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...