Many European countries are obliged to show on the labels of food in supermarkets where the food has been produced. The Netherlands, as export country sees this development as a threat. The Netherlands would rather have this specified as “produced in the EU”.
Many foreign consumers would obviously not buy Dutch products if they could buy the same product produced in their own country. In the case of animal products, those foreigners are perfectly right. Why drag animal products over the entire world while a livestock farmer can provide the same products in an animal friendly way in your own region? Added to this, The Netherlands needs to import large amounts of livestock fodder to feed her half a billion animals annually. And that is (also) at the cost of nature and the environment abroad.
Animal- and environmental friendliness are fulfilled minimally in The Netherlands because otherwise we cannot compete with foreign countries in cost price.
This is a further reason to show the Dutch livestock farming sector that her extent is undesirable. In order to bring it to a healthy level, Authorities (both national and European) need to stop subsidising factory farming. It is true that large scale companies keep competition going longer, but they are the ones who have the most negative influence on the appearance of the countryside.