Iowa Farm Bureau study tour highlights how environmental policies are reshaping agriculture in the Netherlands.

Without major adjustments to both Dutch and European Union rules, farmers in the Netherlands will be forced to shrink animal agriculture production by 20% to 40% in the next decade.

This was one of the most eye-popping statistics learned during Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s (IFBF) 2025 Market Study Tour of Belgium and the Netherlands earlier this month.

“A key takeaway for me from this trip was how cautious we need to be about unintended consequences that can happen after policies are implemented, and how crippling overregulation can be,” said Cerro Gordo County Farm Bureau member Sean Authur. “[Laws] from 25 years ago are now being contorted to legally restrict farms and reduce their size.”

Going back to the 90's

At issue is Natura 2000, a network of nature protection areas established in 1992 under the Habitats Directive, aimed at safeguarding Europe’s threatened species and habitats. By 2022, the network covered more than 18% of the European Union’s land area and more than 7% of its marine area.

In 2019, a court ruled that the Netherlands had failed to adequately protect its Natura 2000 regions from nitrogen deposition in the soil and water. 

The decision, which invalidated the existing permitting system, led to the immediate suspension of thousands of construction projects and factory expansions, and significantly affected the agricultural sector, which the court claimed is a major contributor to nitrogen...