The War on Agriculture

That debate is now raging in more and more countries, after the EU and several governments have taken drastic measures aimed at reducing the number of farms.

In the Netherlands, which is Europe’s largest exporter of agricultural products, the government is combining sticks and carrots to try to get the country’s farmers to wind down their operations and sell the land. This time, it’s nitrogen—not carbon dioxide—that is claimed to pose an acute threat. But is that the real reason, or a pretext for implementing a completely different agenda?

“The government has declared war on agriculture,” says Thierry Baudet, party leader for Forum voor Democratie, and the agricultural policy spokesperson Gideon van Meijeren, in an exclusive interview for Swedish outlet Nya Tider.

The debate about Dutch agriculture has been ongoing for several years. The background is an EU directive that forces member states to drastically reduce their nitrogen emissions. Two years ago, a ruling in the Netherlands’ highest court determined that the country is doing “too little” to meet the EU’s goals, and that nitrogen emissions must be halved by 2030. Shortly thereafter, Mark Rutte’s liberal government presented an action package to realize the controversial objectives.

Natura 2000

The EU has decided that 18 percent of the union’s land area and 8 percent of its marine territory should be classified as protected areas because they contain vulnerable and threatened plant and animal habitats. Human activity and even tourism should be severely restricted in these areas.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is, despite its small size, Europe’s largest exporter of agricultural goods and the second largest globally after the USA. The effect when a world-leading agricultural nation dismantles large parts of its operations is hard to foresee.

Nitrogen Emissions

The atmosphere consists of 78 percent nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most important part of fertilizer, both in natural manure and artificial fertilizer, and makes crops grow. It is spread as urine and manure from animals on fields and sometimes also leaks unintentionally from farms. Dutch farmers have faced increased demands to reduce all types of nitrogen emissions to such an extent that it has become impossible for many to continue their operations.

Traffic also emits nitrogen, and the government has therefore lowered the speed limit on highways from 130 to 100 kilometers per hour during the day. They have also halted several infrastructure projects.

Drastic Measures

The Netherlands plans to reduce nitrogen emissions by 50 percent across the entire country by 2030. In some Natura 2000 areas, emissions must decrease by as much as 95 percent. To achieve this, every third farm must close. Farmers who do not “voluntarily” let the state buy the farm risk expropriation. If they want to stay on their farm, they must promise never to have livestock again. The Dutch “Minister for Environment and Nitrogen,” Christianne van der Wal, announced last year that every third livestock breeder must go.

Nya Tider interviewed Thierry Baudet and Gideon van Meijeren from Forum voor Democratie. Together, they make up two of the party’s three parliamentary members in the Tweede Kamer, the country’s parliament. Baudet is the party leader, van Meijeren the agricultural policy spokesperson.– In the Netherlands, there is a so-called “nitrogen crisis,” that’s what the government claims. And they say that because farmers emit too much nitrogen, the Dutch nature is being attacked. Therefore, they want to reduce the number of farmers in the Netherlands, says Gideon van Meijeren.

Thousands of Farms to Disappear

NyT: What are they doing concretely to achieve this?– Right now, there are around 50,000 farmers in the Netherlands. And the government says that thousands of them—perhaps 10,000—must stop.

“The ruling coalition in the Netherlands has set the goal that emissions of nitrogen oxide and ammonia, which come from large livestock herds and manure storage, should be reduced by 50 percent across the entire country by 2030. Farms located near EU-designated Natura 2000 areas must reduce their emissions by as much as 95 percent—something that is impossible if one wants to continue raising animals.

The Dutch ‘Minister for Environment and Nitrogen,’ Christianne van der Wal, announced last year that 30 percent of livestock breeders must go. In practice, it will be many more, according to the farmers.

The government has chosen to work with both sticks and carrots. Taxes and bureaucracy are combined with generous payments to those who choose to wind down their operations ‘voluntarily.’ According to the EU directive, which has been in force for many years, all countries in the union must systematically map areas, establish ‘mandatory action programs,’ and then ‘comprehensive monitoring programs’ to ensure high efficiency in implementation.”

In the Netherlands, where nitrogen emissions from agriculture are significantly larger than in Sweden due to more activity on less land and more use of artificial fertilizer, the government claims that the measures constitute an ‘unavoidable transition’ aimed at improving air, soil, and water quality.

“They claim it’s on a voluntary basis, but in reality, they put so much pressure on the farmers that they have no other option but to stop. The Dutch government has allocated 25 billion euros—25 with nine zeros!—and put it in a fund to pay the farmers when they shut down their operations. That’s around 4,000 euros per household in the Netherlands,” exclaims van Meijeren.

Exactly how much a farmer gets paid if the operation is shut down depends on various factors: how much land they have, if they have been classified as “peak polluters,” and if the area is considered extra “sensitive.”

“The government says they get paid more than the value of the land itself. But there’s an important detail here: agricultural land is worth less than land that can be used for building. So the government calculates what the price would be if they were to sell a farm on the market—with farming as the activity—and then they say: ‘We pay 120 percent of that value, so it’s a good offer.'”

