Agractie

Background

Agractie is a Dutch farmers’ protest group founded in 2019 by sheep farmer Bart Kemp in direct response to the Dutch government’s plans to reduce the country’s nitrogen pollution by cutting livestock numbers.¹ Kemp stepped down as chairman of Agractie on March 1, 2024 citing personal reasons.²

The group has organised at least thirteen farmers protest actions across the Netherlands,³ beginning with a protest on October 1, 2019 involving at least 2,200 tractors.⁴

In June 2022, the group staged a protest which attracted over 40,000 farmers, during which Kemp said “the state of the Netherlands is at war with the republic of farmers” and that farmers had to “fight without weapons”.⁵

In the weeks following his speech, a number of farmers staged an action at the house of Christianne van der Wal — the minister responsible for implementing the government’s nitrogen policy plans — during which the protesters rammed police barricades, smashed the window of a police car, and emptied a slurry tank near the house.⁶ According to reporting by de Gelderlander, Kemp initially did not distance himself from the violence at farmers’ protests, but later said that “actions must be within the limits of the law, although the edges may be searched”.⁷

Agractie’s protest actions influenced government policy to such an extent that in 2022 it was invited to speak with an independent mediator that had been appointed to mediate between “warring [political] parties” over nitrogen policy, which the group refused.⁸ Later that year, Agractie was invited by Piet Adema, the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, to participate in discussions to “clarify the future of the [agricultural] sector” with an “Agriculture Agreement”. Agractice agreed to participate in the discussions.⁹

A major Dutch newspaper, De Volkskrant, wrote that the period between the middle of 2022 until the beginning of 2024 could be defined by “relative calm” in relation to farmers protests,¹⁰ a period in which Agractie engaged in almost no protest action.¹¹

In February of 2024, Bart Kemp told De Volkskrant that the electoral success of the right-wing PVV party and farmer-citizen party BBB in Dutch parliament gave him “perspective on more realistic policies” for the agricultural sector.¹² Kemp added that the parties’ success was why Agractie did not take part in the pan-European farmers protests that began in January 2024.

However, in April 2024 Agractie organised a protest in Brussels to highlight “the despair and anger that farmers currently feel about how the [EU’s] manure policy works out on the farmyard”.¹³ A report from news outlet NieweOogst said Agractie also planned to meet the EU’s commissioner for environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius.

Bart Kemp stepped down as chairman of Agractie on March 1, 2024 for personal reasons, saying that “the work is not finished”.¹⁴

Stance on Climate Change

Agractie has often been sceptical of Dutch and European environmental policies.

In May 2024, Agractie lauded the new Dutch coalition government’s environmental plans, which were criticised by climate experts and activists for undermining the Netherlands’ progress towards climate targets.¹⁵ A press release from Agractie said the plan demonstrated that “idealism gives way to realism”.¹⁶ While the plans were being formed in February 2024, Agractie stated that any climate targets should be “realistic and achievable”, while suggesting targets should be made less ambitious.¹⁷

In December 2023, Agractive published a document outlining its “vision” for the future of agriculture in the Netherlands, which found “the environmental issue” to be a defining problem for the sector.¹⁸ A section titled “How can we reach nature and environmental targets?” stated: “clean water, clean air, we want it all.”

In an October 2023 post on X, Bart Kemp criticised Wopke Hoekstra, the EU Commissioner for climate action, for saying that the “planet might boil over” if fossil fuel use continues, adding “what a mockery that man makes of himself”.¹⁹

In February 2023, Kemp posted on X, writing that he “loves” the “beautiful green meadows in winter” brought about by climate change.²⁰

In another X post from January 2023, Kemp applauded a report which claimed that Dutch citizens wanted less “whining” about the influence of agriculture on climate and nature.²¹

Agribusiness links

Agractie is linked to a number of agribusinesses, particularly through sponsorship of farmers’ protests it has organised.

Dutch agribusinesses Agrifirm and ForFarmers – a Dutch animal feed producer with €3.315 million in annual revenue in 2022²² – sponsored farmers’ protests part-organised by Agractie in 2022, according to a report from Dutch news outlet NRC.²³

In a 2019 interview with Dutch news outlet Nu.nl, Kemp said that ForFarmers had supported Agractie since its inception, saying: “When I was still all alone, the chair of ForFarmers approached me. The company shared my goals and didn’t hesitate to support me.”²⁴

Agractie lists three agribusinesses as “partners” on its website, including Dutch animal feed producers De Heus, E.J. Bos Diervoeding, and Theeuwes Mengvoeders.²⁵

Opposition to Netherlands’ nitrogen policy

Opposing the Dutch government’s former plans to cut the country’s nitrogen pollution is central to Agractie’s mission.

In November 2023, Agractie published a report titled “The Netherlands Unlocked” in which the group pushed for a different approach to tackle the country’s nitrogen pollution crisis and downplayed the extent of the problem.²⁶ A central claim of the report was that the Dutch government had overestimated the impact of nitrogen pollution on the country’s nature reserves, and that “all factors” harming nature reserves should be examined – a point Kent had made in an October 2023 post on X.²⁷

In the report, Agractie also stated that farmers operating beyond a certain distance from nature reserves could not be blamed for contributing to nitrogen pollution, because they were too far away to have an impact.²⁸

Agractie also suggested that government efforts focus primarily on encouraging and implementing technological innovations to tackle nitrogen pollution.²⁹

In January 2024, Bart Kemp reposted a speech by a Dutch member of parliament who said that “without a doubt” the Dutch have to reduce nitrogen emissions, but that they have to do it in a different way.³⁰

Links to far-right parties

Agractie’s former leader Bart Kemp has publicly discussed potential collaboration with far-right Dutch political parties.

In a February 2024 interview with Dutch radio station NPO Radio 1, Kemp didn’t deny the possibility of becoming an agriculture minister for the newly-formed government made up of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), if he were asked by Caroline van der Plas – the leader of far-right farmers’ party, BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), which is a member of the PVV’s coalition.³¹

During the interview, Kemp was also asked whether he had advised Van der Plas during government coalition negotiations following the October 2023 general election. He responded, “I talk with Caroline, of course”, and added that he didn’t know if Van der Plas sees him as an advisor but that they have “constructive conversations” about the future of agriculture.

In a press release following the Dutch parliamentary elections in 2023, Agractie congratulated PVV leader Geert Wilders on his victory, saying that the organisation would “gladly” work together with the PVV and other coalition parties to build “realistic agricultural policy”.³² In the press release, Kemp was quoted saying: “Geert, you have fought for this for years, and you were there for every farmer’s protest! Now we will go forward together!”

Funding

According to the “Donations” page on its website, Agractie is funded in part by its agribusiness partners and in part by individual donations,³³ but it is unclear to what extent the organisation is funded by whom.

Agractie has been funded by farmers’ cooperative Agrifirm and feed producers De Heus and ForFarmers in the past,³⁴ and continues to list three agribusinesses as “partners” on its website.³⁵

According to reporting from a journalist who followed and interviewed Bart Kemp for three weeks in 2022, Kemp was unwilling to discuss the organisation’s funding.³⁶

The Agractie website lists an option to donate to the organisation, showing the latest and largest donations.³⁷