Exchanging nitrogen will be an environmental disaster

Our agriculture is one of the few industries that does not make luxury products, but provides our daily food through hard-working farmers. Politicians want to get rid of agriculture from the Netherlands in order to obtain nitrogen rights for construction, industry and traffic. In this way, politics clears its way and the problem is shifted abroad.

Nitrogen in the air is not a problem for our health. Too much nitrogen can cause acidification of the soil, causing some rare plants to disappear from nature. Only: how realistic is it to try to preserve those rare plants in the Netherlands? The Netherlands is so densely populated and has so much traffic and buildings that I know for sure. When there is no farmer left in the Netherlands, that rare plant still does not survive.

First of all, man needs 3 necessary ingredients to live. 1. oxygen to breathe, 2. water to drink, 3. food to eat. The other things that make life pleasant, such as transport, clothing, a home, and so on, are actually luxuries. There are many poor countries in the world where people live who cannot afford such luxuries.

Farming unimportant
Our agriculture produces 1 of these primary necessities: food. Politicians want to get rid of agriculture in the Netherlands in order to obtain nitrogen rights for construction, industry and traffic. Eliminate our primary necessities for life against non-primary necessities. I know that nobody in the Netherlands is concerned with food and therefore considers farmers unimportant. After all, the shelves in the stores are full of many choices from brands for the same product. But in many countries this is not the case and there is famine. Then another country has to take care of our food.

The Netherlands is an extremely fertile country, has water and has very hard-working farmers with a great deal of knowledge. For every hectare of land that disappears from agriculture in the Netherlands for nature, at least 10 hectares of nature must be reclaimed abroad in order to compensate for the yield of the area that has disappeared from the Netherlands. Politicians want to clean up their alley and shift the problem abroad. I can't call it a good exchange worldwide: 1 hectare of nature in the Netherlands, at least 10 hectares of nature around us.

Not competitive price wise
The political solution is to exchange nitrogen from agriculture NH3 (ammonia) for nitrogen NOx (nitrogen dioxide) from industry, traffic, energy and buildings. They forget that NOx is not natural. Even though they skim 30% off, I have my doubts. Agriculture cannot compete in price against industry, construction and traffic. As a result, this policy will certainly lead to the end of agriculture in the Netherlands, with all its consequences.

A good example are the solar parks. The farmer or private individual who owns a plot of land receives a lease of up to €6.000 per hectare of solar park. There is no agricultural crop that yields so much that a lease price of €6.000 can be paid. This high rent for solar parks is due to the extreme subsidy that the government gives with a long guaranteed price for the electricity.

Building a solar park in a warm country
The result is an overload of the electricity grid in sunny weather, because no one has thought about storing the electricity. A much better solution is to build a solar park in a warm country, where the sun shines for many more hours and is too dry for agriculture. In the Netherlands we have an average of 1.500 hours of sunshine. In Egypt an average of 3.600 hours of sunshine, almost 2,5 times more than with us. Then convert this current to hydrogen or formic acid. Transport this by ship to the Netherlands and connect it to the existing gas network.

The result is 100% green energy with no NOx emissions. This is a win-win situation: NOx gone. CO2 emissions gone, so global warming solved. Tropical forests no longer have to be cut down for soy cultivation to make biofuel. Eastern Russia can no longer supply us with oil, so without sales they stop polluting their environment. America can stop shale gas extraction and so on.

Provide food in return
The land with the solar park supplies us with energy and we supply them with food in return. Everyone happy. After all, they are no longer hungry. And we because the pollution is largely gone. But the opposite is now the case: every exchange of NH3 from agriculture for NOx also results in a large increase in CO2, which does cause climate warming. In addition to NOx emissions, every industry, housing construction, traffic also has non-biogenic CO2 emissions. These 2 things always go together. That is why I call the exchange an environmental disaster, because indirectly the CO2 content also increases enormously.

We must then also investigate possibilities to reduce NH3 emissions from agriculture as much as possible instead of buying farmers away. This should be possible. Put money into this research. For example, what happens if the manure is freshly processed on the farm and the farmer then supplies the released gas to the gas network (true green gas)?

Citizenship cycle is wrong
The solid manure can be used by the farmer as fertilizer, exactly what the plant needs. The clean water can be brought somewhere in the right place in a nature reserve to prevent desiccation. Furthermore, we people do not return anything to nature, only pollution and misery. It is a pity that agriculture keeps losing the minerals that the citizen eats. You may want circular agriculture, but the citizen cycle itself is not right at all.

The parties involved in the Netherlands must solve the nitrogen problem together with the farmers and, on the contrary, be careful with the farmers. There is only a solution with cooperation. It is important to have a long-term vision. Before doing anything, make sure it helps. So that not much money evaporates. This has happened all too often in agriculture.

Only when you reduce the NOx of industry, traffic and industry to zero, reduce the NH3 to zero in agriculture and the surrounding countries also reduce this to zero, I am confident that the rare plants will also settle in the Netherlands again.

Jaap Major
Low Zuthem

Boerenbusiness

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