The effects of modernisation in Dutch horticulture

Westland as a case study

Ricardo Avella / student 4746961 / avella.ricardo@gmail.com

13 November 2017

Abstract

The essay will study the effects of modernisation in the Dutch horticultural sector, with a
particular focus in the Westland district. The arrival of certain technological innovations
had tremendous consequences on productive efficiency; but they also had important
spatial, economic, social and environmental effects which have shaped the territory and
created an identity. This is why this essay has been divided in two blocks: one that
analyses the effects of modernisation in horticulture after the Industrial Revolution (1850-
1950); and another that studies what happened after 1950, when greenhouse horticulture
became the most dynamic sector of Dutch agriculture.

Technological innovations, economic growth, pressures from the global market and
environmental awareness have recently forced the Dutch horticultural sector to embrace
and promote sustainability. This situation sets the ground for a more balanced
development in the future, especially in the face of changes that will be brought by
automation. By analysing the effects of modernisation in Dutch horticulture, this essay
seeks to explore the threats and opportunitiesit brings, so we can build possible scenarios
and better spatial strategies.

Keywords

Horticulture; Westland; Greenhouses; Industrial Revolution; Modernisation

Introduction

This essay seeks to understand what the effects of modernisation have been in the context
of Dutch horticulture, with a particular focus in the district of Westland. In order to do so,
past processes of modernisation have been carefully analyzed. History can always provide
clues about the future, especially when trying to grasp the spatial, social, economic and
environmental effects of technological innovations in a region where there is much talk
of automation.

Some authors have studied the evolution of Dutch agriculture through history (Bieleman
2010); others have analyzed the effects of modernisation in particular time periods (Karel
2010); and many have concentrated their attention in Dutch horticulture (Buurma 2001;
Berkers and Geels 2011). Nevertheless, research shows that authors tend to examine the
evolution of greenhouse horticulture as a whole. There is little literature available focused
on the evolution of the Westland district, even though it concentrates almost 61% of all
the greenhouses in the country (Bureau MUST 2015: 11).

The main objective is to identify the effects of modernisation in the Westland district in
terms of space and economic growth, but also in terms of changes in society and the
environment. By having a better understanding of the opportunities and threats
modernisation brings, we can build possible scenarios and better spatial strategies. This
is why this essay has been divided in two blocks: one that analyses the effects of
modernisation in horticulture after the Industrial Revolution (1850-1950); and another
that studies what happened after 1950, when greenhouse horticulture became the most
dynamic sector of Dutch agriculture.

Dutch greenhouse horticulture has historically embraced design, technology and

innovation to increase productive efficiency, particularly in the Westland district. In
consequence, this productive region has become one of the most important commercial
hubs in the global trade of vegetables and flowers. But the evolution of Westland has been
mainly analysed from an economic and productive standpoint. It would be interesting to
study in the future the effects of modernisation from a social and environmental point of
view.

Modernisation after the Industrial Revolution (1850-1950)

Horticulture flourished during the Dutch Golden Age, but the Industrial Revolution
triggered a process of intensification, specialisation and differentiation that started to
shape its current identity. In the period under consideration, horticulture grew enormously
and stroke with economic development labour force increased from 11.300 workers in
1849 to 88.000 in 1947 (Bieleman 2010: 228). This could have never happened without
the revolution in transport brought by railways and steamships, which stimulated exports
in this period of free trade. The increase of horticultural products in the whole of all
agricultural exports was astonishing: from 2% in 1846 to 17% in 1926 (Bieleman 2010:
151). In consequence, growers began to invest heavily on their farms and their
surroundings. Between 1860 and 1930, growers of the Westland district expanded the
surface of horticultural land in the low area between Monster, s-Gravenzande and
Naaldwijk [Fig.1]. Almost 1.000 hectares of low lands were filled with sand brought in
by ship from the nearby dunes. By 1930, the difference between high and low land had
disappeared, and the resulting area was several times larger than the initial farming land
(Gemeente Westland 2016: 19).

Figure 1. Spatial evolution of the Westland district (Gemeente Westland 2016: 18)

But one of the most differentiating effects of this process of modernisation was the arrival
of the greenhouse. In fact, the area of greenhouses increased from virtually none by the
end of the 19th century to around 800 hectares before WWII. This structures began to
appear not only because of the high profits brought by exports, but because of the
industrialisation of glass manufacturing, which made sheet glass available in the
European market.1 As Jan Bieleman points out, gardeners () invested large sums of
money in the application of sheet glass, which enabled them to broaden the range of
products and to force (forceren) the growth of their crops () (Bieleman 2010: 231).

