The Gelderland Agricultural Collective threatens to suspend participation in the nitrogen consultations if Gelderland does not receive room from The Hague for its own approach. Forced purchase and expropriation are also out of the question for the collective.
The agricultural collective has handed over an urgent letter about the cabinet's nitrogen policy to deputy Peter Drenth. The collective says it is actually close to Drenth, who advocates a Gelderland approach. However, there appear to be few opportunities to deviate from government policy.
The collective states that there must be clarity quickly about what scope the province will have. The Gelderland agricultural collective consists of LTO Noord, the Dutch Dairy Trade Union (NMV), the Producers' Organization of Pig Farming (POV), the Dutch Poultry Farmers Association (NVP), the Gelders Agrarian Youth Contact (GAJK), Agractie, FDF and Netwerk Grondig. They believe that there is currently no perspective for agriculture. "It is high time for meaningful policy based on thorough area analyses, with innovation as a fully-fledged option," the collective says in a press release.
Perspective for the agricultural sector
Elements of the urgent letter are: thorough monitoring of nature, stopping a rigid application of the Critical Deposition Value (KDW), a quick solution for the PAS detectors and other bottlenecks and prospects for the sector. According to the agricultural collective, maintaining sufficient agricultural land plays an essential role in this. For the collective, forced purchase and expropriation are non-negotiable.
In the urgent letter, the group states: "On April 1, Minister Van der Wal came with the Outline Letter. That letter, the nitrogen debate on April 6 and all statements in the media and conversations have caused us even more unrest, uncertainty, bewilderment and anger. Constantly portraying livestock farmers as the culprits and continuing to wave the purchasing and expropriation knife: that is not the way to deal with us entrepreneurs and food makers. Also continuing to state without any substantiation that nature is on code red state and species are becoming extinct, as a result of... again and again the nitrogen from livestock farming. This is far from the truth and does not give livestock farming any prospects at all."
The agricultural collective continues to engage in discussions with the province, but wants clarity quickly about what scope the province will receive from The Hague. The collective will also follow the continuation of the main lines debate with interest in this context. "If there is still no sufficient perspective after the follow-up discussion, agriculture will suspend its participation in the area tables (GGAs) in Gelderland."