Hey I don't know if you are Dutch or live there .. but the concept of megacities is completely foreign in Holland. Not sure how you came up with that, but if you had any feel for how things work there or how the politics are you would know that megacities is not a thing ...
They modified the marketing a bit because of a lot of public ruckus (and even added a disclaimer lol) but the original website clearly stated the intention was (and is!) to create a "30-45 million people smart megacity", "a European version of Hong Kong or San Francisco" using what currently are the Netherlands, Belgium and the Ruhr area in Germany as the location.
Netherlands closes farms meanwhile Germany bulldozes rules prohibiting Hydrogen from Nuclear (but not from gas!) and keeps burning oil and coal for electricity. 'Four legs good, two legs bad'
WTF? The atmosphere is over 70% nitrogen. I find it hard to fathom that emissions from all the farms in the Netherlands could upset that balance in any measurable way.
This of course relates to nitrogen holding compounds such as ammonia, other sources (in the form of nitrogen oxides) are road and airplane engines as well as construction and heavy industries. These nitrogen compounds actually have an acute negative impact on population health through respitory tract damage as well as on wildlife as well as certain types of plants, which leads to a reduction in biodiversity. That's the reason for EU wide nitrogen compound emmission caps. Just to be clear, the Netherlands has an extremely high concentration of livestock farmers. About 75% of meat production is exported even though we're an extremely small country with a super high population and structure density..
I suspected that's what the article intended, but it read as somewhat scientifically illiterate as it referred to "nitrogen" (N2) when they were really thinking nitrogen compounds.
Yep, would all be fine if they could just return the nitrogen in its original form.
It's mainly the ammonia (fertilizer runoff from fields and animal waste) that's a problem for nearby nature preserves and bodies of water, according to environmentalists who sued the government. Also livestock urine ammonia vapors and nitrogen oxides forming smog.
Who would want to buy a farm for which the license to operate has been revoked? This is a reduction in total livestock in the Netherlands as a result of a reduction in the amount of farms, these farms are not just being bought up and integrated into larger farms....
Who voted for this policy? was it a democratic vote? or it's an authoritarian policy?
If that was not democratic, who is the lobby?