A tractor protest seeking to upstage plans to buy out farms from Dutch farmers ‘forever,’ has been going on for the better part of 2023, precisely since March, in provincial Netherlands, amid EU’s nod to the scheme aiming to reduce emissions. The agricultural hotbed of Western Europe seeks to stem its rising nitrogen emissions by shutting down some 3000 big farms near EU-certified Natura-2000 breeding sites.
On top of that, the administration of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which initiated the move under its Globalist-leaning policy, seeks to coerce willing livestock farmers in other areas of the country to follow suit. While the buyout offer for the peak emitters simmers down to a cool 120% of the face value of their land, that being extended to keepers of milk cows, chicken and pigs in other places will amount to 100% of their farms’ production values.
The government underlined the above EU-backed proposition with these words: “The positive effects transcend” any upending of the term “free market.”
If you own a farm in the Dutch provinces and are about to accept the offer, this is an important development that you need to follow.
Related: Market insights for Netherlands live cattle
The Dutch farmers buyout offer in context
The total buyout amounts to EUR 1.5 billion and mainly targets the chief culprits of nitrogen emissions: livestock rearing ranches near nature conservancies. Farmers are being requested to voluntarily opt in to the buy out plan if they are close to a nature conservancy.
The scheme will only slightly reduce farming land in a country whose 50% of the total land area, including that reclaimed from the sea, goes into agriculture. The Dutch climate minister, Rob Jetten, had said earlier in April that the country had “for years, missed” on its promise to cut down on emissions but now it aims to bring down emission levels to 55 percent margins in the next 7 years. Farm buyout was not even part of the agenda when the minister made the statement: a mega switch to solar energy was the main focus then for ensuring a carbon neutral state by the mid-2030s.
What does the EU’s backing of the Dutch farmers buyout plan boil down to?
The European Union’s decision to okay Rutte’s office offer to farmers is not surprising. The Netherlands, a country the size of Maryland State in the US, has the highest emission degree in the entire EU economic bloc, at 34% per capita over the median European emission levels. Greenhouse gasses are classified as carbon dioxide, Nitrous oxide and methane, among others, in descending order of climatic effect. The livestock sector in the Netherlands is culprit to the second gas in line, nitrogen.
A closer look at the world’s agricultural data shows that the tiny Western European nation ranks only next to the United States as the biggest net agricultural exporter. In 2022, it exported 105 billion Euros worth of produce and animal products, a figure that curiously reads in parody to the EUR 1.5 billion buyout! The bulk comes from its livestock sector which reads in the millions.
Per the 2022 figures, the country had the following headcount of livestock:
- 4 million cattle
- 13 million swine
- 104 million hens
With the above figures as reference, it is easy to see why the government targets domestic animal farms located close to nature so as to adhere to the European Union’s greenhouse emission laws.
Can farmers use their gained capital to farm abroad?
No, farmers will not regain farming by migrating to other countries. The government stated that farmers who forfeit property at home cannot expand abroad and their buyout acceptance is irreversible.
It is also notable that the buyout of Dutch farms is just the start of a trend that may spread elsewhere in Europe: Belgium was also in the grip of minor tractor protests in April.
Analysts see this as a blow to productivity in Europe as a whole as farmers’ breeding knowledge will be lost over time.
Political and Agricultural Impact on farming in the Netherlands
Politically, the BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) party recently emerged as a major force in Dutch politics by gaining the majority in the national Senate. Though it is helping at backing farmers’ pleas by okaying tractor protests, it is however open to EU emission policies and seeks alternatives to the buyout.
It is also significant to note that the woman-led citizens’ party is the backyard of most of the farms affected by the schemes. Thus, by virtue of its upholding the tractor protest in March and its current doubts on Rutte’s buyout order, it remains to be seen how the government succeeds with the EU-backed nitrogen-slashing approach.
Some sources see Europe’s focus on greening as detrimental to production in agriculture. There is a dearth of fruits and other groceries in and out of the Netherlands. With the buyout and the irreversible closure of farms, coupled to the reigning dry spell in the alternative production country – Spain, food prices may go up as supply ebbs in the future.
Overall, most farmers enshrined under the BBB wings feel the move is unjustified and the ban on farming abroad as possibly ‘not legal’ under EU laws. All the same, there are positive expectations.
For instance, all eyes are on the successful outcome of this Dutch scheme, the first of its kind in the world, with focus on three areas:
- How the reduction in imports of animal feeds, which technologically contribute to the carbon footprint, will bring down emissions. The focus will be on decreasing the herd numbers to sizes that can fully graze on carbon neutral pastureland. A Dutch House Representative says that this will obviously reduce animal product exports but will make the country not pay the big price in ecological terms that it is paying now.
- How the reduction in the national herd size will ensure that the world does not go meat-free: analysts cite that the growing global population will need more meat and dairy in coming years than it does now.
- By what significant percentage will the levels that the agricultural sector contributes to the overall national emission levels go down after the closure of Dutch farms? The current contribution of agricultural-related activities on climate stands at 14 percent in the Netherlands.
In short, the EU backing of the national plan to buy out farmers settled around the ecological zone known as Natura-2000 in Holland will have big ramifications on both the global climate battle and the demand for livestock products.
You may also like to check out more comprehensive insights covering the key products in the Netherlands.