Erik Luiten, 52, is a dairy farmer and farmers' rights activist in the village of Aalten, in the east of the Netherlands near the German border. It has to happen.. She might be able to sell off 30 cows, but much more than that would make her business untenable. The World Wide Fund for Nature and other environmental organizations wrote in a letter to the Dutch minister of agriculture this month that the transition to a sustainable agricultural and food system is urgent and necessary. The letter also said that consumers in the Netherlands needed to do their part to make sure emissions targets were reached. Farmers in the Netherlands have blockaded supermarket distribution centres in continuing protests against new environmental rules on nitrogen emissions that are likely to put many of them out of . July 4, 20222:24 AM PDTUpdated a year ago AMSTERDAM, July 4 (Reuters) - Dutch farmers angered by government plans that may require them to use less fertilizer and reduce livestock began a day. Around 15 tractors blocked the A2 at Best, in the direction of Den Bosch, by laying hay bales across the carriageway. Natasja Oerlemans, head of food and agriculture at WWF Netherlands, believes farmers have the potential to be part of the solution. https://www.barrons.com/news/seven-arrested-in-fresh-protest-by-dutch-farmers-police-9ae09f1a. Please help us making DutchNews.nl a better read by taking part in a short survey. Whats driving the dispute? Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day. Governments buyout scheme is meeting fierce resistance from farmers in Netherlands. Latest . Dutch people will have to consume more vegetables and fewer (-70%) animal proteins.. But we need to be realistic. Populists in the U.S. and Europe, including Frances Marine Le Pen, are seizing on the protests to cast climate action as a conflict between rural heartlands, working people, and urban elites. 29 July 2022 Climate change Farmers made their way to the Dutch parliament in The Hague in their tractors as part of their protests By Anna Holligan BBC News, Deventer, The Netherlands Hay. Farms like his across the country could soon shut down. The government said it would have this conversation with 2,000 to 3,000 businesses. Netherlands Animal Feed Market Report 2022: Featuring Key Players Nutreco NV, Cargill, Royal Agrifirm Group & Others - ResearchAndMarkets.com July 05, 2022 06:56 AM Eastern Daylight Time I dont want a bag of money from the government, I just want to do my job.. Organisation Farmers Defence Force, which last year brought motorways to a standstill, blockaded supermarkets and dumped farm waste on roads, said it expected thousands of its members to converge on the city on Thursday. But while many in the nation of 17 million people have sympathized with the farmers, support for them seems to be dwindling. It comes as authorities in the Netherlands have released details of the cuts in ammonia, nitrogen oxides and nitrous oxide needed to protect more than 150 nature reserves in the country. The start of the scheme provides the first step necessary for nature recovery by halting nitrogen reduction, while at the same time providing farmers the opportunity to end their activities in a sound and dignified manner, Eveline Meltzer, spokesperson for WWF Netherlands, said. Farmers in the Netherlands have been staging protests over emissions reduction targets since October 2019. It is the latest attempt to tackle a problem . Its too fast, too costly, they cant do it, she said. DutchNews.nl - DutchNews.nl brings daily news from The Netherlands in English 30 June 2023 . Several hundred farmers and their supporters gathered on a square in The Hague, an AFP journalist said, far less than the 10,000 that organisers the Farmers Defence League had predicted. Even if you stop with the policy tomorrow, the problem doesnt go away. We have decided we will wait for the ministerial council on October 14 and see how this plays out. Thats how most farmers feel right now., Claire Moses is a writer for The Morning based in London. The Dutch farmers have held several protests in recent years, with farmers blockading highways, dumping manure and garbage on roads and rallying noisily outside politicians' houses. Its a small issue, but it expands because of vicious circles and before you know it, its all about the great reset, Arjen Boin, an expert in social movements from Leiden University in the Netherlands, said by phone. The great reset phrase comes from a World Economic Forum summit in 2020 where the forum and Britains King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales, launched a program designed to boost innovation and collaboration. This landbouwakkoord is intended to run in parallel with the buyouts to offer perspective to Dutch farmers, but agreement is proving difficult. This is the first time the government has been willing to take ambitious, comprehensive measures, she says. A climate change skeptic, he says there is