Dairy farmer Tijmen Nagel feels chased away by the nitrogen plans that the cabinet put on the table last Friday. At his company in Beilen, close to the Brunstingerveld nature reserve and the Dwingelderveld Natura 2000 area, the flag is half-mast and upside down. A sign of distress and resistance. Opposition to the nitrogen plans.
The farmer, originally from Bunschoten-Spakenburg, was bought out there in 2010 because his land was to be used for the new Vathorst district to be built near Amersfoort. Nagel hoped to continue his future as a farmer in Beilen, but with the nitrogen targets to be achieved, he is seriously concerned about the future of his company and his children.
“We get the feeling that you are no longer allowed to be here. That you are unwanted. But we did not come to Drenthe to give up. We wanted to pass it on. To our children. But now I do not think that chance is great. My son I want to become a farmer and will also do the training, but I urge him to look abroad especially, because if these nitrogen plans go ahead, abroad will be the only option for my children.”
Nagel becomes emotional when he talks about the future of his children. “They don’t want to go abroad at all. They don’t want to learn a foreign language. I wish them a future here. That was the plan.”
View the story of dairy farmer Tijmen Nagel from Beilen here: