Dutch Farmers Are Abandoning Chemical Farming — And Making More Money Doing It
Deventer, Monday, 8 June 2026.
A leaked internal memo from LTO Salland, a Dutch regional farmers’ organization, reveals that tens of thousands of farmers are voluntarily switching to regenerative agriculture — driven purely by profit, not regulation. African farmers pioneering the same shift have cut operational costs by up to 70%.
The Memo That Changed the Conversation
The document was never meant to be public. An internal memo from LTO Salland — a regional farmers’ organization representing agricultural communities in the Salland area of the Netherlands — has been intercepted and published by local outlet Hier in Salland, and its contents are striking [1]. The memo amounts to an institutional admission: the traditional Salland family farm, as it has been structured for decades, has no future within the current intensive, external-input-dependent agricultural model [1]. What makes this revelation particularly significant is not the diagnosis itself — many in the agricultural sector have long sensed structural problems — but rather the prescribed remedy, and, crucially, the reasoning behind it. LTO Salland is not pointing to Brussels directives or EU Green Deal obligations as the catalyst for change. It is pointing to economics [1].
A Profit Argument, Not a Policy Argument
The memo is unambiguous on this point. According to LTO Salland, the real competition for Dutch farmers now comes from countries that have discovered agriculture can function without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and ever-mounting debt burdens [1]. The organization explicitly frames this as a market-competitiveness crisis, not an environmental one — although the environmental co-benefits are substantial. The memo urges its members to stop what it terms ‘ecocide’ and to embrace a sustainable transition, but the financial logic underpins the entire argument [1]. LTO Salland concludes that the sector must transform because profitable, input-light production models are emerging as viable competitive threats from abroad — and waiting for regulatory pressure from the EU to force the transition would, by that point, be too late for many family farms in Salland to survive [1].
Africa as the Unexpected Benchmark
Among the most striking elements of the leaked memo is its reference to African farmers as a benchmark of what is now financially achievable in regenerative agriculture. Tens of thousands of farmers across Africa have, according to the memo, successfully transitioned to regenerative farming without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides [1]. The results documented in the memo are substantial: operational costs have dropped by as much as 70%, soil biology and biodiversity have recovered, and — crucially for the commercial argument — product quality has improved sufficiently to command higher sale prices [1]. This cost reduction of up to 70% in operational expenditure is the number that will resonate most with farming communities in Salland. It transforms regenerative agriculture from an idealistic proposition into a financially rational business decision, achievable without the European subsidy frameworks that Dutch farmers have historically relied upon [1].
Denmark Sets the Policy Pace
The memo does not rely solely on the African example to build its case for urgency. It also highlights the trajectory of Denmark — a country LTO Salland describes as a longstanding competitor to the Netherlands in European agricultural markets — as evidence that the direction of travel in advanced economies is now firmly set [1]. The Danish government has abolished its standalone Ministry of Agriculture and placed the entire agricultural sector under a ministry responsible for nature, water, climate, and animal welfare [1]. Beyond institutional restructuring, Denmark has announced concrete plans to convert 390,000 hectares of land into nature areas, wetlands, and forests, to introduce a CO₂ levy on livestock farming, and to discourage the export of live piglets [1]. For LTO Salland, Denmark’s moves are not merely a political curiosity — they represent a strategic repositioning by a direct competitor, one that is actively aligning its agricultural model with long-term soil health, water quality, and climate resilience [1].
A Regional Blueprint for the Future of Dutch Farming
In response to these converging pressures and opportunities, LTO Salland has put forward a vision for the Salland region specifically. The proposal is to transform Salland into a smaller-scale, land-connected experimental garden — a proving ground for the agriculture of the future [1]. The practical components of this vision include a reduction in dependency on synthetic fertilizers, imported animal feed, pesticides, and subsidies; a shift toward more local processing and direct sales to consumers; and the development of new revenue streams derived from nature management and water stewardship [1]. This last point is particularly significant in the Dutch context, where the province of Overijssel — within which Salland sits — has active subsidy frameworks in place for agri-environmental measures, including the Deltaplan Agrarisch Waterbeheer Overijssel 2024–2027, which runs through to 31 December 2027, and supports water quality and soil improvement investments by farmers working with LTO Noord [3]. Provincial subsidy frameworks in Overijssel allow for contributions of up to 80% of eligible productive investment costs for farmers adopting practices aligned with the EU Water Framework Directive and the Nitrates Directive [3]. The alignment between LTO Salland’s proposed transition model and the existing financial architecture in Overijssel province is, in that sense, considerable — though [alert! ‘the memo itself does not explicitly reference provincial subsidy schemes; this connection is drawn from the Overijssel subsidy documentation, not from the LTO Salland memo directly’].
Regional Politics Adds Another Layer
The publication of the memo arrives against a politically charged backdrop in the broader Overijssel province. On 4 June 2026 — just four days before today’s date of 8 June 2026 — the provincial political party JA21 Overijssel announced that a motion titled ‘Doelen voor behoud landbouw’ (Goals for the preservation of agriculture) had been adopted by the provincial assembly [2]. JA21 Overijssel stated its intention to work toward the preservation of agricultural land, calling not only for goals to be set for farmers, but also for the province itself to be held to targets [2]. The timing is notable: a motion seeking to protect the agricultural land base was passed less than a week before the LTO Salland memo became public, illustrating the tension within the province between those seeking to preserve conventional farming structures and the growing institutional acknowledgment — from within the farmers’ own representative organizations — that the existing model is no longer sustainable [1][2].
The Tipping Point Argument
What the LTO Salland memo ultimately represents is a bottom-up acknowledgment of a tipping point — one that has not been mandated by regulation but is being driven by market economics, competitive dynamics, and the lived experience of farmers in regions like Africa who have already made the transition successfully [1]. The memo captures this urgency in direct language: ‘If we still want a future as family farms in Salland, then we must not hold tighter to the past. We must, like a man possessed, embrace the transition’ [1]. For innovation professionals, agricultural investors, and agritech developers, the implications are substantial. A regional farmers’ organization in the Salland area of the Netherlands — a jurisdiction with active provincial subsidy programs for precisely this kind of transition, including frameworks running through 2027 — has now formally signaled that tens of thousands of its member farmers are ready to move [1][3]. The question is no longer whether the shift will happen, but how quickly the financial and technical infrastructure needed to support it at scale can be assembled.