value is in accordance with other studies on land requirements for food in the Netherlands
(Gerbens-Leenes et al., 2002; Gerbens-Leenes and Nonhebel, 2002). They determined the land required
for food in The Netherlands in 1990, in a far more detailed way: including imports, present day technologies,
far more detailed information on the consumption pattern etc.
In the studied period land requirements for food per person was reduced by a factor of 8. However, in the
same timespan the population increased from 2 to 17 million people, so the total amount of land needed to
feed the Dutch population remained actually constant.
In a recent study on global changes in land requirements for food in the last 50 years, this decline in land
per person is found in most regions in the world (Kastner et al., 2012). The magnitude of the decline is
smaller than calculated here. For a part this can be explained by the high crop yields that are obtained in the
intensive Dutch agricultural system. The yields in the Netherlands tend to be the highest in the world; with
the same menu the land requirements are smallest. Another important feature is the high animal product
consumption in the Netherlands 200 years ago. The land requirements for meat are determined by the yields
of the crops used for feed. Roughly 4 kg of feed are required for 1 kg of meat. A menu mainly based on staple
foods requires less land than a menu with meat. For the Dutch situation we observe a decline in the consumption
of animal products over the time studied, in combination with the increased yields this leads to the
huge decline in land required for food. This decline is typical for the Dutch situation and cannot be generalised
to the rest of the world.
5 Conclusions
In 200 years large changes in the Dutch consumption patterns can be recognized. The share of dairy, rye
and buckwheat declined and the share of wheat, meat, sugar and vegetable oils increased. The agricultural
production system also changed a lot: after the Second World War an increase of the productivity with a
factor 4 was obtained. The combination of the change in diets and the change in agricultural productivity led
to a reduction of the land required to feed a person from 1.4 ha in 1800 to 0.2 ha in 2000.
6 References
Aarts, H. F. M., Daatselaar, C. H. G., Holshof, G., 2005. Bemesting en opbrengst van productiegrasland in Nederland. Plant Research
International B.V. Wageningen.
Gerbens-Leenes, P.W., Nonhebel, S., 2002. Consumption patterns and their effects on land required for food. Ecological Economics
42, 185–199.
Gerbens-Leenes, P.W., Nonhebel, S., Ivens, W.P.M.F., 2002. A method to determine land requirements relating to food consumption
patterns. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 90, 47–58.
Jobse-van Putten, J., 1995. Eenvoudig maar voedzaam: cultuurgeschiedenis van de dagelijkse maaltijd in Nederland. Nijmegen:
SUN.
Kastner, T., & Nonhebel, S., 2010. Changes in land requirements for food in the Philippines: A historical analysis. Land Use Policy
27, 853-863
Kastner, T., Ibarrola Rivas, M.J., Koch, W., Nonhebel, S., 2012. Global changes in diets and the consequences for land requirements
for food. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 6868-6872
Knibbe, M. T., 2007. De hoofdelijke beschikbaarheid van voedsel en de levensstandaard in Nederland 1807 – 1913. Tijdschrift voor
sociale en economische geschiedenis, 4, 71-107.
Miedema, H.J., 2011. Developments in the Dutch diets: dynamics on two centuries of land requirements for food in the Netherlands.
Master Thesis, University of Groningen. EES 2011-125T.
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