The Northern Times
  • News
  • Lifestyle
  • Culture
  • People
  • What’s happening
  • Economy
  • Opportunities
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Lifestyle
  • Culture
  • People
  • What’s happening
  • Economy
  • Opportunities
No Result
View All Result
The Northern Times
No Result
View All Result

Farmers organisations: “roll back protests a little bit”

July 8, 2020
in Uncategorized
Home Uncategorized

Organisations like the LTO and the Dutch dairy-producers association met to discuss the ongoing ‘tractor protests’ on Tuesday evening

Translated by Thomas Ansell

In recent days, Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe have brought in ‘demonstration bans’ to stop angry farmers from using their heavy machinery in protests. According to the head of the Dutch dairy-producers association (Nederlandse melkveehouders vakbond), Harm Wiegersma, it became clear during the meeting that farmers should ‘take their foot off the gas’ when thinking about protests. As reported by the Omrop Fryslân.

Farmers are generally displeased with the Dutch government’s plans to reduce nitrogen emissions in their industry; with the most recent disagreement over Minister for Agriculture Carola Schouten’s plans to reduce the amount of modified protein in cattle feed. According to the protesting farmers, that would have a negative effect on the animals they keep captive and exploit for food. The farmers are also unhappy with supermarket chains, who, they say, pay too little for agricultural products.

The high level of emotion is reflected in Wiegersma’s comments. “We aren’t yet defeated. We sat with eachother yesterday to see what we can still do. I can’t say much about that, but it is better that we reduce the severity of our protests a bit, although I understand the frustrations of other farmers. We feel completely stitched up, if I can say that. Since the end of May we’ve been busy planning and seeing how we can carry out those plans. We have been to court seven times, and still haven’t had a single ruling go our way”, he said.

Wiegersma even admitted that lots of farmers will no longer listen to organisations telling them not to protest: “those farmers can no longer be controlled, and we can’t keep a handle on them. Once you’ve delivered plan after plan, which are all well thought out, I think… what kind of country do we live in?”

Aside from the dramatic rhetoric and noisy protesting, the Dutch agricultural sector is one of the most successful in the world. In 2014 the agricultural sector employed 660,000 people– however only 50,000 of those are farmers. Aside from the Dutch predilection for meat and dairy, the country is also an enormous vegetable producer, with over 10,000 hectares of greenhouses in 2010.

Image via Wikimedia user Petritap. License here. 

Tags: agricultural industrydairyfarmersmeatprotest

Related Posts

The Northern football clubs’ monthly round-up: August
Sports

The Northern football clubs’ monthly round-up: August

August 28, 2023
FC Groningen: A Fallen Giant Lifted by Its Supporters
Sports

FC Groningen: A Fallen Giant Lifted by Its Supporters

August 16, 2023
Dutch women’s football team roars into the World Cup
Sports

Dutch women’s football team roars into the World Cup

July 19, 2023

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Popular News

  • Father and six children from Ruinerwold lived in basement for years waiting for the end of time

    Father and six children from Ruinerwold lived in basement for years waiting for the end of time

    2874 shares
    Share 1149 Tweet 718
  • Scottish company working on ferry service between Edinburgh and Eemshaven

    1827 shares
    Share 731 Tweet 457
  • German students score rap hit with “Bonnetje Mee”

    1731 shares
    Share 692 Tweet 433
  • Two COVID-19 Coronavirus cases confirmed in Province of Groningen

    1492 shares
    Share 597 Tweet 373
  • Olympic champion Epke Zonderland now a doctor

    1375 shares
    Share 550 Tweet 344
The Northerntimes is powered by: TopDutch

No Result
View All Result
  • Arts
  • Contributors
  • Covid-19 News
  • Covid Chronicles
  • authority
  • personal
  • photo reportage
  • professional
  • Crime
  • Culture
  • Drenthe
  • Dutch history
  • Econ 050
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Eurosonic Noorderslag
  • Friesland
  • Groningen
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Make it in the North
  • National
  • News
  • Nightlife
  • Opinion
  • Opportunities
  • Education
  • People
  • Expats
  • International students
  • Politics
  • Shopping
  • Sports
  • submitted articles
  • Top Dutch Business
  • Travel
  • Typical Dutch
  • Ukraine
  • Uncategorized
  • What’s happening
  • World

Welcome Back!

OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Submit a article

Send in an article to be published on The Northern Times.

Send a news tip

Got a story idea or want us to be aware of anything?