The Dutch government plans to buy and close down up to 3,000 farms near environmentally sensitive areas to comply with EU nature preservation rules.
The Netherlands is attempting to cut down its nitrogen pollution and will push ahead with compulsory purchases if not enough farms take up the offer voluntarily.
Farmers will be offered a deal “well over” the worth of the farm, according to the government plan that is targeting the closure of 2,000 to 3,000 farms or other major polluting businesses. [emphasis, links added]
Earlier leaked versions of the plan put the figure at 120 percent of the farm’s value but that figure has not yet been confirmed by ministers.
“There is no better offer coming,” Christianne van der Wal, nitrogen minister, told MPs on Friday. She said compulsory purchases would be made with “pain in the heart”, if necessary.
The Netherlands needs to reduce its emissions to comply with EU conservation rules and agriculture is responsible for almost half the nitrogen emitted in the proud farming nation.
The Dutch environment agency has warned that native species are disappearing faster in the Netherlands than in the rest of Europe and that biodiversity is under threat.
But the new plan looks set to reignite tensions with farmers over nitrogen reduction.
Dutch farmers have staged mass protests, burnt hay bales, dumped manure on highways, and picketed ministers’ houses over the last three years.
In 2019 a ruling by the Dutch Council of State meant every new activity that emits nitrogen, including farming and building, needs a permit.
That has prevented the expansion of dairy, pig, and poultry farms, which are major sources of nitrogen from ammonia in manure mixed with urine. This can be harmful to nature when it washes into rivers and the sea.
Last month, an army of thousands of tractors took to the roads in protest and caused the worst rush hour in Dutch history with 700 miles of jams at its peak.
Farmers fear that the plan to slash emissions by 2030 will cost them their livelihoods, oppose any compulsory purchases, and argue farming is unfairly targeted while other sectors such as aviation are not.
Top image via Paploo@Twitter
Read rest at Telegraph
May we please have a bit more accurate reporting? Nitrogen makes up 79% of our atmosphere – not notably anything to do with pollution. What the EU wants to control is nitrate in water that may lead to eutrophication – algal blooms. That is, it is a nutrient that encourages too much organic growth. Stopping it leaching into groundwater is feasible but not easy. Using this shorthand of the words “carbon” and “nitrogen” merely indicates that the writers are not aware of the science involved in the processes being discussed. Hence educated readers tend to discount any advice given in such articles.
Thank you for criticizing the ubiquitous short cuts in terminology. If you don’t differentiate between carbon and carbon dioxide, nitrogen and nitrates, you probably don’t understand that most of the atmospheres CO2 and methane are natural. There’s the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle, both are life on Earth. Humanity is a mere sideshow in both of them.
Canada has accepted many farmer refugees from Europe, escaping onerous regulations. It seems that there’s no where to escape the environmentalists now, they are a global menace.
So allow many to go hungry and starve and Fanine all over a totally fake threat of Global warming/Climate Change the Eco-Freaks will have a lot of blood on their hands we see the ugly side of the Liberal Environmentalists movement called Deep Ecology
farms ARE green! This is an opportunity for government to steal land.MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!!!