Ehm yes... some perspective: (2019 figures from the Wiki) 97 million chicken 12 million pigs 4 million (mostly milk) cows In a densely populated country

Ehm yes... some perspective: (2019 figures from the Wiki) 97 million chicken 12 million pigs 4 million (mostly milk) cows In a densely populated country of 18m people. Roughly half the surface area is agricultural land. And in summer, half if not more of that is either grass, or corn. This is not used to feed people! (minor fraction of agri land). It's used to feed cows & pigs. Chicken and extra cattle feed mostly comes from elsewhere, like soy from South America. All that milk, eggs & meat is not used to feed the Dutch! Something like 2/3 (if not 3/4) goes to export. A lot of it in the form of cheese. A historic argument for this was that it provides jobs & income for the country. These days, something like 1 in 50 (if not 1 in 100) of jobs is in agriculture. It's highly mechanized & intensive agriculture + cattle-keeping. All this agri business produces some 2% (if not less) of GDP. Many grey-haired farmers want out, and/or their kids (if they have any) seek different careers. That's on top of all the peppers grown under glass, flower bulbs, potatoes, etc. Plus raw materials (fertilizers, cattle feed) imported from elsewhere, nitrogen compounds & methane emissions, pressure on nature areas, cow/pig/chicken poop masses & what to do with it, animal welfare issues, and the land use in densely populated country with housing problem & too little / small natural areas. So yeah, many Dutch ppl want that cattle heap cut... Move cows to where there's space for them. Long overdue imho.