'FrieslandCampina blows too high from powder tower'

FrieslandCampina is on the move. For example, there is a call for less milk, but the cooperative was already able to get people moving by banning the expansion and new construction of group and tie-up barns. Henk Kooistra, dairy farmer from Lellens in Groningen, is a committed member of the cooperative and gives his opinion on the current state of affairs.

By: Henk Kooistra

The members' meetings of Royal FrieslandCampina (RFC) will soon be held and members are warmly welcomed there to discuss the policy to be pursued in many areas. It is called, because in practice members have little to contribute.

The members can say anything, as long as they stick to the paths mapped out by the board and management. Anyone who does not want to participate in what is declared socially desirable will no longer be welcome in the long run. That ordained chairman Keurentjes recently in, I believe, the magazine Melkvee. And what is socially desirable is determined by the managers and the Council of Members dominated by them.

Now it is possible that these wishes will bring us all to the Land of Milk (and Honey). And it is certain that it is all well intended. However, I would like to make a few caveats.

Free entrepreneurs cooperative?
Side note 1: RFC is still a cooperative of free entrepreneurs. Together they own the company, the management and the board are their derivatives. When a chairman indicates that anyone who does not want to go along with the vision formulated by him, but has to disappear, indicates that something is fundamentally wrong. All the more so since the realization of that vision and also the content are highly debatable.  

Side note 2: RFC is basically a democratically run company, where the members have voting rights. Time and again, however, it appears that decisions taken, such as about the Kringloopwijzer and about the group stable, do not match with reader surveys. The deviation is so substantial that major question marks can be put on the democratic process within the association. And if questions about the course of events are then dismissed with procedural answers, that is asking for trouble.

Sustainability and added value
Side note 3: In terms of content, RFC guards against the added value of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, but has been in the European middle bracket for a long time with the guaranteed price. Not that that's bad, but as an argument it's debatable to say the least.

Side note 4: RFC is introducing measures at a speed that many cannot keep up with. Apparently a fixed strategy is followed: it starts with voluntary action, is followed by increasing financial pressure and ends in obligation. There may be good reasons for this, but the regulatory burden will be enormous, especially since there is also pressure from the government and banks. It is insufficiently felt that many entrepreneurs are completely discouraged by this accumulation.

Do not follow the majority in everything
Side note 5: RFC apparently knows exactly what is socially desirable, but forget that these wishes are all too often based on emotion. And that from time to time there are also good arguments not to follow the majority in everything, if there is one.

It already starts with the (financially) imposed grazing. It is fine to say to society: if you would like to have cows in the meadow, we will take care of that for a nice price. But also add that there are also all kinds of good arguments in favor of stables, such as environmental and perhaps also animal welfare arguments. The same goes for many other topics. 

Recycling pointer is farmer's deception
The danger of social docility, without any resistance, is that anyone who blows with too many winds may just discover that the wind has turned. What to do if customers find out that the Kringloopwijzer is very manipulative and also works out the opposite of what is intended, i.e. to promote circular agriculture, and is therefore in fact literally and figuratively a form of farmer's deception in its current form? Then this kind of regulation comes back like a boomerang on our heads.

I myself am a member of a nature association, because that yields a double per kilogram more for a slaughter cow. RFC also awards points for this, so that the proceeds exceed the contribution. I wouldn't recognize any of my fellow members even if they paraded down the street in a column. What a soap!

About the author of this opinion
Henk Kooistra (60) milks 120 cows in Lellens, Groningen, but has room for 160 cows. The aim is to achieve an annual milk production of 1 million kilos. He is currently waiting for the ground-bound test. 

View the file about it here FrieslandCampina.

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