Does it seem like everything is tearing apart at the seams right now? It sure does look like it to me! Clearly the world has been through some turbulent times in the past. Heck, we've had 2 World Wars in the last 110 years. But it feels like we are headed straight to more insanity if we don’t start acting smarter.
One of my favorite places in the world is The Netherlands. I have family over there. I speak a very small amount of Dutch. I am a passionate fan of Dutch sports (I'm pretty much obsessed with Formula 1 racing since Max Verstappen joined the grid). And I've spent more time in The Netherlands than pretty much any other country in the world other than my own.
And it is going insane. And not fun, we’re all going to travel to Austria to overtake a race and paint it orange kind of insane.
If you are unaware of where the Netherlands is located, here is a handy map of Europe. You can locate the Netherlands as it is the ONLY country in Europe that I am not allowed to visit (it’s the pink one).
You see they still have the strictest rules in all of Europe with regards to Covid travel. And you may say, just get "vaccinated" and you can go there. It's not quite that simple. I was vaccinated (we've all made mistakes) with the vaccine made BY THE DUTCH (Jansen a.k.a. Johnson & Johnson), but it's been more than 270 days since I got the Fauci Ouchie... and you are only considered "fully vaccinated" in the Netherlands if you have received a shot within the last 270 days. And since I'm not terribly into getting another shot of an ineffective vaccine (at best).
But I'm not going to discuss The Netherland's wacky and irrational covid travel policies today. Rather, I'd like to discuss their wacky and irrational environmental policies and the protests that have broken out in response to these policies. Protests that have gotten very little in the way of press coverage in the United States mainstream media.
On June 10 the Dutch Minister for Nitrogen and Nature Policy presented a plan to reduce the nitrogen greenhouse gas emissions in The Netherlands. The plan directed dutch provinces to create rules that would effectuate reductions in nitrogen for areas between 12% and 70%... by 2030. Regardless of the merits of reducing nitrogen emissions this is very clearly an overly ambitious goal that Dutch farmers are going to be hard pressed to meet. And the Dutch Government KNOWS this.
"There isn’t a future for all farmers within the area-oriented approach.”
The government's plan appears to force farmers to somehow comply with these new regulations. If they do not feel like they can, the government has set aside 7.5 Billion Euros for a farm buy-out scheme. In a country with 20,000 farms this amounts to roughly 375,000 euros allocated by farm. It's hard to believe that the market value of all of the real-estate the government intends to buy is not many multiples of this value. But don't worry, if you do not comply with the regulations and don't intend on selling your farm to the government... the aforementioned Minister of Nitrogen and Nature Policy has stated "expropriation of farms remains an option."
So the farmers in the Netherlands are none too pleased with this plan which they see as being unreasonable and potentially a way for the government to unduly take their land and livelihood. And so they have taken to the streets.
And this is a predictable reaction of people who feel their government is acting against their interests. They first started by protesting in The Hague, but they now are protesting across the country.
And it appears to be working.
The Farmer's Citizen Movement (BBB) which has called the proposals "unacceptable" and “inhumane, without perspective, not legally substantiated, not proportional across the sectors" is gaining in popularity over the course of this year (+12) at roughly the same rate the Prime Minister, Mark Rutte's party (VVD) is losing support (-11). What other party is gaining support? JA21 which states the plan is “total madness… destruction of our most important food supply, agricultural clear-cutting, and {commented} our beautiful farmland is disappearing.” is +7 compared to last year.
These policies are being put in place in pursuit of the E in ESG. It appears to be less an earnest attempt to solve "the climate crisis" and more an attempt to consolidate power and property by the ruling elite class. The hypocrisy is just too overwhelming. The elites that would destroy your farms for "the good of the environment" fly around in private jets. When it didn't affect the masses, they ignored... Now that it is coming for them, they cannot ignore it any longer.
And for some reason, as these government interventions become more unpopular and the consequences of them become more dire, the elites seem to be pressing the gas pedal harder. They are warning of impending famines as the war in the "breadbasket of the world" rages on, yet they choose this precise time to attack farming in the second largest agricultural exporter in the world (US is numero uno).
Amusingly the government appears to be trying to soften their message on this. They've stated that the maps that were published did not take into account future nitrogen reductions that could be achieved elsewhere, hence the restrictions may not be as onerous. If only more people drive electric cars and they close more coal-fired power plants then the restrictions won't be as bad… They say this as their neighbor has had to fire up 3 coal fired plants because of restricting oil imports from Russia. Unless it gets a whole lot windier in The Netherlands, closing power plants (regardless of how they generate electricity) is going to be VERY unpopular. Hard to enjoy the nature you saved when you are suffering from hypothermia.
If you would like to read more about this, this is a good breakdown of the law and what is happening from USDA.
This does not end well. Just look to another country of roughly the same size and population.
In the name of the environment Sri Lanka decided to outlaw chemical fertilizers in April of 2021 as part of a plan to transition the nation to organic agriculture over a 10 year span. The result, 85% of Sri Lanka's 2 million farmers have experienced crop losses since the ban. The cost of rice has increased 50% in 6 months after the ban. Vegetables have increased in price as much as 500%. And half of a million people have fallen into poverty in just the last year (in a country of 22 million).
And it all started so innocently enough:
If you want to read that article, well… you can’t get to it directly from the World Economic Forum website… they’ve attempted to memory hole the article and have deleted it from their site.
But, the internet is forever (well, not forever, but we can go back and look at things using a handy site called “the wayback machine”)
When people are poor and hungry bad things happen. This is utterly predictable. Things went rapidly downhill in Sri Lanka in pursuit of a "Green New Deal." It would be foolish to believe that similar policies in the western world will not lead to similar results. The western world is being led by some deeply unserious people. Turbulent times, here we come.