Dutch friend on the farmers' strike

[FC]

His wife's dad and brother run a 5000 head goat dairy in Holland. 

"I was at a big festival this week hosted by a rock band formed by farmers.

Well reported and nice coverage. It is a very difficult discussion, I actually joined one of the protests because I do not fully agree with our government on this. 

 

I do believe that we should have the debate why a country half the size of Rhode Island is the second largest exporter on agri products in the world after the US and also manages to stuff 17 million people on that small piece of land (which makes houses and land extremely expensive) but I am very frustrated by the government that due to this menure issue and the lack of decision making you are bringing entrepreneurs to a standstill. Why invest if you have no perspective? 

 

All farmers agree that something needs to be done, but the same goes for big airports and massive iron production sites. But I have seen from very close by how the farm of Yvonne’s parents is struggling, because the municipality wont give them a permit to upgrade and modernize their stables and milking machine because they do not have clear calculation method to measure the new amount of nitrogen. This is nuts! My brother in law is willing to invest in his farm, modernize it to the latest standards and the local government has been stalling them for 8 years now. That is the largest frustration of all farmers, there is a lot of knowhow and R&D around, but nobody is allowed to address the real issues since legislation is not there.

 

In the entire country you can now see the Dutch flag upside down as a sign of protest that the country is in distress."

[Dr.Hess]

It is "almost" like "some people" are trying to stop food production and starve the peons.

[FC]

Doesn’t make much sense, does it?

[Dr.Hess]

When situations don't make sense, it's because you are missing a piece of the picture.  The Dutch government is shutting down the farmers (The Netherlands is a major food producer/exporter, despite the small size) on orders from the EU unelected bureaucrats, which are following orders from a group of people as they don't make up the big directional rules.  Why would a food crisis be engineered/ordered?  Note that the actual elected EU representatives only get to pass laws on things like what shape a banana has to be in order to be sold, not the amount of nitrogen or methane that cows can produce on a farm.

Another example:  They take our dollars (that is, steal our labor at gunpoint) and send it to China to create a virus that will kill millions or more.  Such research is banned in the U.S. for good reason, so the money and research went overseas where they don't care how many they kill.  Why would the U.S. want a virus that is uncontrollable and could potentially kill a large section of the planet?

A small group of very wealthy people want the Earth's human population reduced to <1Billion, from the current 10B or so.  Why?  Look what they wrote on the recently "fixed" Georgia monument thing.  It is just straight up evil.

[FC]

There is certainly no shortage of evil, selfish motives in the world's leadership.

[AzRednek]

I feel it’s an attempt to control the so called unwashed masses. Control food and people become dependent on the government for their daily bread. Food is only part of the control and take over by the government and the ultra wealthy. Food is only part, health care, education, housing and now it’s transportation. Makes me wonder what is coming next, why is Bill Gates attempting to screw with the meat supply. Apparently our leaders are failing to recall history. Food riots have caused have caused governments to be over thrown. The Russian Revolution is a prime example. I’m certain it’s coming soon to Venezuela.
 

Was Michelle Obama taking care of or better said destroying school lunches and even breakfast meals in poor communities an attempt to control? How many kids would tolerate and eat a dessert of celery sticks and cottage cheese, salt free pretzels and chips or honey glazed cornbread to name a few. Don’t know if it’s true or an exaggeration. A member of my gun club claimed his grandkid’s got a school dessert that was a concoction of stewed tomatoes, raisins and cinnamon. 

[karlunity]

For most of human history the problem has been NOT enough food. Raids than wars have been started to capture food or the land that made it. Despite what you see on TV or the movies, Peasants( farmers) as a rule were worth more alive than dead. One might raid and kill the foe's peasants but you as a rule tried to protect yours and even capture land and peasants from the foe.  A nation does not destroy it's own food. ( I know some farmers did it in the 1930 in an effort to keep price up and of some "Scorched earth..(Russia) in effort to stop invasions..but here that is not the case. Fellas I see a lack of food between the Greens theirs and OURS and the war in Europe and no mistake.

karl

[AzRednek]

I’m seeing and hearing enough that I have a renewed interest in hoarding food. I have twin sons, one is taking it seriously the other is not. About 5-6 weeks ago I spent some bucks buying them canned goods and I’m placing another order soon. 
 

I’ve mentioned in the past when I was an outside salesman selling auto parts. I saw numerous tempers flare and fights break out in the 1970s gas lines. The bloodiest fight I saw was over a buyer after getting his 10 gallons then with the pump turned off drained the hose into his gas tank. Leaving it to the next guy to pay to fill up the hose up. About two years ago I watched a fight start in a dollar store between a black and Mexican family. There was a sale on Banquet frozen pot pies. The black family took them all. When a Mexican woman objected the black woman screamed at her. Next thing other family members joined in and fists started flying. I’ll admit I was a big chicken and left asap as soon as I saw a Mexican teenager grab what I thought was a gun. I found out a few days later it was just a knife. According to the dollar store cashier police took all of them to jail. 

 

If there is ever a serious food shortage TSWHTF. The privileged and wealthy will never go hungry but us peons will have to fight or go hungry. I’ll admit to being paranoid I started hoarding prior to the Y2K fiasco. 

[Dr.Hess]

I have said before:  Watch for cigarettes and beer at the convenience store.  When they are out of stock, the world has come to an end.  That is, the supply chain has completely collapsed. 

[FC]

That's funny about the beer and cigarettes. How about potato chips? The snack aisle at Wallie is one of the most crowded aisles there.

I'm thinking that people with no connection to the land think that because there's always been food on the shelves, that it will continue to be so. They can protest anything that adversely impacts the environment, and think that there'll somehow still be plenty of food. 

I have so much garden space that I almost feel like a small-time farmer. It's darned hard growing and processing food! Right now I'm battling disease on all my green beans, and deer are having the munchies on their leaves. My squash/vine plants weren't doing squat until I added lime. My tomatoes are fine; just splitting. Rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries are doing okay. I planted some flax for fun, but getting those seeds out? Yeah, I probably burn more calories than I gain from the effort. All my chickens were killed. That's the reality of trying to feed yourself. Makes me miss the good black dirt of eastern South Dakota.

Off-topic: I moved the trailer yesterday and felt a bite. I saw a hornet. Then I moved an outdoor umbrella that had a wasp nest, which fell off. I got multiple stings on one ankle, and one on my wrist. That's why I'm awake at 0-dark-thirty, with swelling, itching, and pain. No fun trying to kill three wasps on your ankle, shoo off three or four buzzing for a landing, and get the one off my wrist!

[Dr.Hess]

Yeah, I suck at farming.  And we haven't had any rain in a month now.  Water is expensive here.  I have hops, a blueberry bush, 1 apple tree and 2 peach trees.  When I had my driveway paved, that about did in one of the peach trees.  It keeps trying, but doesn't get enough water now.  It was supposed to be an almond tree (bought from the catalog place) and then it had peaches.  The other one we planted 15 years ago.  I think we have had a total of 5 peaches from it.  We had one so far this year.  It was good, but probably cost me $5 in water.  The apple tree finally has some apples on it.  It was planted 20 years ago and I think we have had about 5 apples from it as well.  I pruned it last year and there are now lots of apples, rather small, and I keep water on it ($) to try to get them bigger.  This is the 2nd year for my hops plant.  No flowers at all.  Maybe next year.  The damn deer have over 10 acres of native plants to eat.  They go after the 5 I have planted.

 

Years ago, I was riding my bike in western S.D., north of Sturgis, in the town of Belle Fourche.  We went up there to do our laundry, as Sturgis laundry was packed solid, as usual.  Riding on the main street with my foot on the highway peg, I suddenly felt a bad burning sensation.  Stopped the bike and jumped off and pulled off my boot and a hornet or a wasp flew out.  It had flown up my pant leg, then down into my boot, then started biting.

For bad insect bites (I just got a bad one on my shoulder, probably a brown recluse,) I like to mix up some strong steroid ointment like kenalog and a good antibiotic ointment like bactroban and put that on 3-4QD.  Ice will help with the pain more than anything else.

[karlunity]

The Hippy is the farmer...I just follow her orders and do the grunt work.  The rich  hum  if things go south I wonder how long till  hungry folk play viking to their Saxon?

karl

[Horsefly]

This has been a great thread starting with Dutch farmers and mostly ending with us and the possibility of having to feed ourselves. Growing food is the easy part. Preserving and storing is the tough part. I’m getting into saving seeds because of the trouble I had getting old standby varieties this past spring. I think it was Tony that brought up his tomatoes were splitting. I ask my Grandpa years ago why mine split and his didn’t. He said too much water too late. I’ve never had splitting again unless there was a big rain. 

[FC]

We've had a LOT of rain, and I drip irrigate, so that split 'em. I need to look up the reason for the green tops on the tomatoes (I forget the cause). I just canned green beans yesterday. The humidity brought on disease on the green bean leaves, so I'm after that with chemicals. Leaf rust, I think. Canning supplies are HIGH! Up to $26 for 12 quart jars! Used to be $12-$15. Lime is helping the vine-type plants get to work. I found that out the hard way. 

Dr. Hess, the trees probably needed pollinators. 

[Horsefly]

Same thing happened to my green beans 2 seasons ago. I had a great tomato crop this year, but they weren’t pretty. I plant Celebrity every year, but this spring they were hard to find. I bought 4 Homestead plants that are still producing even in this extreme heat and drought.  

[FC]

Cherry tomatoes always produce. I got San Marzano seeds to try them out for tomato sauce. A few Roma too.

[Dr.Hess]

An article on who is driving the coming famine.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/un-world-economic-forum-behind-global-war-farmers-experts