Double standards in nitrogen and privacy

The Dutch population is very fond of their privacy. When people threaten politicians at their private address, that is absolutely not possible. You may have a different opinion, but if you do not agree, intimidation is out of the question. Even in a discussion you should respect each other and not make threats to each other. The people who do that lower themselves. But what is my surprise.

Aleid Wolfsen, the chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, has made an appeal to better protect the private addresses of every Dutch person. That should make it less easy to find someone's address. That is a good thing and quite rightly so. In that light, it is remarkable to say the least that the Council of State approves that farmers' private addresses must be made public without any form of privacy. In this the Council of State is right about Mobilization for the environment (MOB). These two thoughts about privacy are completely contradictory. How is this possible? Even criminals are not made public.

No financing without a permit
The first lawsuits against agricultural entrepreneurs have now been announced in Overijssel. The farmers, who at the time wanted to expand and applied for a nature permit (NB), were unable to apply for this permit. The government required them to submit a so-called PAS report (Nitrogen Approach Program). The farmers submitted this PAS notification in accordance with the requirements set by the government.

Now they are being charged by the MOB that they do not have an NB license and therefore wrongly emit nitrogen. That's right. They had applied for an NB permit, but had to submit a PAS report from the government. A very wry situation. As a result, especially the young farmers who are our future, are seriously threatened in their survival. For financing from the banks, the entrepreneur must now have a valid NB license and without this license the agricultural companies have even become unsaleable.

We citizens would like to see cows in the pasture, but a lawsuit has been filed even against this. Our farmer will soon no longer be allowed to do that. What if we don't measure with 2 standards already?

Jaap Major
Low Zuthem

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