Along roads and bridges in the Netherlands, people are hanging the Dutch flag upside down. It is a sign of solidarity with the Dutch farming sector, which will also be upturned by a radical 30% reduction in livestock numbers, a move being made to meet environmental targets.
In recent weeks, farmers have blocked off food distribution centres with hundreds of tractors, blockaded major roads and turned up outside regional assemblies and ministers’ homes to protest. One late-night protest ended with a police officer accused of firing a gun at a 16-year-old farmer’s son.
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. And it is the farming sector that is going to bear the brunt of emissions cuts.
“This is not a democracy any more: it’s a dictatorship,” says Jeroen van Maanen, a farmer with 130 cows in Zeewolde, central Netherlands, who has joined the protests.
Manure, when mixed with urine, releases ammonia, a nitrogen compound. If it enters lakes and streams via farm runoff, excessive nitrogen can damage sensitive natural habitats. The country has the seventh biggest livestock population in the EU but is comparatively small in size. This gives it Europe’s highest livestock density, with insufficient land to make good use of the waste from more than 100 million cattle, chickens and pigs.
Van Maanen says farmers are being unfairly targeted: “If you come for us and our families, you come at a farmer’s soul,” he says. “We’ve proposed all kinds of solutions but we are ignored. And finally, they come up with a plan for a reduction in livestock. No other sector has reduced nitrogen in the last 30 years [as much as] we have. This is why there’s a lot of emotion and pain.”
The latest government coalition has not, so far, been dissuaded by the protests from its drive to tackle the country’s environmental problems. After a landmark court ruling in 2019, it needs to reduce nitrogen emissions in order to allow building projects to go-ahead in the country.
There is no choice, says Rudi Buis, spokesperson for the agriculture ministry. “Even if you stop with the policy tomorrow, the problem doesn’t go away. If you want to build a house or a road, a lawyer will say: first reduce nitrogen and then you get a licence. We have to do something. It’s not a luxury. It has to happen.”
This is why, he says, the farming sector was addressed first in parliamentary briefings which asked provincial governments to come up with detailed plans for reductions within a year.
Farmers are furious that they have been singled out, says Jan Brok, vice-chair of BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), a rural political party which has made huge gains in the polls. “All farmers in the Netherlands do something that releases nitrogen, but there is an unfairness: currently it’s only the farmers who have to reduce emissions but not the rest of industry,” he says.
“We know exactly what allowance each farmer has and what they produce, while a lot of industrial companies don’t need permission – but they emit nitrogen.”
According to documents released on Wednesday as a result of MP questions, finance ministry calculations suggest more than half of livestock farmers will have to stop or slim down. The government plans, reports the Financieele Dagblad, will affect five times more farmers than is strictly necessary.
The LTO farming union has refused to interact with a new government negotiator, Johan Remkes, saying the timeline is impossible and too focused on agriculture. “A country-level reduction of 50% in 2030 is simply unfeasible, and will have disastrous effects on not just agriculture but the economic, social and cultural viability of rural Netherlands,” said LTO spokesman Wytse Sonnema.
Many farmers do accept the need for change but fear the effect on their livelihoods. “A lot of people in the cities don’t see the link between what they eat every day and what we as farmers do,” says Alex Datema, an organic dairy farmer with 110 milk cows in Groningen.
Natasja Oerlemans, head of the food team at WWF Netherlands, stresses that while the charity is keen for farmers to have a good income and positive social role, this does not mean a high livestock density. “This is the only country in the world where manure is regarded as a waste product instead of a valuable source of nutrients and soil health,” she says.
“We export 70%, keep all the rubbish, and the gains are all for private companies. It’s a system that’s not sustainable and can’t go on. We [the Netherlands] can be considered as a wake-up call for what happens with very intensive farming systems that don’t take into account the environmental conditions they have to operate in.”
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