The Netherlands: Dutch newspaper AD uses misleading headline which could favor populist, nationalistic - anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies - by RM

A recent headline by Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) which stated "Fuss in Germany about proposal to change English language courses in primary schools to Turkish". is misleading, especially if you just read the headline and not the whole story.

If you take the time to read the whole story - however - you quickly realize the heading is misleading.

This change of language from English to Turkish will in reality never happen in Germany or in any other country in the EU.

These kinds of headlines, however, are obviously  "grist to the mill" for the nationalist, anti-immigration, populist parties in the Netherlands and Europe, which are mainly supported by people, who do not want to look any further "than their noses are long", to see the dangers of populism.

This regardless of the fact that there are plenty of examples of populist inspired and created political chaotical disasters in the world, including the emergence of a Trump in America, Orban in Hungary , Giuseppe Conte in Italy, and the Brexit drama, the supporters of the populist movement still have their head in the sand.

As the European parliamentary elections this coming May are quickly approaching, it is good to remember that famous saying  "A warned person counts for two". 

It is high time, that we the people of the EU stop this so-called "populist movement", before they destruct our future, and that we take our purpose of being a democratic counter-balance to the many evil forces surrounding us, more seriously 

For the original AD newspaper report in Dutch click on this link  Ophef in Duitsland over voorstel om Engels op basisschool te vervangen door Turks | Buitenland | AD.nl

Britain - Brexit: British Food Industry warns Government on Brexit disaster

Food industry warns Government on Brexit 'crisis'

Read more at: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47200688

The Netherlands and Brexit: Netherlands wins Brexit spoils amid corporate relocation talks

Brexit is driving companies out of the UK, and the Netherlands is raking in the corporate refugees.

About 250 companies are in talks with the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency to potentially relocate activities to the country, according to a statement published on Saturday. The candidates would join 42 companies that made the move last year, and the 18 early birds in 2017.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the largest Brexit wave is yet to come,” Jeroen Nijland, who heads NFIA, said in a telephone interview. “It normally takes about six months to two years from the first conversation we have with a company before it makes a decision, and our pipeline is now bigger than in earlier years.”

The Netherlands has emerged as one of the winners in securing businesses that seek to leave the UK because of Brexit, vying with countries like Germany, France and Ireland. The country, which bagged the European Medicines Agency — an EU agency moving from London to Amsterdam — is initially luring corporate entities in the financial and media sectors, both of which require permits to operate in the bloc, Nijland said.

The growth of Amsterdam as a trading hub will boost the Dutch share of European equity trading to around a third from five% currently, the financial markets regulator AFM estimates. The watchdog also expects the country to capture nearly 90% of European bond trading.
 
The media industry is another area where the Netherlands has picked up wins. Discovery Inc said in January it’s applying for broadcast licenses in the Netherlands to ensure its pay-TV channels will continue to show across the European Union in the event of a no-deal Brexit when the UK leaves the bloc on March 29. 

Read more: Netherlands wins Brexit spoils amid corporate relocation talks

The Netherlands and Global Agriculture Exports: Where Is the World's Next Meal Coming From? by Ingeborg van Lieshout

While the Netherlands has been a major food exporter for many years, its production continues to rise — it increased 7 percent between 2016 and 2017, and 25 percent between 2010 and 2017, according to the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, though it rose just 0.2 percent between 2017 and 2018. The U.S., meanwhile, increased its agricultural exports 4 percent year on year in the first 10 months of 2018 … though its agricultural exports in October 2018 alone were the lowest for any October since 2011, according to USDA data. The Netherlands saw $104.6 billion in agricultural exports in 2017, compared to the U.S.’s $140.5 billion.

The Netherlands put an emphasis on agricultural production in the post-World War II era, following the Hongerwinter of 1944, when famine killed an estimated 22,000 people. Now the country comes first on Oxfam’s Global Food Index, indicating that its citizens, who are now the world’s tallest on average, get enough to eat and have access to healthy food. But with an increased emphasis on sustainability — and skepticism of efficiency above all else — Dutch farming has seen major strides in problem areas like antibiotic use in livestock, which saw its use in veterinary medicine decrease by a third between 1999 and 2015.

