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Gonzo Lira: The Netherlands Is On Fire

Farms are being shut down,there are riots, farmers and truckers are blocking highways including the border with Germany and have shut down 80% of the country.

You see, the farmers are somehow producing too much nitrogen using a secret formula that no one else in the world knows about. Obviously this vast amount of lethal non-existent excess nitrogen sort of hangs about in the Netherlands. It can’t get out of there because obviously there’s no wind or anything like that there and in any case the Netherlands are wrapped in a giant piece of invisible cling-film…

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It doesn’t help that everyone’s accepted this instant verbal error of ‘nitrogen pollution’. Nearly four-fifths of the air you’re breathing right now is elemental nitrogen gas. There will be no doing anything about that. Just as well, then, that it’s entirely harmless - except for divers return too rapidly from the heavy-pressure depths to the surface. N2 is an essential part of the natural cycles, in fact.

Otoh, there IS a real problem with nitrogen compounds, which are around in abundance because of the heavy spreading of inorganic artificial fertilisers through the farming methods of industagri. They create a lot of air, water and ground pollution damage, and need to be curbed. And indeed they will be, as regenerative ag and permaculture take over perforce from current orthodox practices, under the compulsions of the Long Descent.

But does anyone else get the sense that the whole ‘nitrogen’ pollution schtick in Holland has nothing to do with any spurious green-agenda claims, and is simply a smokescreen for something else going on; a land-grab by gangstercap, by the sounds of it?

This feels like one of those occasions, like the storming of the Bastille, which is motivated by a particular grouse - farmers being shut down in this case - but which provides the spark that falls into a barrel already full of gun-powder. Such proximate-cause discontents are widespread across the Anglozionist empire right now; and elsewhere, Sri Lanka, for example. I quite expect them to trigger off another ‘Year of Revolutions’ like 1848, as the (wilfully self-inflicted) collapsing condition of NAmerica and Europe really begins to fall on peoples’ heads this year and next. Winter go brrrrr!. Octobers are the times of uprising…

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I was talking to a Dutch friend the other night who’s saying it’s a land grab for building on. There’s also talk of Schwab’s mob wanting to build some sort of central insanity agency on land in the Netherlands.

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build some sort of central insanity agency on land in the Netherlands

Safely away from those rising sea levels. Good thinking.

Lol. Yeah, drowning rats spring to mind.

UK Column did an interesting piece about this and it had little to do with farming.

Apparently there is a well established plan to make the Netherlands and a part of Belgium into some sort of unified city state. It will all be under one “city” authority. The farmers know that most of the area is farmland and hence @Rich’s comment about land grab.

@Willem posted a link to this a few days ago.

For P, and anyone else inclined to give too much weight to scientific consensus just now - #28 by Willem?

My take is that this is one of those reframing exercises whereby, for example, the Medway valley and hinterland along the high speed rail link to St Pancreas International became the Thames Gateway. There is no power nexus to go with this, but I guess I should add “yet”. Hence my terse question in the other thread: five years later what has happened. (. . not a lot.)

Rezoning land yields higher values so driving out agriculture to build a vast Smart City would make economic sense. So I don’t discount the underlying agenda that UKC pointed to.

I nurture the hope that the current iteration of the Long Descent - the economic catastrophe that the West is self-inflicting right now - could well be one of those straws on the camel’s back that leads to all these megalomanic ideas like ‘smart’ cities (smart, to me, means well-dressed and turned out) becoming ideas which never materialised. Sorry: ran out of capital - and resources.

But if that doesn’t work out, and the damned things do get chucked up, pointlessly, well, they can always become ruins to be scavenged for re-useable materials, as the Chernobyl Re-wilding phase of the Long Descent gets going, some time in the medium-term future…

An idea - The Ruinmen - garnered from one of JMGreer’s futurist novels.

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I don’t know the agenda but here’s a glimpse of the axe, anyway.
Telegraph story via Dr Meryl Nass.
Keep reducing food production, makes sense. I trust my leaders.
ED

Netherlands to close up to 3,000 farms to comply with EU rules

The government of the world’s #2 food exporter moves forward to reduce food production. This is only the first step. The justification is weak.

Meryl Nass

17 min ago

I am reproducing the entire article since it is behind a paywall. I have bolded the most important parts. This is serious. The G20 came out in support of vaccine passports; the WHO will probably get to assume sovereignty over pandemics, and it may gain control of GOF research; and food production is being deliberately reduced.

