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Comment by niek_pas | Hacker News Reader

It’s important to note that much of the food produced by these farms is exported, so national food prices may not be affected as much as you would think.

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But people in those countries, where Netherlands has traditionally exported food, might suffer food shortages?

It depends on how the world is going to react. If cattle farms shut down, large swathes of land suddenly become available to more efficient food production as the need for farm animal feed decreases.

Huge amounts of food is being processed into animal feed which in turn ends up producing relatively little food. I like my meats as much as the next guy, but in a world hit by a food shortage caused the Russian invasion, using more arable land to feed people instead of cows seems like the obvious choice.

We’re talking about an 8 year period, and all things considered, we’re not that big a player for cow meat exports. But it has a significant impact on a small and densely populated country.

Depending on what’s grown it can be affected if it’s part of a global marketplace. Oil for example doesn’t care where it’s produced but a drop in production anywhere will cause a spike in prices everywhere except for places that subsidize the price (Venezuela and Iran for example).

This is true, and it’s why I said “as much as you think”. There seems to exist a narrative that these farmers are producing “our” food, which is incorrect.

Traditionally exported, or still today?

What foods do they produce that isn't consumed in the Netherlands?

People are gonna starve because of these closures.

Maybe. People are going to drown if we do not act to reduce nitrogen emissions

(And eating less meat would significantly reduce emissions, but that seems unlikely to happen on a large scale)

Who knows where we will be in another few years ...

"... 44% of consumers in Germany follow a low-meat diet, which is a significant increase from 2014 (26%). Similarly, 6% of US consumers now claim to be vegan, up from just 1% in 2014" [from 2017]

https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4959853/top-trends-in-pr...

"The number of vegans in Great Britain quadrupled between 2014 and 2019"

"The 400% increase of vegans in the UK is shocking, but the 1,500% increase in plant-based food sales in the UK is even more shocking. "

"In 2022, research by ProVeg found that 51% of Germans had reduced their meat intake in the previous year"

"In 2022, research commissioned by ProVeg Netherlands found that 28% of Dutch people want to see a future without meat, and 20% would like to see the government ban slaughterhouses"

" Research conducted in 2021 by Rakuten found that 82% of consumers in the US have tried plant milk, 40% have tried other vegan dairy alternatives, 62% have tried plant-based meats and 22% have tried vegan egg replacements. Key motivations included health (35%), wanting to try a food trend (41%), and concern for animals (23%). The same research found that 5% of respondents said that they only consume plant-based foods""

https://www.vegansociety.com/news/media/statistics/worldwide

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