72
burden upon freshwater abstraction and the diversion of natural nutrients and proteins to a mono-governed bioscenario favoring meat consumption. This kind of
green-spin, with rather deplorable underpinnings is precisely the favored internal
hat-trick played by countries most notably like New Zealand and China; and, with
but a handful of exceptions, replicated in principle and in reality, by every nation.
The “American Fallacy” all but leads the way.
By 1990 the Dutch public was only too familiar with their “manure problem,” as
it was called.
12
Today, Dutch manure policy has put a sustainability-sounding spin
on its altruistic participation in a global carcass-weight equivalent market of “325
million tonnes” of globally grown meat, from “poultry, pigs (and) cattle”.
13
Despite
the nation’s massive surface and groundwater contamination, largely unregulated
agri-ammonia atmospheric vapors and subsequent forest depletions, some of the
highest levels of human impact on soils anywhere in the world, the language used
to grapple with the lethal combination of regional consumption, imports, exports,
and growth is unwavering in its anthropocentrism. With roughly 2,790,000 acres of
arable land in 2015, as early as 2004, it had been estimated that nearly half a million
acres of Dutch soils were contaminated with heavy metals, impairing soil function;
and another 3 million+ acres were “phosphate saturated soils”.
14
All that manure
and its chemical fates must be grasped within the orbit of the outright slaughter of
Dutch vertebrates. “In 2015, the Netherlands exported 1.6 billion euros worth of
living animals, 6.8 billion euros of meat, 1.8 billion euros of fish, 6 billion euros of
dairy and 0.2 billion euros worth of other animal products” (Fig. 8.3).
15
Quite a contradiction from the country’s 20 national parks, and such villages as
Giethoorn, in the municipality of Brederwiede, a mere 119 kilometers from
Amsterdam. While no cars are allowed in Giethoorn, as one of the most popular
destinations of choice for the 17 million tourists per year to Holland (approximately
one tourist per Dutch citizen), Giethoorn’s population of fewer than 2700 residents
sees a swarm of pedestrians and canoe addicts at overwhelming numbers, in the
same realm of ratios between resident populations and visitors, as that of Mont
Saint-Michel in France, and Bethlehem. Such visitation magnets translate into vast
12 See “Legislation to Abate Pollution from Manure: The Dutch Approach,” by Wim Brussaard
Margaret Rosso Grossman, North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial
Regulation, Winter 1990, Volume 15, Number 1, https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.
cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1411&context=ncilj,
Accessed
January 27, 2019.
13 According to the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook from 2011, as cited in The Dutch Ministries
of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure and the Environment publication, Manure: A Valuable
Resource, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 2014, http://edepot.wur.nl/294017.
14 “Quick Scan Soils in The Netherlands - Overview of the soil status with reference to the forthcoming EU Soil Strategy,” P.F.A.M. Römkens and O. Oenema (eds.), p.4, http://webdocs.alterra.
wur.nl/pdffiles/alterraRapporten/rapport%20948.pdf, Accessed January 27, 2019.
15 “Animal cruelty in Dutch animal agriculture and why this also concerns people outside the
Netherlands,” The Green Vegans, https://thegreenvegans.com/animal-cruelty-in-dutch-animalagriculture-and-why-this-also-concerns-people-outside-the-netherlands/Accessed January 27,
2019.
8 Paradoxical Frontiers
burden upon freshwater abstraction and the diversion of natural nutrients and proteins to a mono-governed bioscenario favoring meat consumption. This kind of
green-spin, with rather deplorable underpinnings is precisely the favored internal
hat-trick played by countries most notably like New Zealand and China; and, with
but a handful of exceptions, replicated in principle and in reality, by every nation.
The “American Fallacy” all but leads the way.
By 1990 the Dutch public was only too familiar with their “manure problem,” as
it was called.
12
Today, Dutch manure policy has put a sustainability-sounding spin
on its altruistic participation in a global carcass-weight equivalent market of “325
million tonnes” of globally grown meat, from “poultry, pigs (and) cattle”.
13
Despite
the nation’s massive surface and groundwater contamination, largely unregulated
agri-ammonia atmospheric vapors and subsequent forest depletions, some of the
highest levels of human impact on soils anywhere in the world, the language used
to grapple with the lethal combination of regional consumption, imports, exports,
and growth is unwavering in its anthropocentrism. With roughly 2,790,000 acres of
arable land in 2015, as early as 2004, it had been estimated that nearly half a million
acres of Dutch soils were contaminated with heavy metals, impairing soil function;
and another 3 million+ acres were “phosphate saturated soils”.
14
All that manure
and its chemical fates must be grasped within the orbit of the outright slaughter of
Dutch vertebrates. “In 2015, the Netherlands exported 1.6 billion euros worth of
living animals, 6.8 billion euros of meat, 1.8 billion euros of fish, 6 billion euros of
dairy and 0.2 billion euros worth of other animal products” (Fig. 8.3).
15
Quite a contradiction from the country’s 20 national parks, and such villages as
Giethoorn, in the municipality of Brederwiede, a mere 119 kilometers from
Amsterdam. While no cars are allowed in Giethoorn, as one of the most popular
destinations of choice for the 17 million tourists per year to Holland (approximately
one tourist per Dutch citizen), Giethoorn’s population of fewer than 2700 residents
sees a swarm of pedestrians and canoe addicts at overwhelming numbers, in the
same realm of ratios between resident populations and visitors, as that of Mont
Saint-Michel in France, and Bethlehem. Such visitation magnets translate into vast
12 See “Legislation to Abate Pollution from Manure: The Dutch Approach,” by Wim Brussaard
Margaret Rosso Grossman, North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial
Regulation, Winter 1990, Volume 15, Number 1, https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.
cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1411&context=ncilj,
Accessed
January 27, 2019.
13 According to the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook from 2011, as cited in The Dutch Ministries
of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure and the Environment publication, Manure: A Valuable
Resource, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 2014, http://edepot.wur.nl/294017.
14 “Quick Scan Soils in The Netherlands - Overview of the soil status with reference to the forthcoming EU Soil Strategy,” P.F.A.M. Römkens and O. Oenema (eds.), p.4, http://webdocs.alterra.
wur.nl/pdffiles/alterraRapporten/rapport%20948.pdf, Accessed January 27, 2019.
15 “Animal cruelty in Dutch animal agriculture and why this also concerns people outside the
Netherlands,” The Green Vegans, https://thegreenvegans.com/animal-cruelty-in-dutch-animalagriculture-and-why-this-also-concerns-people-outside-the-netherlands/Accessed January 27,
2019.
8 Paradoxical Frontiers