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In the winter of 1944-45, the Dutch government urged its citizens to forage for acorns to avoid starvation. Known as the Dutch famine or Hunger Winter, citizens depended upon a handful of government-funded soup kitchens and the information published in “wartime cookbooks” about wild plants that could be foraged and other famine food sources.

According to Tom Vorstenbosch’s white paper in the National Library of Medicine, cattails, dandelion, curly dock, cherry stems, potato peels, sugar beets, mushrooms, tulip bulbs, dahlia tubers, and the leaves of cauliflower plants are among the foraged menu items survivors recounted to researchers. The famine claimed about 25,000 lives . As the country began to find its footing following the war, the minister of agriculture, Sicco Mansholt, led with food security top of mind. The Dutch agriculture industry built back better successfully, creating a system that boasts export volumes second only to the U.S.

Small farms grew, glass greenhouses were utilized, and dairy farms grew large enough to export about 65% of the milk produced. As farmers neared retirement age, older farmers were supported as they sold their farms to younger producers. In turn, the younger producers took financial resources from the U.S. and invested in tractors to ease the country’s heavy dependance on agricultural labor.

The use of milking machines and cooling tanks prompted efficiency gains in the country’s dairy industry .

Unlike the plastic or fiberglass greenhouses common here, Dutch greenhouses are glass, making heating more efficient. Vegetables are grown year-round using less space and Dutch farmers have become more efficient while using considerably fewer fertilizers. The Dutch farmers are a well-oiled machine and a picture of efficiency and food security.

I tell you all of that so I can tell you this. The Dutch government wants to slash agriculture production and livestock numbers in the name of reducing nitrogen emissions. One conservative member of Parliament told his peers that the policy has nothing to do with nature but is a land grab.

As part of Agenda 2030, the Dutch government has committed to building wind turbines and over a million residences in the coming years. All of that requires land, something the Netherlands doesn’t have much of. Agriculture utilizes 2/3 of the land and the government appears to want it.

Critics have pointed out that if agriculture production drops in the Netherlands, it will increase elsewhere in the EU to maintain the balance . Researchers led by Hans J. M. Grinsven said this could be avoided through the use of “climate policies or when consumption of livestock products would decrease due to increased consumer awareness or targeted interventions.” It would be a government-led attack on agriculture to drive consumers to see farmers as the enemy. The enemy, mind you.

Dutch farmers are protesting the policies as you read this. The rallying cry of Dutch farmers was once “efficiency and food security” and is now a resounding one — no farmers, no food. Farmers have driven their tractors to cities, disrupting grocery distribution routes and leaving store shelves empty. It is a sight, one farmer said, that will be the norm if farmers are forced out of business.

Dutch agriculture is an amazing example of efficiency. Dutch farmers delivered when their neighbors were starving, ensuring there wouldn’t again be a hungry day and now misguided climate policy is designed to destroy that. They’re throwing rocks at glass greenhouses in the form of regulations with no regard for the consequences.

To a wise person, this could all serve as a glimpse into a future when climate policy is instituted at the cost of food security. A country that cannot feed its people, cannot defend itself, and cows aren’t the problem.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication.

Driving through the desert of far western Colorado, something like a dream appears. Between the dirt and rock faces of buttes and mesas, there’s an ocean of green waving along Interstate 70.