More and more Swiss farmers stop farming. Only last year 860 Swiss farmers stopped farming. Since the Swiss are planning to liberalise trade in the agricultural branch farmers are afraid for the European competition.
Swiss public TV Europe correspondent Christoph Nufer visits to the Netherlands to produce a reportage about the innovative Dutch greenhouse sector for the background reportage program ’10 vor 10′.
He visits a red- and green pepper green house of the size of 40 football pitches, where 12.000 tons of peppers are produced every year. He also visits a company that produces high quality cherry tomatoes with a special name, the honey tomato, since they are so sweet.
Although one would expect that cultivating in green houses is very bad for the environment, it turns out to be the opposite. Most greenhouse farmer’s producer their own energy, and give the energy surplus back to the grid. Also earth heat is widely used.
The only drawback for the Dutch greenhouse sector is the lack of space to produce and expand. According to an environmental lobbyist the Dutch should stop exporting large quantities of vegetables and fruit. Instead they should export the knowledge and start to produce together with farmers abroad.
For this background reportage Featurez gave advice, did the research, set-up and planning, booked hotel rooms and accompanied the filming.