A large group of farmers will protest with tractors tomorrow morning on the road between Beverwijk and Haarlem. They protest, among other things, against the new European rules that they say make work impossible. The farmers will probably march with a procession of hundreds of tractors from the Beverwijk Bazaar to the Haarlem provincial government building, where they will hand over a pamphlet with demands.
According to René Staal, co-organizer of the protest and farmer in Zuidermeer, around three hundred farmers could show up during the protest, which will pass through the Velser tunnel and arrive in Haarlem around noon. According to Staal, the protest is desperately needed.
“Sometimes you have to explain to policymakers what needs to be done differently, make points clear that you want to change,” he explains about the need for another farmers’ protest. “We will have speaking time tomorrow and we will hand over a pamphlet containing matters that were before us in the past and have been taken away in recent years.”
Bullying the farmer
Staal refers to, among other things, European measures that came into effect on January 1, 2024 and have an effect on farmers. This includes, for example, the phasing out of derogation. It is one of the measures that Staal is frustrated by, he calls it ‘bullying’.
Text continues below the pamphlet, which will be handed over tomorrow.
Derogation is an extension of the amount of animal manure that may be spread on the land, if this does not have any adverse consequences for the environment. “By phasing out the derogation, farmers are obliged to remove more tons of manure,” says Staal. “But that has many disadvantages, including transport. It also emits nitrogen. And we are afraid that in the long term the soil will become impoverished and production will decline, both in terms of quality and quantity.”
According to Staal, farmers are mainly concerned about costs and the new policy has ‘nothing to do with the environment’. “It’s purely about bullying.”
“It is shocking that entrepreneurs are treated this way”
Ad Baltus is a dairy farmer near Alkmaar and sits on the national board of the BBB. He strongly agrees with the ten points in the pamphlet, including the legalization of PAS detectors, an acronym for the Nitrogen Approach Program. These are companies that could suffice with a report of the calculated nitrogen load on vulnerable nature.
Shocking policy
“Now the judiciary says: you do have an impact on nature. Suddenly they are illegal and that can cause problems when, for example, they go to the bank for a loan. I think that is improper management,” Baltus explains.
Baltus is unsure whether the protest will yield anything. “From 2019 onwards, farmers have regularly expressed that they want different regulations. But I don’t see that changing much: the government has not yet regulated anything. It is shocking that entrepreneurs are treated this way.”