Land Needed for Immigrants’ Housing

However, the government has no plans whatsoever to then let the land continue to be used for agriculture. Van Meijeren says that the government decides to reclassify the area according to the zoning system that the Netherlands has long used, which in one stroke allows the land to be exploited for construction.

“Then the government sells the land for significantly more money. I’m quite sure this has nothing to do with environmental considerations; they’re just using it as a pretext to reduce the number of farmers.”

Van Meijeren points out two main motives for taking control of the land: Housing is needed for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants streaming into the country, and space is needed for the thousands of wind turbines that must be built to achieve the EU’s climate goals.

“In reality, the government needs the farmers’ land to build houses and wind turbines. In the Netherlands, there is a land shortage. It’s a small country. The population is growing very quickly: one million every ten years.

NyT: Due to immigration…

“Exactly. If you just look at birth and death rates, the population would decrease. But due to immigration, we have a population that grows and grows and grows. And therefore, we have a major housing shortage. The interior minister has said they want to build one million homes before 2030, and another million between 2030 and 2040. And they want to build this mainly in the eastern and northern parts of the Netherlands, exactly the places where there is a lot of agricultural land.”

NyT: Given the land shortage—are there any plans to reduce immigration or the number of built wind turbines?

“No. They want to build more than 5,000 additional wind turbines in the coming five years. And that requires a lot of land, which is now extremely difficult to find. Today, between 50–65 percent of all land in the Netherlands is agricultural land. The politicians need this land, so they had to create a pretext to implement their agenda.

‘There Is Absolutely No Nitrogen Crisis!’

For once, it’s not the so-called global warming that motivates the radical transition. Instead, the government claims that nitrogen is destroying nature.

“According to them, nature and biodiversity are deteriorating all the time in the Netherlands. They claim that various species in our flora and fauna are decreasing due to nitrogen emissions. So strictly speaking, it’s not a climate debate—which mainly deals with carbon dioxide—but this is about a ‘nitrogen crisis.'”

Party leader Thierry Baudet interrupts the conversation. He argues that nitrogen does not cause any greenhouse effect. Many other researchers claim it does, by converting to nitrous oxide, but the “climate issue” and nitrogen’s potential greenhouse effect are in any case not what this debate revolves around, not even from the government’s side.

“The government says it undermines biodiversity. They say it contributes to soil acidification through acid rain. But this has been planned for a long time: we had the fear of ‘forest death’ in East Germany and Czechoslovakia in the 1980s, the ozone layer in the 1990s, but it’s total nonsense. There is absolutely no crisis in our nature! They come up with new crises all the time to legitimize all the ridiculous regulations.”

Actually, the nitrogen crisis is used to motivate exactly the same measures as the climate crisis. Instead of talking about cows farting the planet to death, they claim their urine is doing it. The goal is always the same: to reduce the number of farms.

Global Food Transition

The Netherlands is, despite its small size, Europe’s largest exporter of agricultural goods and the second largest globally after the USA. The effect when a world-leading agricultural nation dismantles large parts of its operations is hard to foresee, but van Meijeren and Baudet argue that it is part of a globalist agenda where food is increasingly produced in labs and not on farms.

Moreover, a country should not be self-sufficient but food should increasingly be imported from other parts of the world, from lands owned by multinational corporations.

“There is a connection here to the global food transition. They want us to eat less meat and more lab-produced food. They also say that we shouldn’t have production to feed our own population, because we can import it from other countries. But of course, it’s an enormous risk to be dependent on other countries for the most vital needs, like food. Especially with the current situation in the world with geopolitical problems, it’s a very bad idea to pursue a policy where you can no longer feed your own population. You become completely dependent on others.”

Plants and Insects to Become Food

NyT: In a situation where the number of farmers decreases drastically and imports increase, would the price of meat also rise further and become more of a luxury item?

“Yes. They want us to eat plant-based food and insect food that can be produced in factories. Even our king advertises ‘meat’ that is actually made from insects: mealworms.”

In a video showing King Willem-Alexander’s visit, the viewer first sees large containers with mealworms, which shortly thereafter become something that looks like a regular hamburger. Next to it are ketchup, cucumber, and other typical accompaniments. The king takes a bite of the mealworm burger to the great delight of the media and staff.

Future Food?

In January, a report was published where the Netherlands’ king visits a factory that produces insect food. Large containers with thousands of mealworms then become something that looks like a regular hamburger—something the king tastes to the great delight of the journalists and staff. According to Forum voor Democratie, governments across the Western world want Europe to dismantle its agriculture to instead produce insect- and plant-based food in laboratories. Photo: NOS Jeugdjournaal/YouTube

“Elon Musk has also marketed this. There’s a video where he eats it, and you can see that he thinks it’s completely disgusting. But he has to eat it,” says Thierry Baudet.

NyT: Does he make money from this too?

“I don’t know. He wants to make money from everything. Probably also lab-produced meat.”

Studied Nitrogen’s Effects Closely

Baudet’s and van Meijeren’s party Forum voor Democratie is known for being both well-read and uncompromising opponents to almost all political proposals presented by the liberal government. And they have studied nitrogen’s alleged negative environmental effects closely.