Network, join groups fighting for national and personal sovereignty, and start meeting with your elected representatives to win them over on these issues.

[Netherlands] Government tries to cut down on nitrogen pollution in a move set to reignite tensions with farmers who say the industry is unfairly targeted

By James Crisp, Europe Editor 28 November 2022 • 4:02pm

The Dutch government plans to buy and close down up to 3,000 farms near environmentally sensitive areas [What does this mean?—Nass] to comply with EU nature preservation rules.

The Netherlands is attempting to cut down its nitrogen pollution and will push ahead with compulsory purchases if not enough farms take up the offer voluntarily.

Farmers will be offered a deal “well over” the worth of the farm, according to the government plan that is targeting the closure of 2,000 to 3,000 farms or other major polluting businesses.

Earlier leaked versions of the plan put the figure at 120 per cent of the farm’s value but that figure has not yet been confirmed by ministers.

“There is no better offer coming,” Christianne van der Wal, nitrogen minister, told MPs on Friday. She said compulsory purchases would be made with “pain in the heart”, if necessary.

Biodiversity under threat

The Netherlands needs to reduce its emissions to comply with EU conservation rules and agriculture is responsible for almost half the nitrogen emitted in the proud farming nation.

The Dutch environment agency has warned that native species are disappearing faster in the Netherlands than in the rest of Europe and that biodiversity is under threat. [If the problem is simply nitrogen getting into waterways and encouraging the growth of certain species while killing fish, why not solve the problem with regulations like taxing such pollution? We need nitrogen for fertilizers; I am sure that animal excreta could be turned into fertilizer if the right incentives were in place. Do the EU rules make sense?—Nass]

But the new plan looks set to reignite tensions with farmers over nitrogen reduction.

Dutch farmers have staged mass protests, burnt hay bales, dumped manure on highways and picketed ministers’ houses over the last three years.

In 2019 a ruling by the Dutch Council of State meant every new activity that emits nitrogen, including farming and building, needs a permit.

That has prevented the expansion of dairy, pig and poultry farms, which are major sources of nitrogen from ammonia in manure mixed with urine. This can be harmful for nature when it washes into rivers and the sea.

Last month, an army of thousands of tractors took to the roads in protest and caused the worst rush hour in Dutch history with 700 miles of jams at its peak.

Farmers fear that the plan to slash emissions by 2030 will cost them their livelihoods, oppose any compulsory purchases and argue farming is unfairly targeted while other sectors such as aviation are not.

‘Restrictions without perspective’

Farmers’ lobby group LTO Nederland said trust in the government “has been very low for a long time”. It accused the Government of drafting “restrictions without perspective”.

Sjaak van der Tak, chairman of LTO, said: “Of course it is positive that a good voluntary stop scheme is being promised. But the stayers who are central to us will have many additional restrictions imposed.”

Agractie, another farmers’ organisation, said the voluntary closure scheme was welcome but must not be applied with the threat of compulsory purchase.

Ministers will decide if enough farms have come forward voluntarily to close in the autumn. They say the plan will help biodiversity recover, building could resume and farms without proper nitrogen permits could be legalised.

They are also looking at eventually taxing nitrogen emissions to encourage more sustainable practices, the Dutch News website reported.

The Dutch cabinet also wants to draw up a long term plan for the future of agriculture with farmers, environmental groups and local government. [Why are they taking this drastic step WITHOUT a long term plan? —Nass]

The voluntary buyout scheme was “the only way [??? —Nass] to finally create opportunities for the construction of homes, the construction of new infrastructure and for projects to make the Netherlands more sustainable in the shortest possible time,” said Ingrid Thijssen, chairman of VNO-NCW, an employers’ federation in the Netherlands.

Last month, the Netherlands Assessment Agency said other buyout schemes over the last 25 years had failed to substantially cut the number of cattle.

Of course The Torygraph misses the point and redirects focus rarther than highlighting the real story.

This has nothing or at best very little to do with “biodiversity” or nitrogen pollution. It has everything to do with the mega city plans and of course planned food shortages.

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Thanks PatB, I’d not noticed the Telegraphs businesslike reporting of the matter, which is quite striking itself. The plucked twenty percent above value should take care of their concerns, if only the honest minsters would confirm the reasonable bargain the farmers are getting.

he who feeds you, controls you

― Thomas Sankara

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Nitrogen is the new carbon! Oh no, what are we going to do about the atmosphere? 70% nitrogen? That can’t be right! Something [expensive] must be done!

