“Write About What is Happening Here”: Voices of the Dutch Farmers

A mere 20-minute drive from the bustle of The Hague, the beating heart of Dutch politics, takes the traveler into what appears as a wholly different world. 

Even though it is the Netherlands’ (as well as one of the world’s) most densely populated and most industrialized province, in South Holland, farming communities are still a feature of the land.

For many years, what are considered the world’s best farmers—the Netherlands is the second highest global exporter of agricultural products—have been hit with environmental rule after environmental rule, imposed on them by the government in The Hague, as it follows the EU’s diktats.

Matters came to a head when the State demanded a significant reduction in nitrogen, a natural gas commonly found in manure, triggering mass farmers’ revolts.

The newly created Dutch Farmers Movement (BBB) presented itself as the farmers’ voice and soon reaped the benefits. Following its astonishing success in this year’s regional elections, the broad support the fledgling party had garnered however collapsed as other issues—with the national elections—came to the fore. 

As one travels through the region’s distinctive polders—pieces of low-lying land reclaimed from the sea or a river and protected by dikes—and speaks to the people living there, the feeling of unease is palpable. 

In Leidschendam, to The Hague’s East, a lady who works at a local farm/hotel told us that, for a Monday, the nitrogen issue was “too depressing” to talk about.

Later, when asked for directions, one of two old men in a jeep told us, in a melancholy tone, that farmers are “fast disappearing,” urging: “please write about what is happening here.”

The plethora of BBB banners is, then, no great surprise, as they signal this very much is still BBB country. 

Some, such as Gertjan van Santen, 49, have some reservations, however. 

We speak with him on his dairy cattle farm, now counting 65 cows, which has been in his family’s possession—a seven-decade interlude excepted—since 1830.

In South Holland’s farming community, support for the BBB is huge. As for myself, I on the other hand did not vote for them in last March’s regional elections. While I will probably vote for them in Wednesday’s elections, the reason I did not back then was because I feared it would remain only a farmers-only party, and would forget about the rest of society, thereby greatly reducing their chance of success. Since they are also new, I doubted whether they would have enough people with the needed expertise.

On the controversial nitrogen debate, Gertjan believes that once you buy into the premises of that narrative, you are walking into a trap.

The whole nitrogen ‘crisis’ is about more than just farmers, the whole of society emits nitrogen. The politicians and media have singled us out, and we feel unjustly targeted. It is literally that simple.  

Obviously, Natura 2000 areas [sites Dutch authorities have selected based on the occurrence of species and habitat types that enjoy EU-enforced protections] are not in the middle of the city, they are found in the countryside. As a result, nearby farmers are slapped with the label of ‘large polluters,’ just like that. 

Gertjan was among the first to be on the receiving end of The Hague’s growing preoccupation with bringing the country’s nitrogen emissions down.

We have a lot of old buildings on this farm. The oldest, where we still milk cows, dates from 1904. In 2016 I applied for a permit to build a new stable. While approved by the province, it was successfully challenged by [Dutch chemist and founder of the environmental consulting firm MOB] Johan Vollenbroek. 

In 2019, Vollenbroek won a case against the Dutch state at the Council of State, since PAS, a program meant to protect Natura 2000 areas by reducing nitrogen emissions,  did not comply with European environmental legislation. All nitrogen-emitting projects were halted, and so the “nitrogen crisis” was born.

Gertjan reflects that his permit was among those halted projects around that time. 

You could say the whole nitrogen crisis started, among other things, with my permit. In 2016, Vollenbroek and the MOB  grabbed 120 permits; mine happened to be among them. They took that case all the way to the European Court, which in 2019 delivered its verdict in their favor. I then received a note, both from the Council of State and the Province, which declared my permit legally untenable. And in the paper shredder it went.

We also lost our right to derogation this year [granted to Dutch farmers since 2006], which means we are no longer allowed to deviate from EU standards for the use of manure. That means that I am allowed to use 30% less fertilizer [in the form of cow manure] on my land, and would need to dispose of that, which logistically and cost-wise is very challenging. While feasible, my profit margin is going to be significantly reduced.

Gertjan is cautiously hopeful about the soon-to-be-formed new government. 

I hope that by voting for the BBB this time, we as a society take a step back and look at the issue more broadly. My message to the next government? Take a step back, and make sure science doesn’t become just a political or ideological tool. There are companies in Rotterdam for example, which have permits to emit only 10, 000 kilos of nitrogen, while they in fact emit 200, 000. We (farmers) are not treated the same way as others, it seems. Nowadays it seems as if it doesn’t matter whether something is correct or not.

Concerning his family farm’s future, Gertjan is however doubtful. 

I’m almost fifty now. Even if I were able to build that new stable, it would cost almost a million euros. I’m not going to work until I’m seventy to pay that off. I’ll just continue doing what I am doing now. A successor? I don’t have any children to take over from me, but I do have two sisters who have children, but they are about 10 years old. Would they be interested down the line? I have no idea.

In Oostgaag, Maasland, to The Hague’s south, we met Roel (32) and Femke (31) van Buuren, a young farmer couple and parents of two. They have been in (bio) dairy farming since 2015, when they bought Roel’s grandfather’s farm, on the grounds of which he, with his wife, lives to this day.

From a young age, Roel had his mind set on becoming a farmer. After getting himself his own farm, however, he found out about the string of regulations that go along with that.

There is always another crisis for us to contend with. We have had to deal with a phosphate [like nitrogen, also found in manure] crisis, as well as the nitrogen crisis. Then follow methane, CO2, (jokingly) nitrous oxide [laughing gas], and of course water quality. That is a lot for a farmer to keep track of. A farmer should not be pointed the finger for just one thing, while he’s doing a good job in all other areas. He needs assistance, to help him improve. He needs that support, as well as assurances. 

Roel and Femke know of one dairy farmer who, according to Femke, had the misfortune to be near a nature reserve and was heavily penalized as a result. 

That happened to him while everything else he did (in terms of complying with regulations), he did incredibly well. The large industrial companies are not judged in the same way. “This is the problem; they (civil servants) only look at what is there on paper.

“It is an excessive clinging to rules and wanting to force them on people,” Roel notes. 

A minister may try very hard to change things, but he has to deal with civil servants who have been there for 20 years, always doing the same thing. We actually try to get officials to come here, see what we do.

While starting in 2019, farmers were faced with much more uncertainty regarding the regulations, in the last regional elections, Roel and Femke did not vote for the BBB. 

It is untested, inexperienced,” he notes. “Not all parties are ‘against’ the farmers: the (more experienced) CDA and Christenunie have also done certain things for us. There are 16,000 dairy farmers, while there are over 16 million people in the Netherlands. There are so many more important issues our nation has to deal with.

His wife agrees. 

The BBB is very popular here, as you’ve observed yourself from the banners. While farming and everything revolving around it is the essence of our existence, and that of our children, there is more to consider than only that.

———

For an open debate on the way forward for Europe’s farmers, join MCC Brussels for a Monday, Nov. 27th meeting at the Press Club Brussels at 18:00. The meeting will feature a presentation of MCC Brussels’ new report “The Silent War on Farming,” the story of two of Europe’s many imperiled farmers, and more.

Register here for the event: https://feliratkozas.mcc.hu/hu/form/the-eu-s-war-on-farming-has-euro