How are government policies crippling Dutch farmers and food security?

Описание: – Andrew Bridgen in conversation with Dutch farmer Jeroen van Maanen –

During his visit to the Netherlands, in early January, British former MP Andrew Bridgen met with (former) dairy farmer Jeroen van Maanen to find out first-hand how the Dutch government, partly via NGO’s, policies, norms and pricing mechanisms, is wing clipping and pruning the independence and assets (and in some cases the lives) of Dutch farmers, reducing the number drastically, over many years.

Van Maanen explains that food production in the Netherlands, in fact, has been reduced so much, that the country is now net importing food.

“We are allowed to eat the food that we are not allowed to produce.”

The Mercosur deal, which is angering farmers of all EU member states, is not so much an agricultural agreement per se, but is part of a larger trade and freight deal, aimed at exporting German cars to South America, explains Van Maanen.

In return, the EU promises to import South American meat and other agricultural products, which are produced at very low cost, because Mercosur-farmers are not held to the same high standards as are Dutch farmers.

Van Maanen, former Chair of the Dutch Dairy Farmers Union (NVM) and former spokesperson for the Dutch branch of Farmers Defence Force, ran a dairy farm in the Flevopolder, an area of the Netherlands that was reclaimed from the sea from 1955-1968.

He sold his farm in 2023 and now rents it back and raises young cattle for another farmer.

His reasons for giving up his own enterprise were that margins were getting too tight and the relentless limitations imposed by the Dutch government, such as for nitrogen and CO2 emissions, suggested a future too difficult and grim to embrace – a situation many Dutch farmers are struggling with.

Other topics include Bovaer, the value of food, skewed science, and malfunctioning media.

Although the increasingly suffocating demands on farmers differ per country, the effect is the same. Agriculture is being centralised and driven into the hands of large corporations who seem out to control the whole food (and energy) supply chain.

By learning about each other’s challenges, informing the public, and connecting and supporting each other in the fight for independence and the right to flourish, EU-farmers can strengthen their movement.

We hope this video will help the European farmers’ cause.

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The interview is a co-production of potkaars.nl and pinchofsoot.nl.


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