2022 Dutch farmer protest

 2022 Dutch farmer protest (protest,  civil unrest,  shooting,  riot)

Date	2022
Location	Netherlands
Perpetrators	Farmers
Description	During summer of 2022, tens of thousands of farmers gathered from all across the Netherlands to protest government policies which will reduce the number of livestock -and farmers - by up to a third, as part of The Great Reset.

During the summer of 2022, tens of thousands of farmers gathered from all across the Netherlands to protest government policies which will reduce the number of livestock -and farmers - in the country by up to a third, a solution to new CO₂-emission regulations announced in 2019. The drastic plans announced in the summer of 2022 by Mark Rutte's new government coalition, nationwide protests and the increased violence between protestors and the police caused the protests to get renewed nationwide and international attention.

Official narrative

Farmers in the Netherlands are growing more food using less resources - Pioneers for Our Planet - World Economic Forum, November 2019.

Wikipedia wrote; “The nitrogen crisis is a crisis in the Netherlands that arose in May 2019 when the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Dutch Council of State declared the government's Programma Aanpak Stikstof (PAS) invalid. As a result, the PAS could no longer be used to grant nitrogen permits near Natura 2000 areas. This ruling immediately brought all kinds of projects (especially in the housing sector) to a standstill and forced the government to urgently look for solutions.” Interestingly, around this time, the World Economic forum ran pieces on Dutch Big Agriculture. Since 2019, farmers started protesting. First regionally, later nationwide.

Concerns

International corporate media has not reported a lot about the protests (and other European ones as well), possibly as all shootings have not resulted in any casualties yet, and most farmers have been protesting peacefully. Most controversial statements have been about flags again, with a few Dutch farmers hanging the Dutch flag upside down and a handful carrying the US Confederate flag. Tucker Carlson of FOX News reported on the protests July of 2022 with former Forum For Democracy employee Eva Vlaardingerbroek. Vlaardingerbroek called the protest a response to the governments plan to remove farmers from their land and build housing for immigrants.

In one story in Algemeen Dagblad covering blocking of highways by "hundreds of angry farmers", the angle chosen was: "a surgeon at St. Antonius Hospital who watched the farmers' protest from a viaduct, was furious. According to him, colleagues could not pass the procession. 'People are dying because of this.'" No proof of this was provided.

Background

Netherlands is Europe's biggest meat exporter, with the highest density of livestock in Europe – more than four times that of the UK or France – with more than 100 million cattle, chickens and pigs in total. The government policy being protested is a 25 billion Euro investment in “reducing levels of nitrogen and ammonia pollution” generated by livestock by 50% come 2030, by paying some Dutch livestock farmers to "voluntarily" relocate or exit the industry. The government is also looking at mandatory purchases of farms that would lead to closures.

In real terms, this ultimately means reducing the number of pigs, chickens and cows by about thirty per cent, and also force 30% of the country’s farms out of business, according to a Dutch farmers’ union. This deliberate shrinking of the farming sector will impact the livelihood of thousands of farmers, and the food supply of hundreds of millions of people.

Minister Henk Staghouwer of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality wants to subject the smaller Dutch fishing boats to new nitrogen regulations. They may not receive a fishing license from 2023 if they cannot prove that their nitrogen emissions would not cause any damage. Many fishing companies are now on the brink of collapse.

Why are farmers in the Netherlands angry? - Inside Story - Al Jazeera, July 4, 2022.

Deep state intervention?

In 2019, a group of 900 activists won a case against the Dutch government in appeal forcing the government to reduce their CO₂ emissions. An interesting note, is that the case was presided over by one of the same judges -Marie-Anne Tan-De Sonnaville- who decided in favor of the government in the first COVID-19 lawsuit. COVID-19 dissident Willem Engel won that case arguing the government misused the Dutch constitution to enforce a COVID-19 lockdown.

The Great Reset

The Netherlands is host of the Global Co-ordination Secretariat (“GCS”) for the worldwide network of Food Innovation Hubs. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on 26 January "It was great to have support for the initiative by Foodvalley members Mengniu Dairy, DSM and Unilever this week at the online WEF Davos panel session on the transformation of food systems".

Eric Wiebes, Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, signed a letter of intent with the WEF 8 December 2020. Amongst other things, the letter of intent states: “The Dutch innovation and agricultural policy are very much in line with the topics that are considered crucial by WEF for Food System Transformation … missions have been defined in line with the SDG addressing topics like of sustainability circular agriculture, safe, healthy and affordable food for all climate neutrality as well as consumer behaviour. There is special attention to development and implementation of key enabling technologies e.g., Digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, biotechnology and micro and nanotechnology in the Agri-Food sector.”

Protests

Farmers driving down a motorway in 2022.

On 4 July, farmers began blocking roads with parked vehicles to shut down logistical chains for food distribution, including denying access to supermarkets. By 5 July, police were deployed in more and more places to end protests. A blockade of some distribution centers of supermarkets was lifted when the riot police arrived on the scene. The farmers eventually left of their own accord. Police started fining people, mostly for driving tractors on the highway.

Shooting

On the 5th of July, Police in the northern town of Heerenveen attempted to mortally shoot a 16-year-old who was driving past them in his tractor. The police officer called in sick the next day, with the commanding officers arranging a meeting between the family and the police command. The police deemed the shooting a “moment of wrong judgement”. The Dutch public prosecutor announced a case against the officer shortly after.

Response

Turning Point Rally, Tampa, Florida - Donald Trump, July 23, 2022.

Riots during protests and blockages of airports, supermarkets, sit-ins in gardens of the homes of politicians and a controversial shooting caused a 50/50% split in national support for the farmers, with even Donald Trump calling for support.

After farmers announced plans to block Schiphol Airport during the busiest days of the year, the Dutch Army was mobilized.

Support

German farmers joined the Dutch protestors in blocking the road on their shared border, joined by Canadians as well in protesting. The protests became part of bigger continental farmer movements, that was barely mentioned in commercially-controlled media.

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