© Vincent Jannink /ANP/AFP / Getty ImagesFarmers gather with their vehicles next to a Germany/Netherlands border sign during a protest on the A1 highway, near Rijssen, against the Dutch Government's nitrogen plans on June 29, 2022
Dutch farmers - who sit as the second-largest agricultural exporter in the world and largest meat exporter in Europe - have brought the Netherlands to a standstill, protesting against Climate Change regulations.
The newly elected government has set up a 55-60 per cent emissions goal by 2030, 70 per cent by 2035, and 80 per cent at 2040. To meet these arbitrary climate targets, they have created a self-inflicted disaster that will see the government drag its agricultural sector up the temple stairs, tear it to bits, and let whatever bloody stumps are left to tumble down the steps for the pleasure of the United Nations climate gods.
Farms which have been feeding the world for hundreds of years are going to be unceremoniously shut and their owners ruined because a couple of bureaucrats decided they didn't like the nitrogen and ammonia emissions produced by growing food. Their assumption is based on the idea that every country has to present equal emissions to prove they are 'saving the planet'. It only takes a few moments to realise that the underlying premise is false. A net food producer must have higher nitrogen and ammonia outputs than a nation that doesn't grow anything. While the Netherlands makes more nitrogen, it'll create significantly less of something else.
Nations are not equal, and neither are their emissions. The Netherlands and Australia are both criticised by the United Nations for 'higher than average emissions per capita' when the calculation (if you are going to do it) should be based on how many people are being fed. Attempting to homogenise environmental targets will achieve only one thing: global starvation.
Despite what politicians have been telling us for years, cutting emissions by 55-60 per cent means closing private farms and drastically cutting food supplies. In the Netherlands, the decision is tied to both the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (which Australia supports) and the EU's Natura 2000 conservation plan which effectively targets and destroys private property rights for farms that live near freshly designated 'protected' areas - areas that never seem to be anywhere near the cities or towns inhabited by EU bureaucrats. Curiously, although they are desperately worried about native birds, the government is calling for a rapid expansion in bird-mincing wind turbines.
Also on the chopping board is one-third of all livestock, which the Dutch government has earmarked for slaughter. To compensate for the shortfall of protein, the government has ridiculously and unrealistically floated the thought bubble that the missing third of the meat market could be replaced with synthetic meat. And no, despite the government suggesting that farms that have been raising cattle could suddenly transition themselves into a chemical lab, this meat production will be gifted to the billion-dollar chemical companies who can't wait to cash in on the dismantling of the fresh food market.
As written in Fairr:
'The private sector in the Netherlands has been at the forefront of alternative proteins. The first-ever cultivated meat burger was created by Dutch Professor, Mark Post, in 2013. The country has since gone on to create several leading alternative protein companies, including cultivated meat company Mosa Meat (founded by Mark Post and in receipt of investments from Bell Food Group and Merck) and plant-based meat company Vivera (acquired by JBS in 2021 for €341 million).'It will surprise no one to discover that JBS is a World Economic Forum partner with revenues of over $50 billion.
You will own nothing, and you will be happy.
What chance do inter-generational farmers stand against corporate giants? All they can do is burn hay bales in the street and empty supermarket shelves, making their point that without them - no one eats. Instead of complaining about the inconvenience, tens of thousands of citizens are standing with their neighbours in support. Unions have joined the protest, with freight truckers and dock workers helping to paralyse every corner of the Netherlands in a well-deserved wake-up call.
The press have attempted to demonise farmers for defying the EU's virtuous green push - but the Dutch people aren't listening, with support for farmers still over 75 per cent.
'[This] will have an enormous impact on farmers. This sector will change, but unfortunately there's no choice, we have to bring down nitrogen emissions,' said Prime Minister Mark Rutte, forgetting that as Prime Minister he absolutely does have a choice.
Seeing the nation clogged with 40,000 farmers wielding tractors and heavy equipment, the Prime Minister added:
'Freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate are a vital part of our democratic society, and I will always defend them. But ... it is not acceptable to create dangerous situations, it is not acceptable to intimidate officials, we will never accept that.'It's the old Canadian line from last year. 'We respect your right to protest - unless we don't like what you're protesting about...'
'The honest message ... is that not all farmers can continue their business.'There's a name for the State deciding to pick and choose winners in the private market - Climate Fascism.
The European Union is playing the same game with Australia at a time when we no longer have a leader with enough intelligence or backbone to say 'no' to their outrageous list of demands.
Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU trade commissioner, is hopeful that Australia is going to finally submit to a trade deal - one that will involve exposing Australia to sanctions tied to Net Zero emissions targets.
In what world is 'we'll only trade with you if you let us meddle in your nation' acceptable? Would Germany, France, or any other EU nation allow Australia to boss them around on energy? Or course not, and Australia should get up off its knees and tell them to take a hike.
Dombrovskis acts as if the EU is terrified of superior Australian produce entering the market, describing it as a 'sensitive question'.
Who would have thought that with empty shelves and food shortages that EU representatives would be so reluctant to allow high-quality meat and produce into Europe from a nation that stood shoulder to shoulder with them in the mud during two world wars.
'One needs to approach this question with a sense of realism,' Dombrovskis added, without the slightest clue what 'realism' looks like from deep within his nest of EU regulation. His attempt to tie the submarine debacle into a food negotiation is equally childish. It's the sort of trade negotiation where the EU seeks to fold Australia under absolute, totalitarian control like it treats its member states.
Instead of walking away and offering our produce to larger, more profitable, and less restrictive markets like a sensible country, Prime Minister Albanese - in his desperate bid to 'fit in' with European leaders - will bow right down low, fumble with their robes, and gladly offer up Australian sovereignty just so that he can say that he 'made a trade deal with the EU'.
The press will never question him on whether it is a good idea.
Tying emissions targets to food production and the export market is exactly what commentators have been trying to warn Australians about for years. Telling a food producer that their produce won't be accepted unless they dismantle their energy sector and enforce expensive green tape on farmers is anti-competitive behaviour. Plain and simple.
The EU doesn't care about Australia's emissions, they want to make sure our cheap and superior produce becomes too expensive for us to make - forcing us out of the European market forever. Then those same EU leaders can insist that they took measures to 'protect the domestic market from foreign imports' with their paws clean.
Is Albanese smart enough to see that he is being manipulated for a foreign market? Does he care? Signing a trade deal with the EU under these conditions doesn't help Australia, it destroys agriculture for the entire Australian export market, making our product more expensive for all customers.
On top of an energy crisis, if Albanese submits to the EU's trade demands, he'll cause a food crisis too - one he'll probably blame on 'Climate Change'.
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