The Netherlands is the second world exporter for agricultural products and ground zero for Europe’s nitrogen crisis. Here, nitrogen deposited onto every acre of farmed land remains three times the EU average. Still, the government has postponed halving nitrogen emissions by 5 years, to 2035. A decision that defies national and European laws which aim at near-zero nitrate pollution by 2050. Intensive farming is among the main causes.
In the Netherlands, there are 620 head of livestock for every 100 residents. All these animals, concentrated in a relatively small area, produce meat, cheese, milk, but also enormous quantities of a by-product that’s increasingly difficult to manage: manure.
