By Jefferey Jaxen

As a result of questions from MPs Pieter Omtzigt and Caroline van der Plas, the Dutch Ministry of Finance was forced to published internal documents on Wednesday afternoon. The widely circulated Dutch media outlet NRC Media has reported:

“The current nitrogen strategy of the cabinet will mean, according to the calculations of the Ministry of Finance, that 11,200 farmer businesses must be stopped and another 17,600 farmers will have to significantly reduce their livestock, by a third to almost half. The calculations were published on Wednesday afternoon to show how hard the agricultural sector (a total of 40,000 to 50,000 farmers with cattle) is affected by the nitrogen fertilization plans of the cabinet.“

The department emphasizes that these are still ‘unvalidated calculations’, which are only ‘indicative’. writes Dutch daily business and finance news outlet Het Financieele Dagblad. “All in all, this means that 28,600 farmers will be affected by the government’s nitrogen plan, half of all farmers in the Netherlands” they report.

It should be noted that, according to reporting on the matter, The Ministry of Finance does not agree with the strategy and has repeatedly tried in the past months to bring the cabinet up to other thoughts by bringing the cost of the policy implementation into account. In the published documents, the Ministry of Finance states that the course “from LNV [Neatherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality] probably does not fit within the budget”.

The active, country-wide protest is entering its third week as government officials within the Netherlands aren’t showing signs of cave at this juncture. Meanwhile, Canadian farmer protests kicked off over the weekend in Ottawa, Alberta, Edmonton and other areas as the country is now beginning its own, similar rebellion against the Trudeau regime’s recent announcement of 30 per cent fertilizer emissions reduction.

The plan is part of the Canadian government’s strategy for fighting climate change and getting Canada to Net Zero by 2030.  

A report deconstructing the Canadian government’s plan by Fertilizer Canada states “In 2020, Western Canadian farmers planted approximately 20.8 million acres of canola. Using these values of a 30% absolute emission reduction, cumulatively farm revenues from canola could be reduced by $396M – $441M on an annual basis. Wheat famers could experience a reduction of $400M. Individually, that translates to a farmer with 1000 acres of canola and 1000 acres of wheat, stands to have their profit reduced by approximately $38,000 – $40,500/ annually.”