In order to comply with the European Union’s environmental mandate to reduce emissions, the Dutch government has decided and has planned on both buying and then closing around 3,000 farms.
The idea is that the government will present “well over” the amount that these family farms are worth. This will make the offer so nice, that families will willingly sell their farms to the governments. This effort to close down local farms legally is a new attempt to reduce nitrogen pollution.
Van Der Wal said that these purchases would be a “pain in the heart” But that the Netherlands is responsible for half the nitrogen in Europe at this time, and they are trying to comply with the EU’s new rules. The Dutch council of state already had policies in place since 2019, where if a farmer wished to begin a new dairy or building, they had to get permits. This new policy helped to where more nitrogen gases were not created. This, however, was not enough and now farms need to close down.
There is opposition to the new rules, and to the property buyouts. Farmers have created attention by using their tractors to block traffic for over 700 miles during rush hour.
The Netherlands is currently the world’s second-largest farm exporter.