no environmental reason to reduce nitrogen. We could not provide this service without you. The Dutch police have confirmed the story in an official statement on Twitter. This was already manifested in the E.U. We know we have to do something about nitrogen, but not in this top-down way, and not at this speed, she says. Nearly 1.5 billion will be used to compensate farmers who voluntarily close farms. All farmers in the Netherlands do something that releases nitrogen, but there is an unfairness: currently its only the farmers who have to reduce emissions but not the rest of industry, he says. By PETER DEJONG July 4, 2022 GMT. The video shows a tank with the number 34 . I dont believe that but there are a lot of farmers who do, she said. "We have now arrested seven people, including for non-compliance with orders and assault. The silent majority is now speaking in favor of the farmers.. Trienke Elshof, a dairy farmer with 250 cows in the northern province of Friesland, says farmers feel blindsided: for decades, governments have encouraged them to increase yields. The court ruling led to a temporary building stop and 100km/h limit on roads, and made about 2,500 farms illegal at a stroke. Dutch farmers have been generating global headlines with protests described by Prime Minister Mark Rutte as "wilfully endangering others, damaging our infrastructure and threatening people who help with the clean-up". Other proposals include a reduction in intensive farming and the conversion to sustainable "green farms". Passing drivers honk in agreement. We export 70%, keep all the rubbish, and the gains are all for private companies. But is the political far-right taking advantage of farmers very real problems to further its own long-held beliefs about national and global governance? Nationally, nitrogen pollution must be cut by 50% by 2030, with regions near protected nature reserves expected to cut pollution by 70%. If a healthy career lasts for 40 years, we've spent 10% of ours living in uncertainty." A series of supreme court rulings. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who this month became the countrys longest-serving prime minister and has grappled with what is known in the Netherlands as the nitrogen crisis, has condemned the protests, calling them unacceptable.. Thu 21 Jul 2022 01.30 EDT Last modified on Thu 21 Jul 2022 06.45 EDT A long roads and bridges in the Netherlands, people are hanging the Dutch flag upside down. Dec. 12, 2022, 2:25 AM PST By Patrick Smith AALTEN, The Netherlands Erik Luiten seems an unlikely person to be fighting a conspiracy to destroy Western society. (modern). The government plans, reports the Financieele Dagblad, will affect five times more farmers than is strictly necessary. Farmers gather with their vehicles next to a Germany/Netherlands border sign on the A1 highway, near Rijssen, on June 29 2022 during a protest against the Dutch government's nitrogen plans . An error has occurred, please try again later. Wilhelm Doeleman, a spokesman for Ms. van der Wal, said that details on how to cut emissions for other industries would be released in January. And at a July 23 rally former U.S. President Donald Trump praised the farmers for fighting their governments climate tyranny.. If you have not yet made a contribution, you can do so here. Convoys of tractors blocked delivery lorries from leaving depots at dozens of facilities up and down the country on Monday and Tuesday, in protest at . Erik Luiten, 52, is a dairy farmer and farmers' rights activist in the village of Aalten, in the east of the Netherlands. He is in no doubt that the end result of this will be the removal of farms to make way for housing for immigrants. After a year, we will see if this has achieved enough.. Protests are also expected around Schiphol airport on Monday, which has called for travellers to come by public transport. She is originally from the Netherlands. DutchNews.nl is the leading provider of quality Dutch news in English for an international audience. The Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB), a new centre-right party surfing a wave of rural anger at environmental policies, recently won key regional elections while parties in the governing coalition have lost support. Hay bales in flames, manure dumped on highways, blockades at supermarket distribution centres and demonstrations on politicians' doorsteps. The Netherlands emits a large quantity of nitrogen because of its massive agriculture industry which accounts for about 87% of the country's 124 million kilograms of annual ammonia emissions, the. Farmers and their supporters are holding a protest in The Hague's Malieveld area on the afternoon of June 29. The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality told NBC News it had no choice but to continue with its plans. Some see the governments farming plan as a direct challenge to a traditional industry, which inspires national pride of near-mythic proportions. The