Automated LandscapesAutomated Landscapes

From its main port in Rotterdam, to its productive hinterlands of greenhouses and farms, the logic and relations that define the physical and social landscape of work and labour in the Netherlands are being redefined by machines, data and interfaces. Just out of sight, the perpetual increase of productivity in dairy farming and horticulture leads to radical transformations of land and water bodies, changing patterns of land ownership, and substantial spatial and economic dislocations. The text and images below were used in a lecture by Marten Kuijpers (Het Nieuwe Instituut) in which he reflected upon the emerging architectures of automated labour in the Dutch hinterlands.

The lecture was part of the event Automated Landscapes: The Countryside Tour, organided on November 22, 2018, in which Meiny Prins, CEO at Priva, a company specialised in automation of horticulture; Susan Schuppli, director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths University in London; Stephan Petermann, countryside research studio director at Central Academy for Fine Arts for AMO; Víctor Muñoz Sanz, post-doctoral researcher at the TU Delft; together with Marina Otero Verzier and Marten Kuijpers of the research department of Het Nieuwe Instituut, engaged in a public conversation on the spatial manifestations and implications of automation for the Dutch countryside.

The Lely Astronaut, a milking robot developed by Lely—a Dutch family business specialised in agricultural automation—is promoted to “make farmers' lives farmers easier", freeing them from heavy labour. After the introduction of the milking machine brought about a transformation in the practice of dairy farming in the postwar period, automation in this area is poised to take another exponential leap forward. Image: Lely Astronaut, courtesy of Lely Industries.

Lely offers a holistic ecosystem for dairy farms which, besides the milking robot, includes robotic barn cleaners, automatic feed kitchens, feeding robots, automated fencers, cow brushes and foot baths, all monitored and managed by its T4C (Time for Cow) software. Dairy farming automation allows farmers to scale up business operations. Image: “Happier cows, happier farmer, happier staff,” Lely Industries, image edited.

A case in point is Peter Gille’s dairy farm Het Lansingerland, located just outside Rotterdam. His great-grandfather’s farm comprised 15 cows, his grandfather’s 30 and his father’s 60. Image: Edited Google Earth Aerial, Lansingerland, 2004.

This multiplication can be observed across the entire Dutch hinterlands. Data from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), acknowledge that since 1960, the average amount of cows increased from 9 to 103, while the average amount of pasturable land is nearly 5 times larger. Almost a quarter of the dairy farms today in the Netherlands makes use of milking robots.

Automation allows Peter Gille to broaden his scope. Next to the dairy farm, he employs a staff of 40 people running a child daycare centre, wedding and event venue, care farm providing mental health services, farm shop, catering business and campsite.

Marc Havermans acquired the land on the other side of the road, including the dairy farm, which he now operates remotely with the help of robots. Except for the incremental increasing size of barns, the spatial implications of these changes seem to be limited. Yet, the invisible land ownership has altered substantially. Image: Edited Google Earth Aerial, Moerdijk, 2017.

Building upon the Statistics Netherlands (CBS) data, we learn that since 2000, the average size of a Dutch greenhouse has more than doubled, while the total amount of horticultural businesses active in the Netherlands decreased by two thirds.

In order to expand farmers obtain adjacent plots, and by doing so, initiate an informal process of land consolidation. For some farmers, further growth can only be achieved by relocating to other sites. I will get back to that later. Image: Edited Google Earth Aerial, Westland, 2018.

In fact, these developments can be placed in a long trajectory of restructuring a landscape made up of small, scattered plots of farmland into a highly efficient production landscape, set off in the 1920s, and steered by policy and technology. Image: Cor van Weele, Collectie Cor van Weele, Maria Austria Instituut, year unknown.

A case in point is the Hollumer Mieden on the island of Ameland, which comprised 336 hectares of agricultural land, distributed among 4,887 plots with 272 different owners. Changes in land ownership and polder structure turned out to be necessary to allow for mechanisation. Image: Old Road and Watercourse Plan: Nationaal Archief, 1925.

