Interview nitrogen
UvA research sets the agricultural cut-off limit at 300 meters
The nitrogen deposition measurements by the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have only been public for barely two days and are already the nitrogen news in the Netherlands. There is plenty of discussion and Members of Parliament are falling over each other with questions to the cabinet. Lubbert van Dellen, secretary of the Mesdag Fund (the fund that initiated the research), was asked what the results mean for practice.
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"The study shows that the emissions from a farm can clearly be traced up to a distance of 300 meters as originating from that company. After that, the so-called blanket, in which all kinds of emissions are represented, dominates. You can therefore conclude that the current peak load policy is incorrect Only companies that are located less than 300 meters from a vulnerable nature reserve can still be classified as peak load emitters and almost all of them remain below the critical deposition values for nature reserves. Other companies also emit nitrogen, but their contribution is absorbed by the blanket, which also includes emissions from non-agricultural businesses, traffic and households."
What should be done differently?
"We believe that the stopper scheme should be open to all agricultural companies that want to be bought out instead of just peak loaders. For the rest, we believe that agriculture should do something to reduce emissions, because more than 90% of emissions to the dean and agriculture does indeed contribute to nitrogen emissions, but the approach must be the same as for other sectors. Agriculture deserves the same approach as industry to reduce its emissions and thus contribution to the dean. This can be done by feeding differently, using additives to feed or manure and manure treatment and processing (Renure). These are all steps to quickly convert the organically bound nitrogen, which can volatilize, into mineral bound nitrogen that is easily absorbable by plants. more can evaporate. This means profit for the farmer and the environment plus a significant saving on energy consumption."
Now that it is clear that the emissions from individual farms remain close to home in a horizontal sense, you would say that the PAS detector problem should also be stopped. Time for a general pardon?
"I do think that we can look at this problem very differently from now on, but a general pardon will not easily be possible due to all kinds of rules and procedures."
In fact, you should expect a policy revolution in rural areas, because all plans related to nitrogen will have to be revised.
"There is reason for this and it is being looked at from various sides, but it is still too early to say much about it now.
Will the Mesdag Fund itself take further action now that the UvA's conclusions have been drawn up? For example, go to court?
"The Mesdag Fund provides evidence that is available to every lawyer and that can be used in legal proceedings. That is not unimportant. Especially because policy in the Netherlands is increasingly made by the judge."
The Dutch government was able to learn about the results of the UvA research at a fairly early stage, because civil servants were part of the sounding board group. So she has already been able to prepare. What will the EU think?
"You can notice that Minister Van der Wal has become increasingly nuanced lately. The European Commission simply wants the Netherlands to do something about the quality of nature. Things should not get worse (from Brussels). Brussels also wants, what you You may also think that the size of the livestock herd will become smaller and come into balance with land use, which could require a reduction of 2021% to 15% of the livestock herd compared to 18. I think that Brussels has the idea that we are close to the size that people find acceptable, after all the numbers of poultry, pigs and cattle have all become smaller, but we still have to take a step. A voluntary stop scheme for the whole of the Netherlands fits in well with this."
About the government's Nature and Nitrogen portfolio. It has been almost entirely focused on agriculture. Given what we know now, can't you say that it was superfluous?
"The portfolio that is really missing is that of change policy, which combines the economy, housing, industry, traffic and agriculture and the resulting policy that is applied for water quality, air quality and nature. This will allow the Netherlands to get out of the permit lock, housing market. We can also take important new steps in the field of energy - with agriculture as part of the solution, and we can respond to upcoming climate and nature goals. We must do this shoulder to shoulder. The government must get out of box thinking. "When something had to be discussed about the agricultural consultation last year, four or five other ministers immediately joined in, and it turned out, for example, with regard to CO2 or energy, that savings that agriculture could achieve had unfortunately already been wrongly included in the energy sector."
Klaas van der Horst
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