| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines the politics and history of the 2019 Dutch Nitrogen Crisis, which saw an
immense number of Dutch farmers participate in mass protests over proposed environmental
regulations that would threaten their livelihoods. I contend that, while farmer-protesters are
right to claim that their livelihoods are at stake, the main threat lies not in the environmental
regulations imposed by the national government, but rather in the economic organization of the
agricultural industry and its reliance on a mode of production that prioritizes profit over social
needs. The modernized agricultural production process, whose primary economic prerogatives
are that of production increase and upscaling, has caused a multifaceted crisis from which
farmers, consumers, and the environment have suffered. In the future, farmers will lose their
farms due to an increasingly competitive economic environment wherein only the largest agro
companies are able to survive. Nonetheless, the farmers’ protests opposed major agricultural
reforms, instead defending the current status quo of intensive agriculture. Considering also that
the farmers’ protests were sponsored by large agricultural companies, it is my contention that
most protesters incorrectly identified their own class interests and therefore conflated their
interests with those of large agro-companies. Furthermore, when mass protests are sponsored
by large agro-companies, whose class interests are essentially in direct opposition to the
majority of protesting farmers, it problematizes the notion of self-representation. This thesis
explores the class politics and the politics of representation of the 2019 farmers’ protests by
drawing on the theories of Michel Foucault about the power of discourse; Antonio Gramsci
and Karl Marx about class consciousness and ideological resistance; and Gayatri Chakravorty
Spivak on the politics of representation. Through these theories, this thesis argues that the
politics of the Nitrogen Crisis are deeply embedded in the history of both rural populism in the
Netherlands and the modernization of Dutch agriculture. Furthermore, a class analysis of the
contemporary farmers’ protests raises questions about the possibility of representation in this
current political landscape. How can farmers meaningfully enter the public debate, if their
ability to enter is decided by agro-companies? Finally, this thesis proposes two organizations
that move beyond dominant discursive formations, instead providing a critical, systemic
solution to the Nitrogen Crisis. | |
