If they do not accept this, a forced sale cannot be ruled out. Due to the particularly intensive agriculture, the Netherlands has a major nitrate problem, even compared to other European countries.
If excess nitrogen is washed out of the soil by rain, it enters the groundwater as nitrate. The result: In order to obtain drinking water from it, the water has to be treated at great expense. The nitrogen also ends up in lakes, rivers and seas. In the Netherlands, groundwater and soil are heavily polluted. Livestock farms are the biggest culprits in the Netherlands.
After court judgment under pressure to act
After a ruling by the highest court, the government had decided to reduce nitrogen emissions by half by 2030. According to government calculations, this might mean the end of 30 percent of livestock farms. The Netherlands is one of the largest exporters of agricultural products in the world.
In protest once morest the plans, farmers had protested for weeks, some violently. They had blocked highways, started fires and dumped manure, rubbish, but also asbestos on roads. Supermarket warehouses were blocked and politicians threatened.
Since the nitrogen input is now well above the permitted limit values, other companies and large-scale projects are blocked. According to a court ruling in November, construction projects can no longer be approved.
The Netherlands as a “nitrogen hotspot”
Jan Willem Erisman, environmental and nitrogen expert at Leiden University, sees the Netherlands in a particularly difficult situation. The country is a “nitrogen hotspot” due to the interaction of “industrial agriculture, transport, industry and energy production,” he emphasized to ORF.at on the occasion of a wave of protests in July. Since 1840, the focus in the Netherlands has been on “more and more production”.
The fact that emissions have to be reduced is nothing new: “We have known that for 30 years,” says Erisman. The government has “no choice to do anything, but has to meet commitments” and is currently far from the hoped-for goals. Nevertheless, he sees the government as having a duty: You have to come together around a table, plans should not deviate from the goals, but he sees leeway in the speed with which measures are implemented.
Ultimately, it is regarding “offering the farmers a perspective” – they need to know whether they will still exist in “20, 30 years” – and thus give them the necessary stability for investments, according to the expert. That is the job of the government.
Expert advises quality over quantity
Nevertheless, the expert considers it necessary to reduce the quantities in production – lower quantities would be possible if the product range were diversified. The Netherlands produces a lot of bulk goods that are often sold below market price internationally.
But concentrating on higher quality and closer markets would only be one approach: Erisman also sees technical solutions as an option. These might significantly reduce ammonia emissions from animal husbandry, corresponding technologies already exist.
At the same time, however, he also points out that agriculture is “not a nitrogen problem” alone. “A whole series” of problems would interlock here. According to the expert, this was caused by the intensification of agriculture.
