Just when I was getting a taste for nitrogen-infused coffee that reminds me of Bailey’s Irish Cream, the Dutch decide to make me feel guilty about my new pleasure with an anti-nitrogen court ruling.* I mean, come on, most (78%) of what we breathe is nitrogen. It’s as common as, well, air.
But I can understand the reasons that some would impose restrictions on nitrogen compounds. Put enough of them into the environment, and algae can take over the planet. Dutch farmers, of course, oppose policies that would restrict their pig, dairy, and poultry farms, no small restriction in that ABN AMRO bank estimates that a recent high court decision against ammonia and nitrogen oxides emitted from the rear ends of animals and exhaust pipes of machines will put the kibosh on 14 billion euros-worth of new development.
But, hey, that’s the Netherlands; from my location at 1,000 feet above sea level, I can’t imagine what would happen if rising seas suddenly inundated all that manure. I suppose what drives me to comment, however, isn’t the plight of a low-lying country, but that we really never know when we might turn a positive into a negative.
Sure, I could cut back on my once-a-year pulled-pork sandwich, eat fewer hamburgers, and even visit Chic-fil-a less often than my thrice-annual visits, staving off hunger with a spicy chicken sandwich when I'm on a long road trip. In the process of my personal self-denial, I might save the country, or maybe the whole world, from being buried in a bunch of pig, cow, and chicken manure. I guess the environment would win. Or, would it? Those algae that will never bloom under excessive nutrient influxes, won’t capture sunlight to produce more oxygen. Am I better off—is the world better off—with the current oxygen content of the atmosphere and only a faint whiff of ammonia? Or, do we need a better distribution system, moving manure from places overwhelmed by it to places underwhelmed, that is, to places where soils depleted by over-farming need an influx of fertilizers? Could we solve the Dutch problem by importing their manure for farms in the Midwest?
Almost everything we do has some consequence for the environment. I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll cut back on stuff if you will. But then, the pig, dairy, and chicken farmers will suffer economically. All those workers at restaurants serving bacon, cheese, and chicken will find their jobs in jeopardy. Now, does either of us want that? Sorry, there’s a Chic-fil-a up ahead, and I haven’t had a spicy chicken sandwich for months.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/nitrogen-crisis-jam-packed-livestock-operations-has-paralyzed-dutch-economy Accessed December 7, 2019.
But I can understand the reasons that some would impose restrictions on nitrogen compounds. Put enough of them into the environment, and algae can take over the planet. Dutch farmers, of course, oppose policies that would restrict their pig, dairy, and poultry farms, no small restriction in that ABN AMRO bank estimates that a recent high court decision against ammonia and nitrogen oxides emitted from the rear ends of animals and exhaust pipes of machines will put the kibosh on 14 billion euros-worth of new development.
But, hey, that’s the Netherlands; from my location at 1,000 feet above sea level, I can’t imagine what would happen if rising seas suddenly inundated all that manure. I suppose what drives me to comment, however, isn’t the plight of a low-lying country, but that we really never know when we might turn a positive into a negative.
Sure, I could cut back on my once-a-year pulled-pork sandwich, eat fewer hamburgers, and even visit Chic-fil-a less often than my thrice-annual visits, staving off hunger with a spicy chicken sandwich when I'm on a long road trip. In the process of my personal self-denial, I might save the country, or maybe the whole world, from being buried in a bunch of pig, cow, and chicken manure. I guess the environment would win. Or, would it? Those algae that will never bloom under excessive nutrient influxes, won’t capture sunlight to produce more oxygen. Am I better off—is the world better off—with the current oxygen content of the atmosphere and only a faint whiff of ammonia? Or, do we need a better distribution system, moving manure from places overwhelmed by it to places underwhelmed, that is, to places where soils depleted by over-farming need an influx of fertilizers? Could we solve the Dutch problem by importing their manure for farms in the Midwest?
Almost everything we do has some consequence for the environment. I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll cut back on stuff if you will. But then, the pig, dairy, and chicken farmers will suffer economically. All those workers at restaurants serving bacon, cheese, and chicken will find their jobs in jeopardy. Now, does either of us want that? Sorry, there’s a Chic-fil-a up ahead, and I haven’t had a spicy chicken sandwich for months.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/nitrogen-crisis-jam-packed-livestock-operations-has-paralyzed-dutch-economy Accessed December 7, 2019.
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