More than that, the Netherlands is making great strides when it comes to the food of the future — technology that isn’t likely to stay in the Netherlands but could instead help the world feed itself. “The Dutch have the most productive, efficient and innovative food production system in the world, forced by lack of space,” explains His Royal Highness Constantijn Van Oranje, brother of Dutch King Willem-Alexander and a special envoy for Dutch business accelerator StartupDelta. “Our next challenge is to make this sector a global agritech exporter and leader in building fully circular sustainable food supply chains.”

And they’re doing just that. For example: Raising livestock takes an enormous amount of arable land and clean water, but Dutch startup Mosa Meat raised $8.5 million last year to develop a process that grows meat in a lab using animal cells rather than butchering in a traditional way. Five years ago, they created a hamburger — one that they estimate cost $330,000 to produce. Now they say the individual patties, which are expected to be on the market in 2021, should cost less than $10 each. “The taste of in-vitro meat … ” explains founder Mark Post, a Professor of Vascular Physiology at Maastricht University, “ … is exactly the same as ordinary meat.” If it catches on, it could drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 15 percent of which are produced by animal agriculture.

And from meat to potatoes: Last month, Dutch potato breeding company Solynta announced that it has instituted a hybrid breeding program for the crop that will allow it to swiftly select for favorable traits. Solynta’s aim is to make potato growing seed-based — potatoes are currently grown from seed tubers — which they say will allow a 25-gram bag of seeds to do the work now being done by 2,500-kilo shipments of tubers. The Netherlands is the world’s biggest exporter of potatoes, but Solynta’s seeds, which they say are resistant to blight, could make potato production scalable in times of famine, as well as reducing the amount of time it takes to breed new varieties by 60 percent. 


Read more: Where Is the World's Next Meal Coming From? The Netherlands | Acumen | OZY

EU: European experience with migration shows that border walls don't stop migration

Aging Europe needs immigration, but in order to achieve this in an organized and orderly way it needs unity of purpose, better planning, and certainly no border walls

Read more at:
https://www.socialeurope.eu/border-walls-dont-stop-migration

Global Warming - The Netherlands and Belgium: Thousands of students join climate protests in the Netherlands - by Michael Staines

At least 10,000 students have skipped class in the Netherlands to join a major protest demanding greater action on climate change.

It comes as thousands of teenagers in Belgium skipped school for the fourth Thursday in a row to join the protests.

Similar marches have been held in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland.

It comes as scientists yesterday confirmed that the last five years have been the warmest on record.

Organisers of this afternoon's protest in The Hague in the Netherlands said they were aiming to send a wake-up call to politicians.

It comes after the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency said the national target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by next year - when compared to 1990 levels - was out of reach.

Feeling proud: an estimated 10,000 students marching through The Hague to protest climate change. #klimaatspijbelaars #KlimaatSpijbelen pic.twitter.com/kH6lcyxtdX

Organizers say the movement is gathering momentum with a global protest scheduled for March

Read more: Thousands of students join climate protests in the

The Netherlands and US Big Pharma Clash: US "Big Pharma" lashes out at Dutch Government for wanting to control pricing

Note Almere-Digest: It looks like the US Pharmaceutical Industry is also trying to use the same heavy handed political tactics and arguments in the Netherlands like they are used to doing in America. In the Netherlands they are doing their lobbying through their membership in the local chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce, which even has a specific Pharmaceutical Committee within that organization. US Big Pharma and Chemical Industry Lobbyists are also swarming all over the EU parliament to promote their products and influence the European decision makers.Hopefully the Dutch Government and the EU Commission will continue to resist these devious attempts to influence the government decision makers

Read more at: 
https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2019/02/06/netherlands-novartis-vertex-drug-prices/