Dutch Government Launches Canadian-Style Crackdown

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For the past several weeks, Dutch farmers in the Netherlands have been engaged in a nationwide protest against their government’s new arbitrary climate policies, which demonstrators say will impede their ability to sustain a living.

On Monday, dozens of farmers in trucks and tractors parked outside major supermarket distribution centers in cities throughout the country. The blockade comes on the heels of a convoy protest of approximately 40,000 farmers in “the central Netherlands’ agricultural heartland” last week, which clogged up local roadways and led to standstill traffic.

As Reuters reported, the demonstrations came in response to “targets introduced last month” by the Dutch government “to reduce harmful nitrogen compounds by 2030,” which authorities say “are necessary in emissions of nitrogen oxides from farm animal manure and from the use of ammonia in fertilizer.”

If successfully implemented, the state initiative to “go green” would almost certainly cripple the country’s private agricultural industry, as the regulations are “expected to include reducing livestock and buying up some farms whose animals produce large amounts of ammonia.”

“The honest message … is that not all farmers can continue their business,” the government admitted in a statement last month.

The agricultural sector is not the only industry to voice its displeasure with the government’s actions, however. In solidarity with their fellow countrymen, Dutch fishermen have also joined the farmers’ protests and have begun using their ships to block ports throughout the country.

“In Harlingen, they blocked the port with trawlers meaning ferries to the islands of Terschelling and Vlieland could not leave for hours,” Euro News reported.

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