The landscape and People
Around 1850, the government came to the conclusion that things could not go on like this. The Dutch landscape needed to improve, be more useful and more productive. In 2023, we are facing the same challenge: the Dutch landscape needs to be changed.
After 1850, the campaign to improve the Dutch landscape began. The endless heathlands, sand drifts and marshes were reduced and turned into farmland. After 1900, wet fields and meadows were drained; thousands of miles of rivers and streams were recreated into canals. The landscape became more useful, more productive. The people who lived and worked there were also improved. After all, the new rational environment could not be edited with their old superstitions and ancestral methods. Increasing productivity promised prosperity, but required obedience to the modern precepts spread from major cities across the countryside: believing in efficiency, knowing that time is money.
The topic that the government has been stuck on since 1975 (when the nitrogen problem was already known): reducing nitrogen emissions from livestock farming and reducing the livestock of boulders, pigs, chickens and goats.
In fact, the agricultural problems are far greater than nitrogen alone. Agriculture also emits too many greenhouse gases, pollutes water, tolerates less and less nature, makes the landscape increasingly dull, and is also poorly suited to the need for healthy food.
A radical system change is needed, just like in 1850.
The farmers are terrorizing the government. Breaking the doors of the town hall, smashing asbestos on the highway, visiting the minister with torches, it's happening.That's how it keeps muddling.
