Kom in de kas
I have been busy lately on a proposal for a new work, which will take the form of a small concrete greenhouse. Eventually I would like to make a life-sized greenhouse from concrete, but this is a less ambitious first step.
What interests me is the phenomenon of the glastuinbouw (“under-glass horticulture industry”, more or less), which occupies vast areas of the Dutch countryside, particularly here in Noord-Holland. To satisfy Northern Europe’s insatiable demand for cut flowers and tropical vegetables the whole year round, these vast shining structures have come to dominate the landscape in this part of the country. Particularly when coming in to land at Schiphol, you cannot help but be impressed by the huge sea of glass below.
This weekend is, coincidentally, the open weekend for the industry. This they have given the name Kom in de kas, (“Come into the greenhouse”), although kas also means “cash”. So it’s a strange type of play on words.
Myself, Astrid, and Kjetil decided to make a little trip to Aalsmeer, the nearest venue for events taking place as part of this open weekend/public relations exercise. After about an hour on the bus, on the way passing the enormous Aalsmeer flower auction (the largest industrial building in the world), followed by some wandering around without a map, we eventually made it to the cluster of businesses which were taking part in events.
Our first visit was to a company growing gerberas, a very colourful flower which is produced here in huge quantities. Of course I was just as interested in their robotic sorting machine as I was in the flowers themselves, and indeed the whole place had a very clinical feel to it. There are tracks on the ceiling, climate controlled laboratories, and nowhere the feeling that any part of the process has been left to chance. It felt more like a factory than a garden.
Next, an even more enormous greenhouse (120 000 sq. m) which produces peppers – millions of the damn things. Once again, there was an atmosphere of science fiction, long straight lines of plants with little pipes going into their roots, more robots, and conveyor belts sunk into the ground to collect the precious harvest.
The pepper company have embarked on an interesting project with their neighbours, who grow roses. To try and improve their environmental credentials (and presumably earn some money), they have installed a combined heat and power plant. What this does is burn natural gas to produce both heat (which they need for their plants) as well as electricity, which they can sell to the national grid. They produce about 6MW, or enough for 17 000 homes. Quite impressive, very high-tech, and very noisy. The huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky are still quite disconcerting, though.
Finally, a greenhouse with more palm plants than the eye can really take in, some roses under ethereal, orange sodium lights, and a quick beer in the little bar they had set up for the occasion. Certainly an interesting experience, and also a little frightening to see how exactly it is that we can eat peppers the whole year round for next to nothing. This is the future, people, and it certainly ain’t cosy.