Dutch government has long supported and stimulated agriculture with subsidies and other incentives in an effort to secure the countrys food supply and promote the export of agricultural products. But for Dutch farmers, that new direction feels unclear: the government announced the target without specifying how the $25 billion will be distributed, or how provinces will decide who gets to keep their cows, or if there will be involuntary buyouts. Theres nothing wildly attractive for me. Why are we so strict in Belgium and in the Netherlands? The crisis has polarised social opinion, spurring the rise of a new rural populist movement and mobilising environmentalists who are desperately concerned about the state of wild habitats. But the target is expected to require a 30% reduction in overall livestock numbers, and experts say many farms will have to shut down. The percentages range from 12 percent to 95 percent. Supporters stand on highway bridges every night waving the inverted tricolor as a symbol of defiance against an unpopular government and to call for an end to the nitrogen plan. law. Newsletter Donate Advertise. Meanwhile, other high-polluting industries, such as aviation, construction, and transport, have yet to face such severe environmental rules. Luiten is, however, bemused by the idea this is a global fight for Western freedom and that his land could be bought and used to house asylum-seekers. At just 0.42% the size of the U.S, the outline of the Netherlands would fit inside Ohio. When we talk about farming it's just stress. The radical Farmers Defense Force, which experts described as a far-right group, has said it would not accept any buyouts and promised further protests. Radicalized by the opposition to strict Covid measures and spurred on by conspiracy theories about globalists dismantling national democracies and importing nonwhite immigrants to majority-white countries, these activists see the farmers as the latest victims of an assault on Western civilization itself. Klokkenluiders voor Vrijheid (meaning whistleblowers for freedom, which has 87,000 subscribers) shared a video in November featuring David Icke, a British conspiracy theorist, arguing that Dutch farms are being shut down so the government can restrict food supply and more easily coerce and control the population. The reasons for such widespread support of the farmers isnt ideological, she said. This isnt a problem that arose in a few years, this is a problem of decades, and everyone just kicked the can down the road., We have to meet goals, those are set by European laws, said Erwin Wunnekink, a farmer and the chairman of LTO, a farmers organization. She is convinced the government plans are wrong and disproportionate. The world now wants us to see ourselves as keepers of the environment and natureand thats so new, she says. We [the Netherlands] can be considered as a wake-up call for what happens with very intensive farming systems that dont take into account the environmental conditions they have to operate in., Sign up for the Animals farmed monthly update to get a roundup of the biggest farming and food stories across the world and keep up with our investigations. He set off at midnight, arriving 11 hours later. Farms like Luiten's across the Netherlands could soon shut down. Structurally, we havent been keeping to those agreements for about 20 or 30 years, she said in July. If it enters lakes and streams via farm runoff, excessive nitrogen can damage sensitive natural habitats. Previous protests against plans to cut livestock numbers and possibly close farms to meet emissions targets have attracted global attention, and the support of former US president Donald Trump. Theres so much going on and so many people are worried and theres a feeling they are not being taken seriously enough, she says. The biggest Dutch farmers association LTO has walked out of talks on reforming the farm system, saying that trust in finding a solution was still lacking. As one of the worlds most densely farmed nations, the Netherlands is one of the first countries to grapple with how that upheaval will impact farmersand how messy the transition will be. The deadline to complete the plans is July 1, 2023. Farmers also say they are frustrated that the government is not doing enough to find technical innovations or other ways to cut down emissions to avoid reducing livestock numbers. Nitrogen compound emissions are a big matter in this small, packed country, becoming the dominant political issue over the course of a four-year crisis. We have the nitrogen crisis, we have the housing crisis, we have the asylum crisis, energy crisis. Conspiracy theories tend to begin reacting to a specific, complex problem, but then begin to encompass all of societys problems, especially if there is no other explanation being offered. Because we are already exceeding the critical loads., After months of protests from farmers, the first closures will be voluntary, Christianne