When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Geopolitics

How Dutch Farmers Became The New Protagonists For Global Conspiracy Theorists

As anti-vax protests fade from public debate, “alternative media” have found an unlikely new hot topic: Dutch farmers. And across the Atlantic, some sources claim a convenient would-be connection to Canadian truckers who blockaded trade earlier this year.

Photo of tractors and protesters as part of a demonstration in Amsterdam

Farmers protest in Amsterdam

tedvandeemter via Instagram
Shaun Lavelle

AMSTERDAM — Tractor-riding farmers in the Netherlands have descended on different parts of the country over the past few days, blocking supermarkets, distributions centers, and roads in and out of major cities. The protests have escalated, with a few cases of violence.

The agriculture sector is protesting Dutch government plans to reduce the nitrogen oxide and ammonia pollution produced by livestock. The plans would require farmers to use less fertilizer and reduce livestock numbers, with cuts reaching 70% in some cases and about 30% of farms expected to have would to give up raising livestock altogether.

The agriculture protests aren’t new. They’ve been happening sporadically since 2019. What is new this time around is that the Dutch farmers have unlikely new allies — conspiracy theorists around the world.


Alternative news sources are claiming the farmers from the Netherlands heartland were inspired by the Canadian truckers, who made headlines earlier this year with a blockade in the capital of Ottawa to protest mandates that required truckers crossing the border into the U.S. to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

It is not clear if there is a direct connection to Canada's trucking movement, but reports of the claim have begun to actually end up inspiring the farmers to continue with their protests against the government.

Counter Signal crowdfund

This would-be self-sustaining storyline kicked into high gear earlier this week when Canadian editor Keean Bexte touched down in Amsterdam earlier this week, reports VRT, the Flemish-language Belgian public broadcaster. Bexte, editor-in-chief of influential “alternative news” site, The Counter Signal, had crowdfunded 8,000 Canadian dollars for his trip. He even created a website, Dutch Uprising, to cover the protests, with articles shared thousands of times.

The protest was soon picked up by far-right groups and politicians.

Bexte has been claiming that Dutch farmers have been inspired by the Canadian truckers’ protest earlier this year. Back then, about 90% of truckers were vaccinated, about the same as the Canadian population generally. But the protest was soon picked up by far-right groups and politicians. The truckers actually had more support outside Canada, particularly from the U.S., than within the country itself.

Bexte has posted an interview with a Dutch farmer who said he was inspired by the Canadian truckers. However, the main source of the argument seems to be a photo that falsely claims to show Dutch farmers protesting in solidarity with the Canadians. The photo was shared hundreds of times on Facebook and inspired stories on alternative news sites, which accused the mainstream media of ignoring the story.

A New World Order

The far-right groups and alternative news sources supporting the Dutch farmers are deeply critical of COVID-19 regulations, directing much of their hostility at the World Economic Forum (WEF). Bexte has accused the Canadian and Dutch prime ministers of being “WEF puppets,” claiming the organization controls national governments and is using COVID to push a new world order.

It's about attracting attention and undermining trust.

Like the Canadian protesters, the Dutch farmers enjoy support from far-right groups that is not mirrored in the country itself. Public approval of the farmers’ actions dropped significantly back in 2019 after they blockaded roads, and has not recovered.

Will the escalating protests and conspiracy theories this time garner new support? Unlikely, since the Dutch are notoriously averse to radical public action, preferring cooperation, consensus decision-making and dialogue (the “polder model”, named after the collective effort required to build the dykes that keep the country safe from flooding).

For the far-right populists on either side of the Atlantic, the goal is still not really about polling well, and certainly not about agriculture policy. It's about attracting attention and undermining trust, which requires trying to look bigger — and wider — than they are.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

food / travel

Meet Blanca Alsogaray, The First Woman To Win Cuba's "Oscar Of Cigars"

For the first time, Cuba's prestigious annual cigar festival recognized a woman, Alsogaray, owner of an iconic cigar shop in Buenos Aires, as the top representative of this celebrated lifeline of the Cuban economy.

Photo of a woman smoking a cigar.

Alsogaray smoking a cigar at her shop in Buenos Aires

Mariana Iglesias

BUENOS AIRES — Cigars are traditionally reserved for a man's world. But this year, for the first time, a Latin American woman has won one of three awards given at the 23rd Habano Festival in Cuba.

Every year since 2000, the Festival has gathered the top players in the world of Cuban cigars including sellers, distributors, specialists and aficionados. A prize is given to an outstanding personality in one of three areas: production, communication and sales. The latter went to Blanca Alsogaray, owner of the Buenos Aires shop La Casa del Habano. She says these prizes are not unlike the "Oscars of cigars."

"It's a sexist world for sure, but I won," she said of a prize which was called "Habano Man" (Hombre habano) until this year, when the word was changed for her.

"It recognizes a lifetime's work, which I consider so important as Argentina isn't an easy place for business, and less so being a woman." She was competing with two men. "In truth," she added. "I really do deserve it."

Alsogaray opened her shop in 1993. At the time there were only two sellers anywhere of Cuba's premium, hand-rolled cigars, the other one being in Mexico. Now habanos are sold in 150 outlets worldwide. "I want to celebrate these 30 years, and the prize. We're going to have a big party," she said. The firm celebrated its 30th anniversary on May 16.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest