Dutch farmers in the Netherlands have been protesting, blocking roads, and using their tractors to shut down major city centers, airports, bridges, as well as food distribution plants across the entire country for several months now.
They are rising up against a government proposal that would put a severe limit on nitrogen emissions—and in the process, put about a third of the farmers out of work.
Driving around the Netherlands, I suddenly realized why such a small country became the world’s No. 6 exporter of food. There are farms quite literally everywhere. No matter where you drive, you can see cows, horses, sheep, goats, and a lot of crops.
In fact, small farmers own approximately 60 percent of the land within the country, which might be part of the reason that the government is pushing them away.
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