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…

During the summer of 2022, protests erupted in the Netherlands over the government’s plan to curtail nitrogen emissions from the country’s farms—in some cases, by up to 95 percent. At the time, authorities acknowledged that their proposal would necessitate slashing livestock numbers across the country, especially near areas protected as part of the European Union’s…

Commentary Synthetic, or “chemical,” nitrogen fertilizers are bad for the environment, but “organic” fertilizers are good… Right? Well, not exactly. Oversimplified thinking like this has more to do with environmental ideology than environmental science, and can have disastrous effects when implemented as policy. Sri Lanka: A Cautionary Fail Nowhere has this been more poignant in…

CHICAGO/LONDON—U.S. exports of nitrogen fertilizers jumped to a multi-year high this summer after surging natural gas prices in Europe drove up costs of producing the crop nutrient there, making U.S. shipments more competitive. The brisk U.S. sales highlight the effect of the war in Ukraine on global food and energy supplies. Russia, under financial sanctions,…

MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Alabama is not ready to carry out an execution by nitrogen hypoxia, state officials disclosed Thursday, but said the department has completed many of the preparations for using the untested execution method. Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm said in an brief affidavit filed in federal court that the state “cannot carry out an…

Saskatchewan is demanding answers from federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault after receiving multiple reports from farmers that federal employees are “trespassing” on their lands to test water sources. Premier Scott Moe took to Twitter on Aug. 21 demanding Guilbeault provide an explanation as to “why his department is trespassing on private land without the owners’ permission…

Commentary Most Canadians have never been on a farm, let alone lived on one, which makes more than 98 percent of our population agriculturally illiterate. For many Canadians, crop production is an unknown concept. Because of this, it’s relatively easy to use fear to influence public opinion on any food-related issue involving agriculture. Activists know…

Under pressure from environmentalists, some governments have implemented extreme nitrogen fertilizer restrictions that ignore the time needed to restore a depleted soil microbiology, resulting in protests from some scientists and farmers who are seeing the concerning impacts of such restrictions. According to organic farming proponent and former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) soil scientist Kelly…

Those familiar with the most recent farmer protests in the Netherlands are saying that the Dutch government’s climate nitrogen-reduction policies targeting farmers, actually have a nefarious goal. Dutch farmers see it as an effort to seize their land and experts say these climate policies are a part of a global agenda to control the means…

Jaap Hanekamp is skeptical of the received wisdom in science. He won’t stop asking a simple question: “But, is this true?” When it comes to the Dutch government’s calculations of ammonia and nitrogen oxide deposition—the basis of climate mandates that would slash livestock numbers and put many farmers out of work—Hanekamp is especially critical of…