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They’re doing much the same thing in Ireland at the moment, and many other EU countries, also in the UK; ie, shutting down agriculture.

Meanwhile in France the government is talking about power cuts this winter from 8am to 1pm, and from 6pm to 8pm. That 8am to 1pm slot will certainly kill-off a lot of people; that is, if they haven’t already starved to death.

I suppose the 64,000 dollar question that hangs over all this, is that in the 21st century, in one of the richest regions of the world, will people go along with such a criminal/psychopathic agenda?

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Likewise it’s hard to tell what the hell is going on in China. The recent draconian lockdowns and civil unrest does seem to be happening. These lockdowns always seem to happen in major ports, such as Guangzhou and Shanghai, thus halting a large part of the world’s supply chain.

On top of the ‘energy crisis’ and ‘cost of living crisis’ one can only wonder…

Oddly enough, whilst I wouldn’t endorse the Nederland government’s approach to these things, I think that it is true that we-all shall be eating a lot less meat in future.

I guess I needn’t rehearse again the energy equations too deeply: the way it costs orders of magnitude more energy to produce a pound of meat than a pound of equally-nutritive vegetable food. And as cheap, easy-get energy goes away forever…

And whilst nitrogen is obviously here to stay - in the air - the real beef (no pun!) is with nitrates - artificially created in energy-guzzling processes - which are the real problem: essential to soil and plant health, but applied in huge overloads, in highly water-soluble forms, they rain-off, and screw up waterways and water-creature life royally; not to mention the vital life of the soil community of creatures.

Just as well that we will be forced back to the natural nitrate transactions of healthy wild ecosystems; and meat will become what it’s best as: a tasty condiment to food which is mainly based on - good old! - vegetable starch.

Ridiculously, vegetable starch is currently undergoing one of those silly ‘science-based’ (not!) fads claiming it’s bad for you. Yeah, a bit like cholesterol was supposed to be, until recently. These fads - usually commercial profit-seeking at bottom - come and go…

Ignore them, and concentrate instead on several (satisfyingly-starchy) veg, such as potatoes or pasta, with delicious sauces made - as traditionally - with a small input of meat… Wonderfully satisfying - and healthy - peasant cuisine!

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The counter argument to “all eating less meat”, is this. All the really successful ‘no till’ farmers, use grazing animals as an integral part of their production process. Those animals are not part of the intensive input of feed stuffs, even though they obviously eat. It’s just that their feed is an integral part of the crop production.

There are many with real world experience of no till and organic farming that assert this style of food production could readily support the current global population.

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Oh exactly so, Pat. I’d say that ALL the best regenerative/organic/permaculture outfits include free-ranging, mainly self-feeding (and automatically fertiliser-spreading) livestock: happy, healthy, and absolutely necessary for any system that’s anywhere near a natural wild ecosystem - which these methods seek to mimic.

All I really assert it that meat won’t be produced artificially, in sickly, unhealthy deluges, demanding floods of expensive feed, splurging energy waste, swilling drugs, and savagely-abused beasts, the way it is now - for the Pampered Twenty Percent, at least.

We will be having less of it; of much better, healthful quality, and treated as the fairly scarce and precious thing that it is. And with the animals treated always as our beloved kindred, as they should be.

“So how can you bear to kill and eat them?” say the voices at the back of my mind. To which I reply: “Dunno! I’ve been struggling with that contradiction most of my life, and I still can’t crack it - not satisfactorily. Goddamit!”

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PS: Not much doubt by now that the best practitioners of regen/org/perma ag. are able to match the output of the industagri practitioners, and without any of the disastrous pollution, poisoning and unsustainable energy/materials demand of industagri. And without the cruelty. And that would be true, even if the world’s human population were to stay at its current overshoot level, which of course it can’t. Overshoots always correct themselves; ours seems to be well on schedule for doing likewise…

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Dr Meryl Nass is getting bored with her hearing and is studying small countries’ agriculture battles instead. :slightly_smiling_face:
The Dutch govt has just got the two finger salute from the voters.
Ungrateful savages :smiley:
ED

Great News: Dutch farmers’ party secures landslide victory!

Largest voter turnout in 30 years, and with 18 parties in Parliament, the Farmers party (BBB) got 30% of the vote, by far the highest–and Holland’s current leaders will soon be out on their ear.

The BBB’s huge election win is a direct challenge to Mark Rutte’s coalition

We are unlikely to win like this unless the ballot box is secure—Meryl

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