I wonder if he’s just being careful politically. Farmers are a polarised topic in the Netherlands.

At best you could say there’s “the” (pronounced thee) and “the” (pronounced “thuh”), like le vs l’

Germanic language Dutch only has “de” and “het”

plenty of kids up for adoption

Maybe this is very country-dependent, but at least in the Netherlands that’s not the case at all (and adoptions from abroad get shady, like without the mother’s consent)