Paper short abstract:

The paper unpacks the geographic width of the social and environmental consequences of connections to foreign supply of oils and fats used in the Dutch economy. It highlights the often understudied global competition between places of extraction, production, and consumption.

Paper long abstract:

Industrial imports of resources affect economic, social, and environmental conditions elsewhere in the world. Netherlands’ industrialization and modernization of agriculture in the twentieth century intensified pressure on foreign social and natural environments. Dutch application of foreign fats, oils and protein of plant seeds, nuts and animals, increased in relation to food and fodders industries. This allowed the development of export driven food industries and intensive livestock farming. The paper presents an investigation into the development and dynamics of the Dutch imports of multiple resources of oil and fats. It analyses the origins and scale of these resources. By scrutinizing this data, it studies the growth, decline and spatial shifts in the supply of different oils and fats to the Netherlands. This highlights often understudied global competitions between resources. Furthermore, it also sketches issues of mutual dependence between the Netherlands and its supplying areas, evaluating the social and environmental impacts and reliance of Dutch consumption on these resources. These overviews are combined with insights in the developments of the main applications in food and fodder industries. Chemical technologies allowing more exchangeability of these resources address issues of knowledge and purchasing power of major industries. Insights in knowledge production and societal discussions on production in nutrition, food qualities and environmental issues connect to shifting interests in various oil and fat resources. The paper unpacks the geographical scope of the social and environmental consequences of connections to foreign supply of oils and fats used in the Dutch economy.