Since the 17th century, Dutch growers have been forcing their crops to harvest them earlier
than their competition. In order to do so, they used hotbeds: low structures placed on the
ground, covered with oiled paper or glass [Fig.2]. With the availability of sheet glass,
their use spread in South Holland; and by 1912 there were 584 hectares of glass-covered
plots in the country, most of them in the Westland district. Almost 80% of that land was
covered with hotbeds for potato cultivation; the rest was using a new kind of structure
that started to change the productive landscape: the forerunners of todays greenhouses.

Greenhouses were introduced for grape cultivation in the Westland by 1890. The muurkas
may be the first prototype of such structures: grape walls made out of bricks and covered
with a glass sloped roof. They evolved into the druivenserre: a closed glasshouse for
grape cultivation [Fig.3]. But even though this typology increased physical yields and
made cultivation more secure, it had been designed for a single kind of crop. So growers
embraced innovation in order to increase the productivity of other crops as well, and the
first Westland greenhouse was built by 1903 in the town of Loosduinen [Fig.3]. It was
more versatile than any of its predecessors, and proved to be very suitable for various
kinds of crops (Berkers and Geels 2011: 233). By 1912 greenhouses were still the
exception (81% of the horticultural glass area was covered with hotbeds), but they
diffused rapidly since then. As Bieleman indicates, () it was the Westland grape
cultivation that really gave the first impetus to the use of glass and just before World War
II almost 800 ha of grapes under glass were grown in the Westland district (Bieleman
2010: 232).

1
The Crystal Palace, built by Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition of 1851, may be the most famous
example of the new kind of structures that could now be built with industrialized sheet glass. We should
remember that Paxton himself was a gardener, and that by the time he built the Crystal Palace he had
already been experimenting extensively with greenhouse construction to force growth and to keep exotic
species from the European colonies, not suited for cold climates.

As early as the 1890s the first heating systems were also introduced. They were fired with
coal, and some growers installed these systems to force their crops even further.2 Heating
systems required large amounts of capital, and this may explain why the use of this
technical innovation was not as widespread as the greenhouse itself. Before the 1930s
only 17% of all the greenhouses were heated, but the increase in productivity it allowed
was evident, since crops could now be grown for longer periods of time.3

Modernisation also stimulated a process of specialisation. Before the Industrial

Revolution horticulturists were used to grow different sorts of crops, but the pressure of
the foreign market made them shift to particular kinds of fruits and vegetables: first there
were potatoes, then came grape cultivation, and just before WWII, tomatoes took over.

The export-oriented identity of the Westland was shaped by the emergence of new and
more efficient means of transport. Bieleman tells us that exports to Great Britain were
stimulated in particular by the opening of regular ferry services between London and
Rotterdam (later also Amsterdam). And in 1856, the Dutch railway system was connected
with the German network (Bieleman 2010: 227). Not less important was the birth of the
Westland Steam Tramway Company, which began to build in 1881 an extensive steam
tramway that connected the villages of the Westland to the train stations in Delft, Hoek
van Holland and The Hague.4 This light rail system boosted the growth of the horticultural
sector, providing greenhouses with coal for heating and guaranteeing goods could be
delivered more efficiently.

Modernisation before the turn of the century (1950-2000)

By the end of the century, greenhouse horticulture was the second most important sector
of Dutch agriculture in terms of production value, and it was certainly the most dynamic
and innovative sector of all. The agricultural landscape changed completely after 1954,
when a process of mechanisation, intensification, specialisation and up-scaling was
promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture. For the first time in history, higher productivity

2
Before heating systems came into existence, horse manure was placed inside the traditional hotbeds to
further heat the interior as it decayed.
3
Bieleman: When horticulturists found out that the cultivation of stooktomaten, or 'hothouse tomatoes'
was even more profitable than that of 'coldhouse' tomatoes, many greenhouses were transformed and
equipped with a heating installation.
4
Because land had to be expropriated in order to build the infrastructure, the tram network grew rather
slowly during the course of two decades. By 1882 there was only one route connecting The Hague with
the village of Loosduinen; but soon the tramway stretched to Poeldijk, and from there to Monster,
Naaldwijk and the village of s-Gravenzande. The network was only completed on October 1912, when
Maassluis was connected via the Maaslandse Dam to Schipluiden, Den Hoorn and Delft.

was not related with an increase in employment in the agricultural sector. On the contrary,
modernisation caused a massive discharge of labour.5

To tackle the problem, the government developed a social engineering program that
discouraged farmers families from pursuing agriculture as a way of living, directing
labour surplus towards the growing industry. After the war, the government even tried to
solve the small farmers problem by encouraging emigration to the United States,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Karel 2010: 8-11). As wages increased and labour
became more expensive, all agricultural sectors embraced mechanisation to cut labour
costs and increase productivity.

