EU Backs Controversial Dutch Plans to Shut Down Farms in Bid to Reduce Nitrogen Emissions

Dutch cows from the farm of Robbin Voorend, who would face 90–95 percent cuts to his livestock under the government's nitrogen emissions plan. (The Epoch Times).

The European Commission on May 2 approved a plan by the Dutch government that would compensate livestock farmers in certain areas if they agree to voluntarily close their farms as part of the Netherlands’ efforts to reduce nitrogen pollution.

Under the new “schemes,” dubbed LBV and LBV plus, farmers will need to agree to shut down their production capacity definitively and irreversibly and not start the same breeding activity elsewhere in the Netherlands—the second-largest agricultural exporter in the world—or anywhere else within the European Union.