The Netherlands is a meat country: 115 million farm animals are kept on 21,000 square kilometres. This causes greenhouse gas emissions, animal suffering and it takes up a lot of space. A staggering one-third of the country is used for livestock farming, an area the size of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe and Overijssel combined. According to Jan Willem Erisman, that space can also be used for other purposes.

So how can we design the Netherlands in such a way that it is fair to humans, animals and the landscape? That is the question the professor of environmental sustainability and landscape architect Berno Strootman set out to answer last year. They received 50,000 euros from the EFL Foundation to further work out the thought experiment ‘Project Netherlands Veganland’ in order to build towards a ‘climate-just world’.

A VOICE FOR ECOLOGY

‘First of all, you have to ask yourself: what is justice?’ Erisman starts. ‘As human beings, we have all kinds of basic rights, of course, such as the right to life and to a certain standard of living. But when it comes to climate justice, we also have to consider whether the benefits and burdens are fairly distributed, whether everyone is being heard and if there is no international shifting of responsibilities. There is now also discussion as to whether nature doesn't deserve more rights as well.’

According to the ‘nitrogen professor’, it does. ‘Nature suffers from the climate change that we are causing. And when it comes to the nitrogen problem, there is always a trade-off between the economy and ecology. Seeing as ecology has no voice and the economy has a very powerful one, the economy always wins. Many decisions are made that affect nature, but nature itself is never given a seat at the table. With new policies, we could give greater weight to the rights of animals and nature, putting them on an equal footing.’

With that in mind, the research duo started calculating. ‘We took a look at the map of the Netherlands to see where the fertile grounds are,’ says Erisman. ‘Based on that, we explored how to use that land to provide a healthy vegan diet for 20 million Dutch people and how much agricultural land that would require.’

Erisman sees many advantages to a vegan diet for all Dutch people. ‘Suppose there are 20 million people living in the Netherlands in 2050. Is it possible to feed and house all those people? Put simply: can you offer them space? In the Netherlands, 71.9 per cent of all agricultural land is used to grow animal feed. You need much more space to produce animal proteins than you need for plant-based proteins, while these are just as healthy with the right diet.’

SPACE

Enter the so-called ‘Wheel for Life’. 'Nuts, vegetable oils, grains, and lots of fruit and vegetables; the diet of ‘Netherlands Veganland’. How much space is needed to grow all of that in the Netherlands?’

Surprisingly little, as it turned out. ‘I was truly amazed at the amount of space that would be freed up,’ says Erisman. ‘We currently use 1800 square metres per person for food, which would drop to 800 square metres. It frees up more natural space, more space for housing and infrastructure, and still leaves room for nature and recreation. Even after allocating everything, there would still be areas left over.’

The vegan diet would also have international consequences. ‘In addition to the fact that we’d be a great example for others, we’d also reduce pressure on countries like Brazil, where parts of the Amazon rainforest are cleared for soy production, which we use to feed chickens, pigs and dairy cattle.’

Because every year, the Netherlands imports 450 kilotons of soy from Brazil, among other countries, and that, according to Erisman, forms the basis of our nitrogen problems. 'We import fertiliser and concentrate feed and we turn them into products; about half of that ends up in the soil and air. If we turn off that tap, we would solve almost all of our nitrogen problems in the Netherlands: what doesn’t go in, doesn’t come out.’

It would also make the Netherlands much more self-sufficient. ‘Our agricultural system is geared towards export: we export 80 percent of our food and 75 percent of our food in the supermarket is imported. We even import our own products. It may sound strange, but we send piglets to Spain to be fattened, which then return to the Netherlands to be slaughtered. That slaughtered meat is then sent to Italy where it is made into ham, which is then shipped to Dutch supermarkets. The same can be said for grain: we grow grain for animal feed, but import grain for our own bread from France.’

COST-BENEFIT

So is it economically feasible to make such a big transition? ‘The environmental damage caused by livestock farming is currently estimated at 8.3 billion euros; this would fall away completely. A social cost-benefit analysis shows that despite the fact that a completely different agricultural system is established, that difference is negligible.’

In short: animal welfare is promoted, the agricultural sector meets all climate targets, more space is made available, the water quality improves, nature is given more space, biodiversity improves, the nitrogen problem is solved and internationally, we use less land, resulting in a more just existence there. ‘Switching to a vegan diet only has advantages.’

But how realistic is this thought experiment?

‘It’s not’, he laughs. ‘I remain a realist. But it’s not our goal to make everyone vegan. It’s mainly about raising awareness of the impact of the choices we make and creating a picture of what the Netherlands could look like if we completely changed our current way of eating. Sometimes you have to work with these kinds of extreme ideas to arrive at new insights, because it broadens our perspective and makes us look at the current state of affairs and the future in a new way.’