Supermarkets came to be an important part of modern life since the 1960s, and they took
over the small-scale traders of the past. But even though they allowed horticultural
products to have a deeper penetration in the domestic market, production in Westland
continued to be export-oriented.6 Global markets determined which crops were
cultivated: tomatoes and cucumbers were the most grown vegetables; grapes ceased to be
profitable, and cut-flowers became fundamental along with pot plants.

The Land Consolidation program initiated by Sicco Mansholt, Dutch Minister of

Agriculture after WWII, was structural in stimulating the agricultural system into the
process of modernisation. The program is known for its large interventions in which the
size and shape of agricultural plots were rearranged to what mechanisation required. But
with substantial subsidies from the government, roads, canals and bridges were also built
throughout the country. In the district of Westland, transportation shifted from canals to
paved roads. According to Bieleman, in 1958 more than 40% of all greenhouses were
still only accessible by boat or on foot. In 1972, after the project had been finished, lorries
could reach every farm to load or unload (Bieleman 2010: 307). And regarding the
conflicts that arise with all infrastructural projects, Buurma indicates that greenhouses
and growers had to make room for roads, with the government acting as a guide and a
mediator in the process (Buurma 2001: 24). Meanwhile, buses had taken over the light
rail system and Westland finally became a car dependent district.7

5
In 1950, before this process of modernisation began, the agricultural sector employed 19% of the total
workforce of the Netherlands (716.000 people); by 2000, that percentage was 3% (236.000 workers).
6
According to Bieleman, Germany continued to be the leading export destination with a share of more
than 70% of all the exports by the mid-1970s. Exports to Britain and France also improved.
7
People felt that trams were too slow and that the stations were too far from the village centers. In 1970,
what remained of the WSM tramway was finally dismantled.

In 1957 a new type of greenhouse was introduced: the Venlo greenhouse. Its design
proved to have a positive impact on productivity. It was cheap and very flexible, but it
also allowed higher levels of translucency. The latter was particularly important, since
research had shown that light intensity had a proportional effect on crop productivity.8
The Venlo greenhouse diffused rapidly, and Bieleman indicates that by the end of the
1980's 83% of Dutch greenhouses were Venlo glasshouses (Bieleman 2010: 301).

The Venlo greenhouse went along with another innovation that had an even greater
impact: the arrival of natural gas. By 1950, only half of the greenhouses in the Westland
district were heated with coal or oil. But natural gas proved to have so many advantages,
that it stimulated the complete shift from unheated greenhouses to heated greenhouses. It
was easier to handle, it raised the growing temperatures and it made the production of
good quality CO available to growers.9 Productivity rose by breaking the winter stillness
with year-round products.

All these innovations influenced the disappearance of hotbeds and the tremendous growth
of the greenhouse area. In 1950 almost a thousand hectares of land were cultivated with
hotbeds, but these glass structures disappeared only 20 years later. In contrast, growers
invested more and more in greenhouses. Before the war there were 2.330 ha of
greenhouses; by 1970 that number was close to 5.000 ha, and by the end of the century it
had passed the 10.000 ha mark. As Bieleman fairly states, it is important to note that the
shift from Dutch lights to glasshouses not only meant an improvement in the working
conditions for the gardeners, but also resulted in a higher labour productivity (Bieleman
2010: 300).

Another important novelty was the introduction of substrata for hydroponic cultivation
by the mid-1970s. The use of rockwool spread rapidly among growers, and by the end of
the 20th century most of the vegetables were no longer cultivated in the ground.
Hydroponic substrata, along with computerised nutrient and water management, turned
out to be very effective for growing crops to their specific needs; and the resulting
standardisation of vegetables and flowers was perfectly suited for mechanised packing

8
Buurma: Research in earlier years showed the importance of light intensity in the greenhouse for crop
productivity. This resulted in the rule of thumb that 1% more light = 1% higher yield.
9
Buurma: On-station and on-farm research had already demonstrated that the application of carbon
dioxide considerably increases yields.

and mass distribution systems.10 Artificial lighting also became widespread in the 1990s
[Fig.2], providing the same amount of light all year-round and guaranteeing uniformity
no matter the season. But greenhouses began to consume more energy, and Bieleman
affirms that lighted greenhouses soon became one of the main sources of light pollution
that disrupted the day and night rhythm of nature in their surroundings (Bieleman 2010:
304).

