There is much to say about these events, one sentence that caught my eye was: "Why are we so strict in Belgium and in the Netherlands? Because we are already exceeding the critical loads.”
how farmers will compete with foreign products without the same pollution requirements
That’s the big issue. Even if dutch farmers agree to implement costly measures to limit emissions and pollution, unless this is enforced EU wide, this will just drive them out of business and move the pollution problem somewhere else. And I do not really see this happening EU wide in any foreseeable future.
Ehm, I’m sorry. But the reason for these strict regulations are that you are one of the worst polluters. (Germany sucks too in this regard)
https://www.eea.europa.eu/ims/eutrophication-caused-by-atmospheric-nitrogen
I’m new to this community, and happy to see that this Europe Community is alive and kicking;) So thanks for having me, and your input in these comments.
Concerning subsidies in The Netherlands, all farmers in EU apply for EU subsidies. I found an interesting piece about it in Dutch, and here is the English translation: Link followthemoney EN
One foreseeable problem is that right now foodprices have been going up. Imo, if 40% of the farmers that constitute the second lagest agricultural producer of the world( The Netherlands) , will close shop, how will that ever have a positive for foodprices worldwide? Also, momentarily The Netherlands has the leading technology to revolutionize agriculture in more sustainable ways.
A third consideration I see, is that although pollution is very high, part of this has to do with productivity and population density and being a very small country etc. So, as I understand it, if the Dutch would have a bigger country the levels would be lower. Then again that wouldn’t change the net world nitrogen pollution levels, I believe. It would only be shifted or less visible in a larger area.
Hence, yes, this issue raises many questions and there are no simple answers, nor is there any easy solution. Something is being done for the climate and pollution control. The world’s population and energy usage is only growing; while the crises become more urgent by the day. I hope we make the right choices.
The Netherlands is only the worlds second largest producer because it’s counted in monetary value, and flowers are very expensive. A lot of figures on our -export- of agricultural production also count produce which is imported via Rotterdam harbour and the exported. The Netherlands is not that important at all.