Interview Teun Young
'The importance of food production is badly underestimated'
Where is the role of food production in agriculture in the PBL report 'Major tasks in a limited space', wonders the Dutch Arable Farming Union (NAV). The report published Thursday (April 8) advocates an integrated approach, but according to NAV it is far from complete due to the lack of this issue. Boerenbusiness spoke with NAV chairman Teun de Jong.
What do you miss most in the PBL report?
"The importance of food production is of strategic value. We conclude from the report that we need to start thinking more integrally. Food sovereignty is of strategic importance. Rob de Wijk van Clingendael always warns against this. It is disappointing that PBL does not signals. It is always framed that we are only working for export, but it is just a business. Germany builds cars, we grow potatoes. In the fertile delta you have to do that, Southern Europe is drying up. The European Commission has said that it must come from northwestern Europe. The Netherlands cannot even be completely self-sufficient. We can only feed 5,5 people per hectare. With 1,7 million hectares of agricultural land, we have 10 inhabitants per hectare. And then I have not yet about cotton for clothing and the like."
The report states that agricultural land must make way for nature, housing and energy† But do we actually need more farmland?
"If we have to work more extensively, we certainly need more land. Instead of converting agricultural land, you have to reclaim land. That is not a political fact, but you have to keep agricultural land. We understand that some extra-urban areas are also needed for housing. and also for infrastructure, such as roads. That always affects farmland, but we have to try to limit it and conserve the land. There are a number of political groups who say that farmland is empty, that we should have food somewhere else and we can do fun things with the soil.
Is the approach in the report politically motivated?
"The store is full, food has no value. Politicians believe that agriculture should be reduced because it nuisances us. That nuisance has to be moved. It may have more impact there than here, but then it is with the neighbors. I certainly read the political delusion in it. And if that is not the case, it is a gap in the ability of the PBL to orientate itself broadly. Both are bad."
Linda van Eekeres
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