Dutch farmers block highways to protest new environmental mandates

Farmers in the Netherlands are protesting across the country after the government unveiled new environmental regulations that will put many farmers out of business. 

“The honest message...is that not all farmers can continue their business,” said the government according to ABC, and those who do will need to rethink how. 

The regulations, which include cutting the highway speed limit from 130 km/hr to 100 km/hr during the day, are part of a goal to scale back 50% of pollutant emissions by 2030. Two of these pollutants – ammonia and nitrogen oxide – are found in livestock urine and feces. According to government estimates, placing caps on ammonia and nitrogen oxide emissions will shutter about 30% of the country’s farms. 

Roughly 40,000 farmers took to the streets early this week to protest the government’s decision, setting bales of hay ablaze and spreading manure along highways. Many have also blocked distribution centers for supermarkets and circulating video footage shows scuffles between the farmers and undercover police at The Hague. 

But the Dutch government isn’t the first to become more “environmentally friendly” at the expense of livelihoods. 

Other governments like Strathcona County in Alberta, Canada will begin rationing rural residents’ own livestock, as reported by America’s Frontline News. With the new Responsible Livestock Ownership Bylaw, Strathcona County will regulate how much livestock farmers can keep and on what land. 

“The proposed bylaw outlines the type and amount of livestock that will be permitted on rural properties based on property size and land use zoning,” says the county’s website. “This will help address resident needs while protecting animal and public health and safety, the environment, and the economy.” 

The approach used by the Netherlands and Strathcona County is in line with the World Economic Forum’s (WEF), which counts climate change as the biggest existential threat to society at large. The globalist organization has also recommended that the public eat insects to fight climate change, hopes to phase out most meat-eating and wants people to be charged for their carbon emissions by 2030. 

As another part of its plan for a socialist utopia by 2030, the WEF envisions “land, air, water, landscape, natural resources” as being “not state property and they are not private property.”