Posted on 07/17/2022 2:53:58 PM PDT by Mount Athos
In the Netherlands, dairy farmer Martin Neppelenbroek is near the end of the line.
New environmental regulations will require him to slash his livestock numbers by 95 percent. He thinks he will have to sell his family farm.
“I can’t run a farm on 5 percent. For me, it’s over and done with,” he said in a July 7 interview with The Epoch Times.
“In view of the regulations, I can’t sell it to anybody. Nobody wants to buy it. [But] the government wants to buy it. And that’s why they [have] those regulations, I think.”
Neppelenbroek made the remarks while speaking with Roman Balmakov, host of “Facts Matter” on EpochTV, during Balmakov’s recent trip to the Netherlands.
Neppelenbroek pointed out that not all farmers are required to get rid of so many of their cattle.
People living further from areas protected under Natura 2000, a European Union (EU) agreement for species and habitat preservation, can own more cattle.
That’s because the Dutch government’s regulations on nitrogen oxides and ammonia emissions are tied to sites’ proximity to those protected areas.
Farmers, truckers, and others across the Netherlands have led nationwide protests against that vision, partly spurred by a June 10 national and area-specific plan for curtailing nitrogen greenhouse gas emissions.
There’s a sword of Damocles hanging over them: the possibility of compulsory seizure of property by the government.
NOS Nieuws reported that Christianne van der Wal, the country’s minister of nature and nitrogen policy, has not ruled out expropriating land from uncooperative farmers.
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service, the Dutch government has said its approach means “there is not a future for all [Dutch] farmers.”
For now, Neppelenbroek’s 70-acre-plus property is home to roughly 130 milking cows. It’s been in his family for half a century.
“I’m the second generation,” he said, adding that many farms in the Netherlands have been in families for much longer.
The Netherlands punches well above its weight in agriculture. The small, coastal country is one of the world’s top 10 food exporters.
“When you have not a lot of space, you have to use it as effectively as possible,” Neppelenbroek said.
“It’s a delta, and the climate is not too hot, not too cold. It’s an ideal place to grow.”
Cows, Neppelenbroek acknowledged, produce lots of ammonia through their bodily waste.
Yet, “you can’t blame just one small group in your country for polluting the environment,” he said, adding that farmers feel they’re being overburdened.
Closing Dutch farms will just necessitate food imports from elsewhere, he argued.
He noted that cow manure can benefit soil health—certainly more so than the synthetic fertilizers that would need to replace it.
Cows can also be fed leftovers that people won’t eat: “They can get rid of a lot of stuff we can’t use as humans and put it into high-quality food,” he said.
Like many others in the Netherlands, he suspects the government wants to use the land that it takes to build housing.
Pure thuggery. Government abusing citizens. Just like what’s going on here. And in China. Hmm....
A government deliberately it’s citizens , Italy is going that way also
A government deliberately starving it’s citizens , Italy is going that way also.
You wonder at what point if ever some these protests turn violent in Europe, in Sri Lanka they ran the government out of the country by storming the capital and personal residence of the President.
In Holland, if you force these farmers out of business and sell their farms, many of whom have been in their families for generations, what do they have to lose and some might turn to violence.
In Canada we’ve seen protesting doesn’t work, Trudeau took the Truckers bank accounts and used police imported into town to clear the protestors out.
Voting doesn’t seem to work in these parliamentary forms of government that do not have a real constitution, Trudeau is running a minority government in Canada.
Can you imagine if we didn’t have our constitution and had a parliamentary form of government like in most of the rest of the world. The Democrats could change everything in this country in 2-4 years, it would be mass chaos.
I didn’t know Joe Biden was president of the Netherlands.
Greene’s do nothing but Destroy
all Western governments have become all about having the people serve them....rather than the other way around
time to go
How are we going to starve off 95% of the Europeans if we let the farmers keep producing? To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat bugs.”
In the meantime, there should be a glut of high quality beef hitting the shelves.
It’s making me wonder if the mad cow disease mania of 20 years ago or so was a dry run for this. A friend of mine in Ireland had to kill his entire dairy herd.
Aren’t cheese and dairy products major Dutch exports? The Green policies will not only lead to food shortages, but also take a chunk out of the Dutch GDP
They have a Minister of Natureand Nitrogen?
How Orwellian! 😜🤪🙀🦐🐄
New environmental regulations will require him to slash his livestock numbers by 95 percent.
He thinks he will have to sell his family farm.
"I can’t run a farm on 5 percent. For me, it’s over and done with,” he said in a July 7 interview with The Epoch Times."
“In view of the regulations, I can’t sell it to anybody. Nobody wants to buy it.
[But] the government wants to buy it. And that’s why they [have] those regulations, I think.”
"The Great Reset" says you will own nothing,. and be happy "
When you operate a diary farm, you are 'married' to the cow for twice a day milking.
No one can live on 95% reduction of income without massive adjustments
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.