This is a more accessible version of ‘Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark’
This essay could be about any one of a number of nations. But as a case study, I selected what is supposed to be one of the happiest countries on Earth — Denmark.
Because if you're a Danish farmer, happiness is in short supply these days.
While the world focuses on alleged 'far-right' movements across Europe, something more sinister is brewing in the home of Lego, Carlsberg and Hans Christian Andersen. Under the cover of environmental protection, the government is planning to confiscate huge chunks of farmland and destroy the agricultural industry that feeds the nation.
This is not ‘conspiracy theory’. It's all documented in obscure official government reports — reports that somehow ‘forgot’ to ask the farmers what they think about being put out of business.
The 30% Target Nobody Talks About
In 2022, world leaders signed the Convention on Biological Diversity Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, an agreement which commits countries to 'protect' 30% of all land and sea by 2030. But what 'protect' actually means is taking land away from the people who use it productively and placing it in ‘biodiversity reserves’ or similar programmes.
The Netherlands feels the pain already. Dutch farmers have been protesting for years because their government needs to seize 3.5% land territory to hit their 30% target. But Denmark has a much bigger problem — they need another 15% of the entire country.
That's roughly the size of Yorkshire — or the equivalent of Delaware and Rhode Island combined — that has to be taken out of productive use. And guess where most of it's coming from?
Farmland.
The Report That Farmers Weren't Invited To Write
The Danish government recently published a 'Roadmap for Sustainable Transformation of the Danish Agri-Food Systems', bureaucrat-speak for 'how we're going to revolutionise farming'. Yet, of the 294 contributors to this agricultural roadmap, only three supposedly represented farming — and none were actual farmers. The rest? Academics, bureaucrats, ‘experts’ associated with global NGOs, and corporate consultants — the sort of people who've never grown a potato but are certain they know how farming should work.
… like writing a manual for brain surgery and ‘forgetting’ to invite any brain surgeons.
The Impossible Math
The plan further demands that Denmark cut greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. However, Denmark has already cut emissions by an impressive 50-55%, yet they are still to find another 15-20% of their 1990 total.
To put that in perspective, Denmark would need to cut current emissions by another 33-40% in just six years. The report cheerfully suggests this will happen — while simultaneously making Danish businesses ‘more competitive’.
According to the government's own figures, agriculture currently produces 22% of Denmark's emissions. So naturally, farmers are in the crosshairs.
The plan calls for:
Massive livestock reductions, starting with cattle (even though pig farming is actually Denmark's biggest agricultural export)
Converting 50% of farmland to 'perennial cropping' — basically fruit and nut trees that produce far less food than grain crops
Turning 250,000 hectares of farmland into wetlands — that's 10% of all agricultural land gone
Cutting pesticide use by 90%, which will devastate crop yields
Eliminating most fertiliser use, making intensive agriculture impossible
Even though magical new farming technology promises to boost productivity by 50% (though this technology doesn’t actually exist), losing more than half your effective farmland and most of your tools would still mean massive food shortages, leading to colossal price increases in the supermarkets.
The Energy Shell Game
But wait, there’s more. Denmark's environmental plan is built on an elaborate shell game that would make a con artist blush. Many Danish homes used to be heated by 'district heating' — essentially recycled hot water from coal power plants, which is actually quite efficient. But Denmark just shut down its last coal plant in August 2024.
So how is that heating replaced? Well, for that they came up with quite a brilliant plan, the academics have truly thought ‘out of the box’ here. They pump seawater through giant electric heaters or alternatively, they heat it through the burning of ‘green’ wood pellets.
Let’s get this straight: Denmark seek to replace efficient waste heat from power generation with energy-intensive electric induction heating, while simultaneously demanding that everyone switch to electric cars and electric transport. And they do all of this… while shutting down power plants.
The result? Electricity demand soars just as electricity generation capacity disappears. Denmark already has some of the highest electricity prices in the world. This plan will gradually make energy poverty universal. But, sure, the nation is famous for those occasional days where wind produce enough electricity to export.
But what happens when the wind stops blowing?
Who's Really in Charge?
The agricultural transformation is being overseen by an organisation called SEGES, which calls itself an 'innovation company.' SEGES has helpfully calculated that Danish taxpayers need to hand over £250 million annually to fund this ‘agricultural revolution’.
SEGES promises that this will somehow create 'job neutrality' — no jobs will allegedly be lost as farming is dismantled — the same kind of economic fantasy that promised redundant coal miners lucrative careers as computer programmers.
When the fantasy falls apart and farming collapses, will SEGES be held responsible? Of course not. Like all technocratic organisations, they'll have moved on to the next lucrative 'sustainability' project, paid for by the Danish taxpayer, which magically will align with the latest noise out of, say, the unaccountable technocrats at the IUCN.
The License to Operate
In the bureaucratic language a chilling phrase is hiding: farmers will soon need a 'license to operate'. In other words, unelected bureaucrats will decide who's allowed to farm — and who isn't.
This isn't regulation — it's the end of property rights. Imagine needing government permission to grow food on your own land, issued by academics who've never worked a day on a farm.
It frankly reads as though its straight out of the Soviet Union.
Yet, what's happening in Denmark isn't unique. The same 30% land grab is being pushed worldwide by the IUCN and others under the banner of 'biodiversity protection'. The Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Canada — farmer protests are breaking out everywhere for the same reason. And the pattern is always identical:
International bodies set impossible technocratic environmental targets
National governments adopt them without public debate
Academic consultants design implementation plans
Farmers are excluded from the process
The media portrays any resistance as 'far-right extremism'
Rural communities are destroyed in the name of ‘saving the planet’
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