It was less than half a year ago that Canadian truckers brought downtown Ottawa to a gridlocked standstill protesting Covid restrictions. They knew the stakes were high and the world was watching. 

And indeed we did watch, as their protests unveiled the Canadian government as authoritarian and revealed that the Trudeau administration’s hunger for power dwarfed their concern for their citizens’ wellbeing. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of that protest was the message that it sent the world: for all the central planning of our politicians—both locally and globally—they still rely on the “little people.”

In Holland, farmers are following the Canadian truckers’ lead, though they are ratcheting the tactic up to the next level. The “Boers” aren’t just blocking traffic, they’re spraying manure on government offices and officials’ homes, lighting hay bales on fire in the highway median, and blocking shipments from processing plants.

To varying degrees, they’ve been at this for weeks as their parliament has contemplated a measure which seeks to drastically cut emissions from farms, forcing sales of farmland that has been owned in some cases for hundreds of years by the same family. It would mean farms having to slaughter large percentages of healthy herds. Ultimately, for many small farms, it would mean the end of their livelihoods.

This is admitted by the Dutch government. According to ABC News, 

The ruling coalition wants to cut emissions of pollutants, predominantly nitrogen oxide and ammonia, by 50% nationwide by 2030.… ‘The honest message...is that not all farmers can continue their business,’ and those who do will likely have to farm differently, the government said in a statement this month as it unveiled emission reduction targets.

It takes a lot of insolence for a government to tell hardworking citizens that they are being purposely driven out of business for the sake of an arbitrary deadline. Yet, ultimately, that’s the decision the Dutch government made. So who is this “ruling coalition,” and what’s so special about the year 2030?

Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, just last year proudly announced to the world that “the Netherlands will host the Global Coordinating Secretariat of the Food Innovation Hubs.” According to InvestInHolland.com, Food Innovation Hubs are the “flagship initiative of WEF’s [World Economic Forum] Food Action Alliance.” The purpose of the Food Action Alliance, according to the World Economic Forum press release announcing its launch, is to “brin[g] together the international community to tackle an urgent historic challenge: to reshape the way we think, produce, supply and consume food.”

The press release goes on to say that,

Partners in the Food Action Alliance believe that fragmentation within the current food system represents the most significant hurdle to feeding a growing population nutritiously and sustainably. We urgently need new business models and innovative partnerships to transform the way food is produced, supplied and consumed.

What exactly is “fragmented” about the “current food system"? The WEF’s most infamous prediction is that as they work to mold the world into their desired future, we will all “own nothing and be happy.” The current food system is fragmented by private ownership and individual business owners making their own decisions. This should be obvious—they can’t change the “food system,” unless they can coerce the pieces of that system to do what they need them to do.

A bit farther on, they make this quite plain, as well as providing some more motive for the controversial decision in Holland: 

Today’s agricultural supply chain, from farm to fork, accounts for between 21% to 37% of greenhouse gas emissions.

The food system is inefficient in many respects. For example, around one-third of food, accounting for around $1 trillion, is wasted across the supply chain. Many farming methods that are successful in increasing output – and therefore farmer incomes – deplete natural resources such as soils and forests, making them unsustainable in the longer term.

It is true, wise farmers rotate the crops to restore nutrients to the soil that allow future crops to grow well, but here the WEF announcement puts the conflict in sharp relief: there is a tension between increased yield and sustainability. The WEF’s Food Action Alliance—including Dutch Prime Minister Rutte—has proposed to thread the needle between these conflicting goals, which cannot happen when the world’s individual farmers are making their own decisions. The preferred system is “to achieve a vision for efficient, sustainable, inclusive, nutritious and healthy food systems, the FAA brings together stakeholders from all sectors—government, business, farmer associations, international organizations, civil society and academia—to mobilize a country driven agenda towards meeting the SDGs [United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals].” Notice there is no room for individual farmers in that partnership.

The WEF’s “New Vision for Agriculture” reveals at least a part of those SDGs: “The Sustainable Development Goals will call for ending world hunger and ensuring sustainable food systems by 2030.” Note the year; it’s the same goal as is presented by the Dutch legislation. So whatever those “sustainable food systems” are, they mean less farmland and fewer animals. 

The Netherlands, in spite of only being about twice the size of New Jersey, is the second biggest agricultural exporter in the world. Much of this is horticultural, but the country is also a huge exporter of fruit, vegetables, and meat. The Dutch have a reputation for innovative and efficient farming technology. 

As a matter of fact, Dutch farming has been the World Economic Forum’s golden example of what future farming should look like. Several decades ago, the Netherlands adopted a sort of mission statement: “Twice as much food using half as many resources.” And they’ve taken that goal seriously, developing new “precision farming” methods which have reduced water dependence by as much as 90 percent for some crops. For some crops, like tomatoes, of which the Netherlands is the world’s foremost producer, Dutch methods have moved the farm indoors.  

A 2019 WEF article gushes:

Since 2011, it has been using geothermal energy to heat its greenhouses, and the plants grow in a hydroponic system to use less water.

The tomatoes are grown in small bags of rockwool substrate, made from spinning together molten basaltic rock into fine fibres, which contains nutrients and allows the plants to soak up water even when moisture levels are low.

No pesticides are used and the farm pipes waste CO2 into the greenhouses from a local Shell oil refinery, which the plants need to grow, and which reduces the carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.

The greenhouse has a double glass roof to conserve heat as well as LED lights, which mean the plants can keep growing through the night.

The article presents a rallying cry: “It’s crucial the innovative agriculture techniques being used in countries like the Netherlands are scaled up and rolled out worldwide. We just need to commit resources in the short-term for future gain.”

How can Mark Rutte, a key player in the WEF’s pet agricultural project and prime minister of the world’s most technologically advanced agricultural producer, commit those resources if the current food system is so fragmented? For that matter, how can other world leaders, like Canada’s Justin Trudeau (another of WEF’s domesticated PMs), defragment the segments of the food system in their nations?

In March of this year, Canada also announced an initiative to slash greenhouse gas emissions associated with fertilizer by 2030. The press release explained, 

The Government is focused on meeting this emissions reduction target through a range of policy measures and approaches, such as working with farmers to encourage broader adoption of new products and implementation of beneficial management practices, resulting in both economic benefits for farmers and environmental benefits for society. An important aspect of Canada’s path toward reaching the target while not compromising crop yields will require ongoing support from industry stakeholders.

The government is focused on meeting a target that will require ongoing support from the agricultural industry. Like a race car mechanic tweaking his engine to coax out a couple more horsepower, Rutte is committed to pushing his tiny techno-agricultural engine to be the prototype for the WEF’s “New Vision for Agriculture.” Trudeau, and other world leaders, are prodding their nations’ farmers to follow. 

The “little people” of western democracies who keep food on our tables are not crazy for wondering: Who is leading our nations’ leaders? Are they taking us anywhere we want to go?