Background Nitrogen mood
Peasant bashing and other election issues
With three and a half months to go until the new parliamentary elections, it is important for politicians to speed up their campaigns. However, there is little sign of haste now. The politicians who continue are still on vacation, or - as with the CDA - are first settling mutual accounts. In our Nitrogen Mood section, we give an impression of the nitrogen crisis in our own way.
The relative calm that is still there can also be used by the agricultural sector to catch its breath. For a moment there is less pressure felt. However, the 'farmer bashing' from other segments of society is not over just like that. It is also fully on the agenda in many other 'Western' countries. It's not hard to see that discussion elsewhere. It plays in Germany, Ireland, Belgium, the United States and more 'developed' societies. Everywhere in a slightly different way, farmers are held excessively responsible for environmental and nature problems and are hardly recognized as food producers, or for other useful functions. It is a socially and culturally driven phenomenon that expresses itself in different ways. Selective scientific and legal arguments support the message.
National nitrogen adviser caught
Nitrogen professor Jan Willem Erisman thought he had found a case on Schiermonnikoog to support his assumptions in this direction. His logic: if farmers keep fewer cows, the nitrogen load will definitely drop and the environment will be much better. Even before the best man had any proof for his assumption, he had already written a book entitled 'The dairy cattle evolution', he was so sure of his case. Last year he proudly handed it over to nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal. Now that it is clear that, despite everything, the nitrogen load on Schiermonnikoog has risen, Erisman uses the most bizarre excuses not to have to admit that he is wrong. Fortunately for him, he now has a job as a government nitrogen adviser, but Schiermonnikoog will continue to pursue this equalizer for a long time to come. Unfortunately, Erisman is not one of a kind. Maybe he should do an internship with, for example, Martin Scholten and the experiment in Lieftinghsbroek.
Jealous of BBB
Farmers in the aforementioned countries almost all experience the same pressure. In the eyes of often urban 'elites', they feel like the bitten dog that spoils life outside the city. In various countries, therefore, consideration is being given to establishing their own counterforces. The first successes of the BBB are viewed with envy. In the Netherlands, 'bashing' is now mainly expressed through the nitrogen problem. This is not to say that there is nothing wrong with nitrogen, but that there is a one-sided focus on the role of farmers or, more specifically, livestock farmers.
Don't stunt or kick
There is also something of food hatred running through it. Nutrition is very political for various groups. Take the Wakker Dier commercials. In it, the organization specifically opposes stunting with meat at one supermarket, then another. Fine to be against this kind of stunting, you might say, but why only act against stunting with meat and not against all stunting with food? The problem for Wakker Dier is that livestock farming can no longer be targeted.
Green can also be unhealthy
Various political parties uncritically go along with the way of thinking outlined above. That is why it is reasonable for the dairy umbrella organization the NZO to, in anticipation of the elections, a number of points of interest to be brought to the fore by politics. For example, that food should not only be green to be 'healthy' and sustainable, but that it should also meet serious (nutritional) values. Otherwise accidents will happen. It's an old lesson that can easily be forgotten with all the excitement about climate and animal welfare.
New Agricultural Agreement
Good also of the NZO to pass on its signal in peace. It comes across as a bit more thoughtful than that the last video of LTO chairman Sjaak van der Tak, in which he once again advocates a new Agricultural Agreement out of the blue. Something like that is really more something for the period after the elections, when formation has to be done again. Now, according to the many reactions, it mainly evokes irritation.
Many parties lack face
Which key players will the countryside soon have to deal with? That is still quite unclear due to all the movements that followed the breakup of the old government coalition. Such as the running away of many old leaders, the flying in of new ones and the internal discussions that are still raging here and there. There is a combination of being PvdA-Groenlinks with Frans Timmermans leading the polls, there is the BBB with perhaps many new political faces, there are also parties such as the VVD, D66 and also the CDA, which do not yet have a new 'face' . And then there is the Pieter Omtzigt factor, who can either become a vote cannon or a soap bubble. What is special about the new situation is that there really is something else to choose from. As always, a few small parties are now appearing that want to participate. FDF leader Mark van den Oever has also thought aloud about the idea of a political party, but his chances are not estimated very high.
Policy automation
What the outgoing cabinet still wants and can do in the coming months to install a new House of Representatives will become clear at the beginning of September. Then the House of Representatives will vote on the question of which matters it will leave behind for a new cabinet and which will not. Outgoing minister Van der Wal and a number of other politicians would like to continue with the nitrogen policy that has been introduced, because they believe it is so important. And although the civil service may not officially be called a political force, full support for this can be expected from that angle. This is evident from a large number of documents published in recent years. There is almost a kind of automatic policy at work here, partly under pressure from Brussels forces such as Frans Timmermans and his team.
Klaas van der Horst
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.
