This morning 45 gardeners drove the tractor on the provincial road from Bovenkarspel to Wognum. They believe that farmers are being tackled too harshly because of the current nitrogen policy. The spontaneous action was set up last night. “We have a circular system with farmers that is many years old. We need nitrogen, otherwise we will deliver a lean product and we will not be able to harvest.”
A fire also raged along the road this morning. Cauliflower grower Paul Slagter does not know who caused this. “But it does give a signal,” he says with a wink.
“The protest is a spontaneous action, the result of the indignation that we expressed to each other about what we believe to be a mutinous government,” says initiator Manus Laan. Last night several cauliflower growers came together and that resulted in a large procession of tractors early this morning.
Circular System
The horticulturists themselves are not feeling it very much at the moment, but it is expected that things will be different in the near future. Certainly if more and more farmers disappear due to the current nitrogen policy. “In West Friesland we have a beautiful system that is decades old,” explains Laan. “We work together with the farmers in the cultivation plans. We have a so-called ‘manure exchange’, which can be described as a kind of recycling system.”
Slagter is also very concerned about the future. “We need nitrogen, because otherwise we will deliver a lean product and we will not be able to harvest.”
Pack of butter
“Go and see what a pack of butter currently costs,” says Siem Huisman, who owns a contracting company within the agricultural sector. “My wife went shopping and she says: ‘John, it has all increased by so many cents’. Of course that will only improve if more farmers have to disappear.”
The horticulturists took into account the ‘ordinary citizens’ on the road by continuing to drive on the right. “It’s not that we want to tease people,” Laan assures. “It’s more to take a stand and to show that we stand behind the farmers.”