Farmers in the Netherlands reduced nitrogen pollution by nearly 70%. But the government says that is not enough and is demanding that they cut pollution by another 50% by 2030.
By the Dutch government’s own estimates, 11,200 farms out of the roughly 35,000 dedicated to dairy and livestock would have to close under its policies; 17,600 farmers would have to reduce livestock; total livestock would need to be reduced by one-half to one-third. [bold, links added]
The Dutch government has demanded that animal farming stop entirely in many places. Of the over $25.7 billion the government has set aside to reduce pollution, just $1 billion is for technological innovation, with most of the rest for buying out farmers.
This effort has sparked a fierce backlash among Dutch farmers, who argue that the government seems more interested in reducing animal agriculture than in finding solutions that protect the food supply and their livelihoods.
“Why would you buy out farmers or reduce livestock when you have the possibility to invest in innovation?” asked Caroline van der Plas, the founder and sole Member of Parliament for the Farmer-Citizen Movement party, or BBB in Dutch.
“The car industry innovated for the past 40 years. There aren’t fewer cars and the cars we have are cleaner. We even have electrical cars. That’s what I think is so crazy. Why don’t we treat the farmers just like the car industry? Give them time to develop solutions or innovate. We can produce food in a much more efficient and cleaner way if we do that. And it’s much cheaper also than by buying out farmers.”
Farmer protests in the Netherlands come at a time of heightened global food insecurity created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a major wheat exporter.
The Netherlands is the largest exporter of meat in Europe and the second largest exporter of agricultural products overall by economic value in the world, after the United States, a remarkable feat for a nation half the size of Indiana.
Farm exports generate nearly $100 billion a year in revenue. Experts attribute the nation’s success to its farmers’ embrace of technological innovation.
The Netherlands is just one of the countries where governments are pushing for sharp limits on farming.
Canada, for example, is seeking a 30% reduction in nitrogen pollution by 2030. While the Canadian government says it is not mandating fertilizer use reductions, only pollution reductions, experts agree that such a radical pollution decline in such a short period will only be possible through reducing fertilizer use, and thus food production.
The cost to farmers would be between $10 billion and $48 billion.
“If you push farmers against the wall with no wiggle room, I don’t know where this will end up,” said Gunter Jochum, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association. “Just look at what’s happening in Europe, in the Netherlands. They’ve had enough of it.”
Where the proposed Dutch restrictions are driven by land and air pollution concerns, the Canadian restrictions are driven by the desire for strong action on climate change.
But greenhouse gas emissions from farming pale compared to those from energy.
Emissions from oil and gas production in Canada rose five times more (76 million metric tonnes) than emissions from crop and animal production (14 million metric tonnes) between 1990 and 2020.
And with the pollution came more food. Canada’s spring wheat yields increased by over 40% during that period.
The most dramatic consequences of government intervention occurred in Sri Lanka, where a 2021 fertilizer ban led to a massive reduction in yields, sparking starvation and an economic crisis that brought down the government in July.
Because agriculture is a source of greenhouse gases, the efforts by the governments and the backlash they are fomenting may be a harbinger of a global crisis.
Why are politicians being so dogmatic, in the view of their critics, at a time of rising food insecurity? After all, it’s obvious the strategy is not working – not even for them.
In the Netherlands, after farmers blocked highways, dumped manure on roads, and started fires in protests across the country, they won the support of the broader public.
If elections were held today, the governing parties would lose a significant number of members in parliament while Van der Plas’ Farmer-Citizen party might win enough to form a new government, with Van der Plas as prime minister.
In Canada, the federal government has sparked a backlash from the regional governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
And now, Dutch farmers are inspiring protests by other farmers across Europe, including in Germany, Poland, and Italy.
What, exactly, is going on?
Read more at Substack
Ever since Carson in 1963 and Ehrlich in 1968 and their big back of Lies about Pesticides and Over Population the radical Eco-Freaks have been wanting to reduce the so called Over Population Problem and now this Global Warming/Climate Change scam they want to starve us all and Bill Gates is just one of them who was just recently denuonched by the Italian Paralment for Crimes Against Humanity. and its Not Donald trump Liberal gutter dwellers
Once you drink the Kool-Aid on CO2 greens look for other compounds to blame for climate change. It’s not accidental globalists who aim for a drastic population reduction to blame farming, fertilizer and livestock (our food producers) for climate change. No matter their denials mass starvation is part of their plan.
Great topic! Jul 22, 2022 Davos Elite Plan to “Fundamentally Change the Way Food Is Produced and Consumed”
https://youtu.be/ErkVO4wHKn4
Funny thing about fertilizer is that too much in the wrong place can be a problem. This can’t happen with CO2 fertility because we live in starvation level lows. More CO2 is always greener and more productive. But with animal waste, too much in the wrong place can be a problem. Storage and proper distribution are the issue. Not abandoning an entire way of life.
They are definitely not ‘bone-headed’ elites. They know exactly what they’re doing. They are intent on destroying the vast majority of agricultural production as a way of starving billions into total submission. The foot and mouth crisis facing Australia could well be an opportunity to take out the Australian cattle industry, for example. Farmers here are being urged to develop and implement biosecurity plans.
What we need are anti-NWO plans. I have long known of the shadowy New World Order forces taking control of every nation. Is this true, or am I crazy? It is a case of both, actually. Last century, one needed to be crazy to risk life and limb to discover the truth. Once one did, one was faced with the uphill battle of getting others to see the truth as well. As the denouement approaches, deadlined at 2030 by the NWO themselves, more and more are waking up.
Greenies are just useful idiots to the NWO. Stop agitating about the monkeys and start thinking about the organ-grinders.
So, what happens when farmers have had enough and food stops arriving in cities? What do the urban parasites do?
Bill Gates is he Biggist Parasite alive
The Buffalo Commons a plan by a couple of Eggheads from Rutgers to return vast areas back to Buffalo Grazing Land the Wildlands Project by a Radical Eco-Freak(Dave Foreman,founder of Earth First)to Rewild vast areas why else are they wanting to tear down Dams and put Farmers and Ranches and using the ESA and Climate Change as a excuse
No farmers, no farms, no food.
The smellocrats say that’s simplistic.
But it is also true and truth is incomprehensible
to the smellocratic mind.
To them it is not worth discussing if you
can’t lie about it.
Look at al that was once Farmland now covered with Sub-Divisions and Housing Tracks and the very same people living in these places complaining about the price of food and whine about the smells
Farmers feed cities.
Cities eat farms.
Ontario is losing 300 acres of land per day to urban sprawl. The urban heat island effect contributes to the temperature data used for global warming propaganda. A majority of the population live amongst pavement, cement and asphalt shingled roofing. The first thing that goes are the trees. Of course it’s gonna get hotter. And there’s less relief at night.
I hope that people wake up and realize that our politics have been infiltrated by a global agenda that is designed to erode our prosperity. Sooner than later.