Jandino Asporaat gets involved in the nitrogen debate. He believes that farmers in the Netherlands are being demonized. “It just doesn’t say in the newspaper that they are terrorists. It’s crazy!”
The way farmers are cornered is ridiculous, says Jandino Asporaat. He is very surprised by the government’s nitrogen policy. “It’s disturbed. It’s really crazy. But you know? People don’t realize… There’s a weird thing going on, just the narrative how we are talking about the farmers…”
terrorists
The farmers are being blacked out, Jandino tells in the talk show In the car with Andy† “It just doesn’t say in the newspaper that they are terrorists. These are the people who ultimately take care of your food, your vegetables, from early in the morning until late at night. How do you talk like that?”
Host Andy van der Meijde agrees with him. “They all produce it for us, they make it for us, so that we can eat it and we can go to Albert Heijn to get something to eat. If they don’t do that anymore, we won’t have that much food and we’ll have to get everything from abroad.”
More expensive
It is extremely important that the Netherlands is self-sufficient when it comes to food, says Jandino. “You also see it with food shortages and such that it is really important that we can produce our own food. (…) It will only get more expensive.”
You also see that going wrong in Curaçao, explains Jandino. “95 percent of the food on Curaçao is imported. That’s hundreds of millions that are simply lost. They could have gone to health care, education and the roads. If you produce it yourself, the money stays in the economy and you are not dependent on other countries.”
To cherish
According to the comedian, we should cherish the farmers. “It is going to happen. You will see: in a while all countries will close their own fronts. America has already started it. They are going to close their borders, like: food no longer goes abroad. It’s only getting worse.”
He continues: “People don’t get it. Be a little more relaxed and really go and see what’s going on with those farmers. Why are those people right now yelling, ‘Guys, pay attention, we need help.’”
“How simple?”
Andy understands the farmers very well. “Check if they take the food from you and your children and the future of your children. Then you’re going crazy too, aren’t you?”
Jandino: “And then you read: ‘Yes, and then there is traffic again because the farmers want to go on strike!’ Then I think: wow, how simple can you be? I try not to read anything, but every now and then it comes back and I turn off the TV. How did we get to a point where we are now turning farmers into semi-terrorists? That is what they are literally doing.”
In the car with Andy
With Andy in the car with Jandino Asporaat: