This week I stumbled across a National Geographic article on Facebook that my mother shared. It was entitled “This Tiny Country Feeds the World.” I suspected it was about the Netherlands, my small country of origin, and so I clicked it and was instantly surprised by what a giant in agriculture the Netherlands is.

While the United States is the only country that surpasses it in food exports, it is also 270 times the size of the Netherlands, which means that the Netherlands is extremely efficient at producing large amounts of food with not that much land. The Netherlands is in particular the #1 exporter of tomatoes and onions and the #2 exporter of vegetables, and is also one of the world leaders in seed trade, as it earns over $1.7 billion annually from seed exports. So how has the Netherlands, a small country containing almost none of the resources needed for large-scale farming, become this mogul in agriculture?

Over two decades ago the Dutch pledged to produce twice as much food using half as many resources. And since then they have been sticking to this plan. Dutch farmers have almost entirely reduced their dependence on water for growing key crops, their usage of chemical pesticides on greenhouse plants, and their use of antibiotics on poultry and livestock. Meanwhile in order to produce more food the Dutch have turned to some amazing new farming technology. Nowadays Dutch potato fields have drones hovering over them who provide accurate details on soil chemistry, nutrients, water content, and the growth of every individual potato. Furthermore, climate-controlled farms allow for almost any fruits and vegetables to be grown as if they were grown in the areas they are from. Lastly, their use of rainwater as the sole irrigation source for crops and predatory mites as a way to keep pests away also allow for more efficient crop production. This investment in agriculture by the Dutch government has brought in stunning revenue and is also part of the reason why it has the 18th largest economy in the world. While the United States is still the largest exporter of food in the world, it could give itself a nice economic boost and surpass the competition by far if it also invested in agriculture like this.

The United States, in fact, could learn even more from the Netherlands. As is widely known, the US continues to be in a terrible obesity epidemic. Currently 32% of American adult males and 36% of American adult females are obese. In both the US and Europe the obesity rate continues to increase, making the world not very optimistic about the future of world health. One country in Europe, however, actually has a declining obesity rate: the Netherlands. In 2010 only 10% of Dutch adult males and 13% of Dutch adult females were obese, while projections for the obesity rate in the Netherlands in 2030 predict male obesity to decline to 8% and female obesity to decline to 9%.

These optimistic projections are not just made for nothing. One thing America can definitely adapt from the Netherlands in order to decrease the obesity rate is to get Americans to buy more homemade products. Cooking natural foods is often done in the Netherlands, while Americans normally prefer to eat quickly, which means that artificial products that can be prepared quickly are widely popular here. However, natural foods always contain more vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, and preparing homemade meals along with social eating (i.e. having dinner as a family) would also help Americans’ social health and have them consume food less quickly, which is good for digestion. Unfortunately for Americans, though, fast food is often cheaper while fruits and vegetables are consumed at a greater cost, allowing for big fast food corporations to take advantage of Americans and contribute to the growing obesity rate. Therefore, in order for obesity to decline, fruits and vegetables must be sold at prices akin to those in the Netherlands, where those foods are more easily available. Lastly, America can also reduce its portion sizes to sizes that are normal in the Netherlands. This way Americans can avoid overeating and as a result be more conscious of their limits.

One last way in which the Netherlands is an example for the United States to follow is in the category of infrastructure. In the United States the roads and bridges are evidently becoming worse and worse. One in three roads in the US are considered in poor condition, more than 9% of US bridges are structurally deficient, and more than 16% of dams are considered high-hazard. Meanwhile the increasing urban highway congestion in the US costs $160 billion a year. Therefore poor infrastructure in the US does not only threaten people’s safety, but also the US economy as a whole. In the Netherlands, however, the infrastructure and transportation seems way ahead of its time. Bike paths are everywhere, allowing bicyclists to safely get from one place to another. Clean highways and fewer potholes also lead to fewer accidents and therefore less congestion. Therefore the United States should proportionally also invest as much in transportation as the Netherlands, as it will aid them economically in the long run because it would lose less money from highway congestion.

While the United States is ahead of its time in some ways, it should definitely look towards countries like the Netherlands in order to grow, as a country can only grow by comparing itself to others to see where it can improve.