Figure2.LightpollutionintheWestlanddistrict(NationalGeographicMagazine)

Environmental awareness put the horticultural sector under a lot of pressure, and this led
to covenants between the government and growers to make a more efficient use of energy
and to embrace sustainability. During the second half of the 20th century greenhouse
horticulture had become an industry with a bad image, and this was mirrored by a
decrease in exports by the 1980s.11 Consumers became highly critical of both the quality
of the products and the industrialised production processes, forcing the horticultural
sector to take into account consumer preferences.12

10
In spite of its many economic and environmental advantages, the production of rockwool itself required
a lot of energy. Consumers became highly critical of its use, especially in Germany.
11
Dutch tomatoes were nicknamed water bombs in Germany, and Dutch flowers were seen as poisonous.
12
Buurma: the power in the market had gradually shifted from the supply side to the demand side ().

Conclusions: future perspectives for greenhouse horticulture in Westland

Modernisation has radically changed horticulture in the Netherlands since 1850,

especially in the Westland district. This process was driven by technological innovations
aimed to increase productive efficiency, but also by the pressures of the export market. It
shaped the territory while creating an industrial identity for the sector, and it also
transformed the image we have of the farmer. Nowadays greenhouse horticulture is just
another way of living, with values no more different than those of any other business.

Between 1850 and 1950, a process of intensification, specialisation and differentiation

took place in horticulture. The revolution in transport expanded the opportunities for
cross-border exports, simulating growers to invest in glass structures to force their crops.
When heating was introduced production increased even further, and high profits allowed
growers to reclaim large areas of land that were not previously suited for farming. The
horticultural area under glass grew rapidly along with the number of people it employed.

After 1950, a process of mechanisation, intensification, up-scaling and specialisation took

place in Dutch greenhouse horticulture. Large infrastructural projects were built and road
transportation took over. Hotbeds disappeared, the greenhouse area increased
enormously, and the number of people the sector employed declined. Heating systems
switched from coal to natural gas, artificial lights were introduced, the use of substrata
became widespread and computers began to manage the production process. These
innovations made the sector more productive and efficient than ever, but gave it a bad
image.

Without doubt, Dutch greenhouse horticulture has historically embraced design,

technology and innovation to increase productive efficiency, and the Westland district is
certainly its most emblematic example. It is clear that these economic values have always
been the major determinants in the development of this productive region. This quest for
productivity and efficiency have made low production costs more important than quality;
and it seems that the effects of modernisation in the built and natural environment, or
even in society, have never been a priority. In the long run, the consequences of this
narrow attitude has given greenhouse horticulture a bad name. Over time greenhouses
became factories, horticulture became an industry, and today growers resemble more to
a businessman than to the image we have of a traditional farmer.

The Westland district has been forced by consumers to reinvent the horticultural industry.
In order to regain acceptance and to meet the consumers demands, growers are now
focusing on how to create the conditions for a more sustainable production. This situation
sets the ground for a balanced development in the future, especially in the face of changes
that will be brought by automation.

Bibliography

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agriculture 1500-2000, Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publishers.
Karel, E. (2010), Modernization of the Dutch agriculture system 1950-2010,
Paper for the International Rural History Conference 2010, University of Sussex,
Brighton (UK) 13-16 September 2010.
Buurma, J.S. (2001), Dutch agricultural development and its importance to
China. Case study: The evolution of Dutch greenhouse horticulture, Agricultural
Economics Research Institute (LEI), Report 6.01.11. The Hague.
Berkers, E., Geels, F. (2011). System innovation through stepwise
reconfiguration: The case of technological transitions in Dutch greenhouse
horticulture (1930-1980), Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 23:3,
227-247.
Gemeente Westland (2016), Werkboek Westland: ruimtelijk economische
strategie Greenport 3.0.
Bureau MUST (2015), Gebiedsfoto Westland-Oostland.
Veenendaal, A. (2001). Railways in the Netherlands: a brief history, 1834-1994.
Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

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