van der Wal, the nature minister, said earlier this month. She says while some farmers might be forced to leave the industry, others could adapt and provide different services in a changing climate. Aug. 20, 2022 WOUDENBERG, Netherlands The dairy farmers of the Netherlands have had enough. Some have been organized by people who view the measures as an attack on workers rights and small businesses. Dutch farmers say plans by the government to reduce nitrogen emissions will harm their livelihoods. "I understand their anger but I am not a fire-starter and let's be real, the country is not exploding, it's not like there will be a civil war in the next months, but the government has to start talking to the farmers, not just talking but listening and really hearing them or things will get worse.". Despite previous voluntary buyout schemes, only about 30 farmers stopped, according to the Volkskrant. We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. In 2019, the European Unions top court and the Dutch Council of State, the countrys top administrative court and legislative advisory body, ruled that the Netherlands had breached E.U. An increase in the global population of methane-belching cows, now over a billion-strong, has doubled atmospheric levels of the potent greenhouse gas since 1900. This may be just the beginning of much wider global unrest over agriculture. In return, all farm products in the Netherlands would have to reach sustainability standards by 2035, the broadcaster said. Talks between the government and farmers' organisations that began in 2022 broke down last week. On July 7, Fox Newss Tucker Carlson featured a guest wrongly claiming the policy is designed to clear land for use by migrants. Environmentalists say we need to reduce the toll farming takes on nature, by eating less meat and growing crops in less harmful ways, while at the same time make our food systems more resilient to the heat, drought, storms, and flooding that will be intensified by climate change. The right-wing Forum for Democracy has declared that there is no climate crisis and opposes the governments plans. Farmers activists have warned disruptive protests will return if the government goes ahead with plans to force hundreds of businesses to give up in order to cut nitrogen pollution. . Theres a lot going on in Holland. The biggest Dutch farmers association LTO has walked out of talks on reforming the farm system, saying that trust in finding a solution was still lacking. But, in reality, many Dutch farmers are just trying to make a living. The latest announcement follows months of furious farmer protests, strong support for a new pro-farmers party, tense negotiations and a 58-page report called What we can do by the parliamentarian Johan Remkes. And the Dutch farmers have also received some support from abroad. Many thanks to everyone who has donated to DutchNews.nl in recent days! When its getting violent, we have to take care were not getting into a situation we dont want to get into.. For the first time, the government has said that forced buyouts will follow next year if the voluntary measures fail. Magazines, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Farmer Protests in the Netherlands Show Just How Messy the Climate Transition Will Be. But unions said they didnt consider the mediatora member of Prime Minister Mark Ruttes partyindependent. It's not just farms--Dutch government now will determine who you can sell your home to. The three-year-old Farmer-Citizen Movement, known by its Dutch abbreviation BBB, is now one of the most popular in the country, according to opinion polls. You can send us your stories and thoughts at [email protected], Netherlands announces 25bn plan to radically reduce livestock numbers, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 28 June 2023 - 12:40. . Armed with colourful tractors and trucks, Dutch farmers on Monday continued their battle against the government's proposal to slash emissions of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and ammonia by 50 percent. We want to do this approach with an eye for the human dimension and carefully, Lisanne de Roos, a press officer for the minister for nature and nitrogen policy, said via email. In the years following the Second World War, during which the country suffered a famine due to Nazi blockades, Dutch farmers led a drive to increase the amount of food that could be grown on their relatively small territory. Veal farmer Wim Brouwer sits on his terrace, an emergency red flag flying outside and his laptop open on a page revealing he is one of the Netherlands peak polluters, due to the nitrogen excreted each year by his 1,360 calves. Talks between the government and farmers groups have continued, but with no breakthrough. Farmers can reduce the release of nitrogen compounds by changing how they manage their cows: feeding them less protein, or using water to dilute manure, for example. 26 June 2023 - 20:15.