Criminal organizations have approached 15 percent of Dutch farmers to offer them money in exchange for free-standing sheds or stalls so that a drug lab can be built there, Trouw reports based on a poll conducted by Geleen Consultancy.
The number of farmers approached by criminals in this way may well be higher, as some may be afraid to admit this. The police believe the number may be as high as 3 out of 5 farmers, according to the newspaper.
There is a strong desire among Dutch farmers to reform the agricultural sector so that it uses climate-friendly methods, according to an opinion poll among Dutch farmers by Geleen Consultancy on behalf of newspaper Trouw.
The researchers asked farmers about their own welfare, the current agricultural sector and their ideas for the future. Only 6 percent of respondents said they currently work organically. But over 80 percent said they want to switch to climate-friendly methods.
Signs of fraud in the registering of dairy cows were found at 2,100 cattle farms, Minister Carola Schouten of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality announced in a letter to the Tweede Kamer on Thursday. These farms are blocked, which means that no animals can be transported or removed, while further investigation is done, the Minister said.
A cow managed to escape on her way to the butcher and has been on the run in the small town of Lettele for six weeks. So far all of the multiple attempts to catch or kill the animal have been unsuccessful, the cow's owner said to newspaper AD.
According to the farmer, the cow and one of her siblings escaped last year when they were being transported to the butcher. A veterinarian managed to hit the younger cow with three anesthetic darts, after which she could be driven into the cattle wagon.
The Netherlands' agriculture sector has relatively the lowest impact on the environment of all the countries in the world, according to a study by ABN Amro. Per kilo of agricultural product, the Netherlands 'footprint' of, among others, CO2, energy, pesticides and antibiotics is the lowest, the bank concludes, NOS reports.
The first free wolf in the Netherlands in about 150 years spent the weekend chasing sheep in Drenthe.
A farmer in Zuidschermer in Noord-Holland died on Monday evening after being attacked by a bull of his.
Two chickens were found cut into pieces and impaled on trees in the Genneperparken in Eindhoven. The animal police was signaled at 2 p.m. by a municipality controller who found the animals in the park.
A field in Winssen was found to be full of grenades from the Second World War.
In the Frisian village of Mirns, hundreds of goats and three horses perished in a barn fire.
Jasper S. confessed the murder of Marianne Vaatstra for the second time during the trial that started on Thursday morning in Leeuwarden.
