Brickbat: What a Load of Manure
(Leon Viti | Dreamstime.com)
The European Commission has given the Netherlands the OK to begin forced buyouts of some 3,000 farmers, part of the government's efforts to meet European Union nitrogen pollution-reduction goals. Farmers who are bought out will be banned from returning to farming not only in the Netherlands but anywhere in the European Union. The Netherlands is the second-largest global agricultural exporter, and Dutch farmers are some of the most efficient and productive in the world.