NyT: When it comes to nitrogen, do you believe there could be negative effects on the environment as the government claims?

“It depends on what one considers valuable in the environment,” says van Meijeren and elaborates: “Nitrogen is a very important nutrient for crops. More nitrogen results in a different type of nature: a rich nature. Forest landscapes grow well from nitrogen.”

That agriculture emits nitrogen is also nothing new but has always occurred, something confirmed by the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

“Agricultural land contains large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus. When the soil is disturbed during cultivation, for example when plowing, harrowing, and sowing, more of these nutrients are released. Fertilization then adds more nitrogen and phosphorus,” the authority writes.

What is claimed to be harmful, however, is the nitrogen added through artificial fertilizer, as it then leaks into waterways. In Sweden, which like the Netherlands rigorously monitors the agricultural sector, nitrogen leakage has decreased over the last 10 years following active political measures. This is likely due to large parts of agriculture shutting down.

According to the report “Sweden’s Changing Agriculture” from SLU, 35,000 of the just over 100,000 farms that existed in 1990 have closed.

“Dairy farms, pig farms, and smaller family farms have closed to a particularly large extent,” the report authors write. The Swedish decision “Transition 90” and EU accession—with “new regulations and controls”—are pointed out as the main causes. Sweden, which was previously almost self-sufficient, must now import more and more of the food the population needs.

According to Gideon van Meijeren, nitrogen is a prerequisite for us to produce crops. Nitrogen itself is therefore not dangerous. “These crops did not exist in the Netherlands before humans came here and started agriculture. When you emit nitrogen, it makes room for a different type of nature compared to the original.”

Baudet adds: “Yes, that’s correct in a laboratory situation. What Gideon says is true: if you emit large amounts of nitrogen, you will see a change in nature. That’s undeniable. But it’s not a bad thing; it’s a development or transition that is completely normal.”

He says he published a book on the subject six months ago, where he reviews all existing empirical data on the development of nature in the Netherlands over the last 40 years. The results showed nothing special. According to Baudet, observations from the lab do not match the more complex reality.

“In fact, we don’t see much change in the Netherlands. Our biodiversity has been fairly stable. So there’s nothing to worry about. We argue that there wouldn’t even be anything to worry about if nature really did change, but not even that is happening.”

A Declaration of War on Our Agricultural Sector

“The government has combined its massive buyout offers with a mountain of bureaucracy for farmers, all to increase incentives for shutdowns, says van Meijeren. “In the last decade, many regulations have come that make farmers lose motivation to continue. Everything is regulated so strictly that a farmer who wants a few extra cows has to deal with massive bureaucracy. The regulations are about making it as difficult as possible for farmers to do what they want: take care of their animals, their land, and their nature. There’s a lot of paperwork, so it’s a side effect that means farmers are no longer allowed to be farmers.”

NyT: Is it a war on farmers?

“That’s what we call it in parliament. A declaration of war on our agricultural sector. Don’t forget that the Netherlands has the best farmers in the world. People come here from all over the world to see how we manage high production, high-quality products, and very high animal welfare. We’re really good at this, and that’s why it’s extra bitter that the government is now using 25 billion euros to destroy one of the most successful industries in the country.”

The two predict that the consequences of the government’s policy will be felt across Europe.

“It will make Europe as a whole more dependent on multinational companies that own agricultural land outside Europe. We already see that we have an increased dependence on products produced in North Africa. We have started a small company called Honest Food.

“We try to get products from Dutch farmers to those who have signed up with us. And when I talk to our farmers, they say that dependence on North African agricultural land has increased dramatically in recent years, not least due to our enormous regulations on pesticides.”

Large Corporations Strengthen Control

The farms in North Africa are in turn owned by multinational companies.

“My picture is that this is exactly what we call globalism. I can’t say exactly which farm in North Africa is owned by whom, but the general picture we’re sure of is that a small group of large companies owns an ever-larger share of global agricultural land. This is an undeniable general trend where Monsanto, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, State Street, BlackRock, and a few others buy up enormous amounts of land. We become more and more dependent on them. And these push for us to become a more global and integrated world. They think it’s good if people move from Africa to Europe, because we ‘need immigration.’ And we should use Africa for agricultural land. Everything here should be controlled from Davos in Switzerland, from New York, from Brussels. I believe that’s clearly their philosophy,” says Baudet.

NyT: So we get their population, and they get our factories and companies?

“Yes, and it happens through an integration of public and private sectors: governments and large companies joining together on a global level and ‘restructuring’ the world by creating mutual dependence. Europe becomes Africa in demographics, and Africa becomes Europe in agriculture. That’s my take.”

He is supported by Gideon van Meijeren, who says that the same companies that own agricultural land outside Europe will also buy up farmland in the Netherlands: previously agricultural land, but where houses and wind turbines will now instead be built.

“The government makes enormous sums of money from this, because once they’ve changed the purpose of the land, they can sell it to real estate developers. And that’s where BlackRock comes in.

NyT: A temporary ownership by the state to sell it to globalist companies?

“Yes. That’s how the scam works.”