Thousands of tractor-driving farmers demonstrated in central Netherlands on Wednesday, causing widespread traffic chaos as they protested the government’s far-reaching plans to cut nitrogen emissions.
In one of their biggest demonstrations, farmers demanded the scrapping of the Hague government’s recently announced plans that would see a 30 percent reduction in livestock.
The Netherlands, the world’s second largest agricultural exporter, is one of Europe’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases – particularly nitrogen – much of which is attributed to manure and fertilizer produced by cattle.
But farmers say they are being unfairly targeted, unlike big business and industry, and many vowed to oppose plans to downsize or close farms.
Traffic ground to a halt for miles around the town of Stroe, east of Amsterdam, as farmers and their tractors traveled from across the country to protest.
At least three people, including a child, were later injured in a crash between a tractor and a truck on a motorway when many farmers were heading home, Dutch police said.
– “Survival at stake” –
“I see my future falling apart… Not in ten years, but sooner,” Elsemieke van der Ham, 25, told AFP.
“I don’t think they fully understand that in The Hague. You get up at quarter past four, seven days a week for your cows. We don’t just drive around with one tractor,” added Van der Ham. Hundreds of tractors gathered in a field, many with horns and safety lights flashing.
The demonstrators carried signs reading “Farmers’ future will be destroyed” and “Our children are afraid”.
“Our survival is now at stake. That’s why we have to make our voices heard today,” said Jürgen Kuijsten, 44, a pig farmer.
Despite the number of people involved and the anger expressed, the demonstration remained peaceful as an official program of speeches began.
But police intervened when several farmers drove past a police roadblock onto the wrong side of the highway, public broadcaster NOS said.
Ambulance services distributed water to farmers and drivers trapped in traffic as temperatures rose.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said earlier this month that the government’s plan to cut nitrogen emissions “will have a huge impact on farmers”.
“This sector will change, but unfortunately there is no other choice, we have to reduce nitrogen emissions,” he said.
The Dutch government plans to reduce the greenhouse gas nitrogen by up to 70 percent in 131 key areas – many of them near nature reserves – to meet climate targets by 2030.
For farmers, that means a 40 percent drop in emissions, which would reportedly require about 30 percent fewer livestock.
The country’s 12 provinces have now been tasked with coming up with proposals to reduce emissions from livestock, construction and transport by next year.
The government has also allocated 24.3 billion euros ($25.5 billion) to help solve the problem, including financial support for farmers.
The government’s announcement follows a 2019 ruling by the country’s highest administrative court that the Netherlands had not done enough to protect its natural areas.
Thousands of environmental protesters demonstrated in the port city of Rotterdam on Sunday to welcome measures to meet the climate targets set in Paris in 2015.
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