Action group Farmers Defense Force (FDF) plans to take new, tough actions against the government’s nitrogen targets. Published in a Saturday interview with de Volkskrant Foreman Mark van den Oever says that the group has discussed, among other things, the ‘shutdown’ of the food supply with a delivery stop, as well as the blocking of highways in Natura 2000 areas or towards Schiphol.
Visiting ministers at home ‘with many more’ farmers could also ‘just happen’. Not all Dutch farmers support the radical action group: it is not clear how many farmers Van den Oever could mobilize for such actions. In the interview, Van den Oever also draws a comparison between the fate of the Jews during the Second World War and the Dutch farmers today.
FDF has been resisting plans by the government to reduce nitrogen emissions for years, often with radical actions. The group is angry about the implications nitrogen policy has for farmers. At the presentation of the nitrogen targets last week, Minister Christianne van der Wal (Nature and Nitrogen, VVD) confirmed an estimate that the livestock will have to shrink by about 30 percent. Angry farmers visited Minister Van der Wal at home that same day.
†pussys’
In de Volkskrant Van den Oever defends the home visit. That the children of Minister Van der Wal “were shaking inside” makes them “pussy’s”, said Van den Oever. He also uses that term for animal rights activists who are afraid of FDF. Personal details of several activists have been shared online in recent years – presumably by members of Farmers Defense Force – leading to threats and chases. Van den Oever: “If you don’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to fear, right?”
Van den Oever also draws – again – a comparison between the situation of Dutch farmers and that of Jews during the Second World War. According to the foreman, “an attack on a population group” is currently taking place: farmers are discriminated against, just as Jewish shops were discriminated against before the war. “I keep hearing that from my supporters.”
Minister Van der Wal calls the comparison “inappropriate”, reports ANP news agency. “I don’t think it’s possible to make comparisons with the atrocities of the Second World War.” Also former leader of the PvdA Lodewijk Asscher criticizes: “Farmers should emit less nitrogen. Jews were gassed. Refusing to see the difference is narcissistic anti-Semitism.” Chairman of agricultural organization LTO Sjaak van der Tak wants the farmers’ protests to remain “appropriate and dignified”.
Radical actions
Van den Oever thinks the targets to reduce nitrogen emissions are ‘nonsense’. According to him, the nitrogen compounds emitted by livestock (ammonia) do not damage nature. Various studies, for example of the RIVMcontradict this: the concentration in which nitrogen is emitted makes the soil acidic, plant and tree species disappear and the number of animals decreases.
Farmers, among others, are dissatisfied with the nitrogen plans, which has resulted in protest actions since 2019. For example, farmers repeatedly blocked the highways with their tractors, on their way to the RIVM research institute in Bilthoven or to demonstrate in The Hague or at supermarket distribution centers. During protests in Groningen, the door of the provincial government was broken open with a tractor.
Farmers Defense Force sometimes went a step further in these actions and was repeatedly experienced as radical or intimidating. For example, when foreman Van den Oever compared the fate of the Jews during the Second World War with that of the farmers in the Netherlands. “When there are no more farmers, don’t say: we are not aware of it”, he said in 2019. Members of the FDF also visited the then D66 leader Rob Jetten at home.
Also read this article from 2020: Peasant resistance: how intimidation and radical actions blocked the nitrogen talks