Farmers around the world are outraged by EU regulations on nitrogen emissions
On January 8, as soon as I left the front door to go shopping, I heard a distant sound, similar to that of a trumpet. “Oh, they do it in Leipzig too! The farmers’ protests!”
The blaring sound is not that of a trumpet, but of a horn.
Photo = EPA/Jiji press photo
Protesters take part in a strike organized by the German Farmers’ Federation. Strikes across Germany to protest against the federal government’s agricultural policies, Berlin, January 15, 2024.
From 2022 to 2023, farmers’ demonstrations also took place in the Netherlands for a long time and extraordinary situations occurred, such as the police shooting at demonstrators. The cause is the nitrogen emission standards set by the EU.
In line with this, the Dutch government wanted to halve agricultural nitrogen emissions by 2030. The farmers’ argument that “to meet these emission standards, farmers will have no choice but to move to a different location or going out of business” was not an exaggeration.
In fact, the government compensated farmers who went out of business, but then made them promise never to return to farming. And since the government decided to confiscate the lands of farmers who had not left, it was no wonder that these proud people were angry. The backdrop was the EU Green Deal.
The German economy is in turmoil due to unreasonable CO2 reduction measures
The EU Green Deal is a policy that von der Leyen first launched in late 2019 when she became president of the European Commission. The EU’s new growth strategy aimed to achieve both “greenhouse gas reduction” and “economic growth”, but four years have passed since then and only part of these have translated into “economic growth”. Only in industries related to renewable energy.
Germany is increasing the number of solar panels and wind turbines, but if you look closely, you will find that most of the money it earns comes from taxes or direct payments from citizens, which is a very skewed structure.
The original goal of climate protection was not achieved at all; on the contrary, electricity supply has become unstable, prices have increased and in terms of CO2 emissions it now competes with Poland for first and second place in the EU. (However, as Poland moves ahead with the construction of nuclear power plants, CO2 emissions are expected to decrease in the future.) Ultimately, the most important issue, the economy, is related to the high costs of electricity and various regulations. It can be said that agriculture is one of the sectors that have been cornered in this way.
Currently, German agricultural policy aims to reduce dairy farming as it emits greenhouse gases such as methane (it is the same as in the Netherlands), while the area of organic farming is forced to expand. However, the reality is that organic farming, which eliminates the use of chemical fertilizers, requires more effort, but yields are halved.
2024-01-23 23:00:00
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