Farmers in the Netherlands are at risk of having their lands seized under the guise of curbing supposedly harmful emissions, and the Dutch government has made it its goal to seize up to half of the country’s farmland.

The government of the Netherlands has just been given the green light by the European Union’s (EU) main executive body to push forward with a farm buyout scheme that will see the country spend 1.5 billion euros ($1.64 billion) in taxpayer money to drastically cut emissions of nitrogen pollution by outright seizing livestock farms.

The ruling coalition of the Netherlands wants to cut the country’s emission of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and ammonia by 50 percent nationwide by 2030.

“Seventy percent of Holland is owned by small cow farmers,” noted documentary filmmaker James Patrick in an interview with Alex Newman of The New American. “[The government] is proposing to nationalize half of them. So, that’s 35 percent of the landmass of Holland, which is such a huge story.”

Dutch government to seize and cease all activity on farmlands

The Dutch government’s plan is to reduce nitrogen deposits in areas designated by the EU as “vulnerable nature,” and these designated lands mostly affect livestock farms.

European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said in a statement that the programs approved in the Netherlands would clear the way for the “voluntary closure” of farms responsible for nitrogen emissions. The EU has designated up to 3,000 farms nationwide that the Dutch government can “voluntarily” buy out.

To reach the government’s goal of shrinking the country’s emissions by 50 percent in the next seven years, up to half of these designated farms may need to be seized.

Once the Dutch government purchases and takes away these designated farms, its goal is to halt all work on those farms to prevent them from emitting too much nitrogen.

“The schemes will improve the environmental conditions in those areas and will promote a more sustainable and environmentally friendly production in the livestock sector, without unduly distorting competition,” claimed Vestager.

Dutch pro-farmer organization LTO said in a statement that if the buyouts will happen, then they must exclusively be voluntary and must be designed in such a way that they truly offer farmers who voluntarily give up their land the opportunity to remain comfortable for the rest of their lives from the money provided to them by the sale.

LTO also called for compromise “transition schemes” that would allow farmers to continue operating in such a way that they voluntarily reduce nitrogen emissions using agricultural innovations or switching to other less polluting activities.

“This is the only way farmers can make informed and well-considered decisions about their futures,” said LTO.

Last year, Dutch agricultural exports were worth an estimated 122.3 billion euros ($134 billion), or around 12 to 13 percent of the country’s GDP. Shutting down up to half of all farm activity in the Netherlands would not only do nothing to improve the environment, but it would also devastate the nation’s economy and food supply, not to mention the livelihoods of the thousands of Dutch people who make a living working in agriculture.

Source:
courtesy of NATURALNEWS

by Arsenio Toledo

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]