Hollumer-Mieden became the first legal land consolidation case in the Netherlands. Afterwards, the number of plots had been reduced to 465, and new waterways and roads improved drainage and accessibility. Image: New Road and Watercourse Plan, Nationaal Archief, 1925.

Important to note, the land consolidation plans had to be approved by majority vote. In the case of Hollumer-Mieden, only 4 out of 446 land land owners objected. Spatial planning issues were political and consciously decided upon by the population. Image: Ballot Hollumer-Mieden, Nationaal Archief, 1925.

Under the direction of Sicco Mansholt—a farmer who entered politics and served as minister of agriculture, fishing and food production in the Netherlands from 1945 until 1958, land consolidation projects were rapidly implemented all over the Netherlands as part of a comprehensive government policy aimed at increasing food production and improving the welfare of farmers by means of mechanisation and rationalisation of agriculture. See more on Sicco Mansholt here: https://themansholtletter.hetnieuweinstituut.nl Image: Sicco Mansholt, Walcheren, Archive Sicco Mansholt, IISG, 1957.

Land and water bodies were altered and redesigned from economic and functional perspectives: small plots of land were combined, ditches were deepened, and streams and roads were straightened to facilitate forms of mechanized agriculture. Image: Aerial of Geestmerambacht, In: Gerrie Andela, ‘Kneedbaar landschap, Kneedbaar volk’, Photo archive Dienst Landelijk Gebied, 1979.

The execution of these plans was accompanied by an extensive information campaign aiming at ‘civilizing’ the rural population, and informing farmers about innovations in agriculture and their subsequent spatial implications on the landscape. Film was one of the key tools used. Image: Still 'Van Oud naar Nieuw', Beeld en Geluid, 1957.

Since mechanisation and rationalisation of agriculture led to a decline in employment, an industrialization policy was introduced to stimulate the generation of new jobs, by supporting industries to settle in the countryside. Image: Gerrie Andela, ‘Kneedbaar landschap, Kneedbaar volk’, Photo archive Dienst Landelijk Gebied, year unknown.

Other farmers were given the opportunity to relocate their businesses to recently reclaimed polders, establishing new, larger farms. Image: Moving to the Noordoost Polder, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Jaarverslag Cultuurtechnische Dienst, 1958.

One of these farmers was Sicco Mansholt himself, who, after he and his wife Henny passed a strict selection process, moved into a farm in the Wieringermeer, a polder reclaimed from the Zuiderzee in the 1930s with the objective to increase domestic food production.
Image: Collectie S.J. van Embden, Het Nieuwe Instituut.

As part of the governmental policy to guarantee national food production, farmers had to be able to invest in their business, rather than in the capital of the land and farm buildings. Wieringermeer, Archive C. van Eesteren, Het Nieuwe Instituut, 1941.

This has changed over the past decade. With raising unemployment, other agricultural activities then arable and livestock farming are increasingly permitted on a 1000-hectares stretch of land along the A7 motorway , including horticulture and correlated businesses. Image: Edited Google Earth Aerial, Middenmeer, 2018.

On the agropark Agriport A7, plot sizes are significantly larger than in greenhouse clusters such as Westland, hence the multiplication of the dimensions of greenhouses and, as a consequence, an increasing concentration of capital; on land that is now privatised. Image: Edited Google Earth Aerial, Middenmeer, 2018.

Since 2006 numerous land use plan changes have been implemented in this polder to cater to the wishes and demands of companies attracted to settle here, including Microsoft and Google, that obtained land for so-called hyper scale datacenters. Image: Edited Google Earth Aerial, Middenmeer, 2018.

If we now go back to the plot of Mansholt—just around the corner of Agriport A7—history seems to have repeated itself, but then with rather different tools, objectives and spatial outcomes. Image: Edited Google Earth Aerial, Middenmeer, 2018.