The photo above is the direct result of #30meikoeuitdewei, yet another farmer’s protest. This time it was not on the tractor (tractor, sorry) to The Hague or a pleasant visit to a politician of your choice. It was a media campaign, which meant that all Dutch cows had to remain in the stable on Monday 30 May because of the government’s ‘nonsensical nitrogen policy’ (in the words of LTO, representing the interests of farmers and horticulturists).
In principle, dairy farmers do not need a permit to let their cows graze in the meadow. But this has become uncertain due to a ruling by the Overijssel court on May 12, in a lawsuit brought by environmental organizations. The court stated that in future dairy farmers must apply for a permit requirement for grazing (a ‘pasture certificate’, according to Caroline van der Plas of BoerBurgerBeweging) in order to limit the nitrogen emissions of their cows. The farmers wanted to protest against this with the national action #30meikoeuitdewei.
So far everything clear. But then the protest itself. There was good reason to wonder whether the aim of the action was thereby achieved. The message was downright confusing and visually it was not easy on all sides.
LTO Noord distributed a video via the social media channels in which chairman and farmer Dirk Bruins, in blue overalls and against the background of a green meadow, explained what exactly was going on. ‘Do you see this beautiful meadow behind me?’ he began, pointing somewhat theatrically with both hands behind him. I saw it, it was indeed beautiful, not a word of a lie. Frowning look: “But there’s something missing, isn’t it?” and in the same breath: ‘For hundreds of years we have enjoyed beautiful cows in the meadow.’
O! So it was not a beautiful pasture at all, cows belonged in it, I had seen it wrong.
pure horror
This was also the case with the photos that the Dutch dairy farmers put on Twitter under the campaign hashtag. For the most part it came down to this: on the left a photo of a beautiful meadow with grazing cows, on the right a photo of a beautiful empty meadow with the text: ‘Is this what you want?’ As if we were being presented with pure horror. There was even a farmer who managed to turn that right image into a sort of Martin Kers nature calendar image, complete with magical morning mist and a lone purple clover flower in the foreground. There was no text, but did I want this? Sure.
So that didn’t work. Back to the core of the action: the cows in the barn as a protest against the nitrogen policy. The following problem arose. Because who was actually the victim here of the threatening policy of the government? Not the farmer, but the cow, that beautiful animal that just wanted to graze in the beautiful pasture. Some farmers chose to show this different face of the defence. Opposite the idyllic Dutch landscape photos, they placed photos of herds of cows in the barn (as photographer Roger Dohmen did above for the ANP), with texts such as ‘Sorry ladies, unfortunately you are not allowed to go outside today’ or again: ‘Is this what you want’ with the addition ‘in The Hague???!!!’
Well, on the one hand that is actually what The Hague wants: fewer cows in the meadow and therefore less nitrogen in the air. On the other hand, it was grist to the mill of animal activists, who accused the dairy farmers of animal cruelty.
Anyone on any side of the issue could see that this action missed its target in terms of imaging or had never come close to it at all. Well, the hashtag rhymed. So everything has been said.