Many working visits and a series of postponement letters to the House of Representatives. That is the preliminary external image of what the new ministers are doing at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature. Work must continue within the cabinet on the new policy, but there also appear to be buyers.
Perhaps it is an encouraging signal: show commitment and not provide all official products with a cursory scribble and then send them to the House of Representatives. It starts with paying close attention to the desired content and the tone you want to set.
Quarter less manure surplus
Many cattle farmers are eagerly awaiting one approving signature. This concerns a ministerial regulation in which Minister Femke Wiersma Motion-Flach (on gaseous losses) in the legislation. Viewed on an annual basis, this could immediately reduce the national manure surplus by approximately a quarter.
Barely taking office as Minister of LVVN, Wiersma had to debate manure policy with the House of Representatives. According to many media, this was a debate without a real outcome. They got that wrong.
Double counting removed
SGP faction leader André Flach, with broad support from the House of Representatives (remarkably also from D66 and Christian Union), submitted a motion asking for dairy farming to be treated with the same brush as intensive livestock farming with regard to gaseous losses and to ensure that this sector would no longer be charged twice. Until now, the gaseous losses from cattle farming to the air are not deducted from the total manure production and are counted as released on the ground.
Lower fertilizer prices
Wageningen researcher Herman de Boer has conducted research into this and the issue has ended up in Parliament mainly through the Nitrogen Claim Foundation. Formal advice is still required from the Manure Policy Experts Committee (CDM), after which the minister can arrange the matter. It will earn her a lot of gratitude from dairy farmers, because almost 10% less nitrogen in the manure spread suddenly provides a lot of relief. The sooner the minister arranges this, the sooner the new situation can be taken into account. This may be a shame for manure distributors and recipients, because the minister's signature will lead to significantly lower disposal prices.
Less green Brussels
Shortly after taking office, Minister Wiersma also went to Brussels to establish contacts there, which is absolutely necessary if she also wants to get approval for changes to the manure and environmental regulations there.
She already has one thing going for her, because a new team is also taking office in Brussels. Ursula von der Leyen may continue as president of the European Commission, and perhaps Wopke Hoekstra may also continue as her first deputy and implementer of the stripped-down Green Deal, but there will be a new, as yet unknown Environment Commissioner. There will also be a new Agriculture Commissioner. A number of things have also changed officially. The right-hand man of Hoekstra's predecessor Frans Timmermans, Diederik Samsom, has accepted a new position at a less green institution, namely Gasunie.
Better farm income
Virginius Sinkevicius, who enters the European Parliament for the European Greens, fades into the background. He even failed to become a member of the European Parliament's powerful Environment Committee. Von der Leyen's new course is less green. When she took office again, she also promised a better income for European farmers, whatever that means.
Colored image of the Netherlands
According to the previous Ministers of Agriculture, the Netherlands is still very biased in Brussels regarding manure policy, because it continues to fail to comply with the applicable legislation. The Netherlands would also have always had the highest derogation and would therefore have been more likely to be regarded as a polluter, but then no account was taken of the fact that entire crop uptake takes place in the Netherlands and the fact that there are actually no exceedances of the nitrate standard among derogation farms is ignored. have been demonstrated (unfortunately among some non-livestock farms).
Most jaded, or not?
In the meantime, the image of the Netherlands as always the 'most tired' area in the EU with regard to manure policy may need to be adjusted slightly. Anyone who looks at the rules and standards under which French livestock farmers are allowed to work in the Normandy dairy region must conclude that the French have quietly negotiated more favorable conditions, although this appears to be different at first glance. Perhaps the Ministry of LVVN should take a closer look at how other EU member states are doing things. It is always the boundary conditions that matter, as in the case of the gaseous losses mentioned earlier.
Scientific soul sold
Coincidentally or not, new questions are also being asked about the Aerius calculation model these days, and by one external audit committee. In fact, it repeats what the Hordijk Commission already indicated a few years ago, namely that Aerius is not suitable for emission calculations at local level and should therefore not be used for permitting. The uncertainties are simply too great. The arithmetic lower limit used by RIVM is also criticized and the fact that RIVM has in a sense sold its scientific soul to the government with Aerius, because there is too little distance from policy. It is yet another criticism of the RIVM, because consultancy firm Andersson Elffers Felix also noted, in much nicer words, that the RIVM overestimates itself and is too close to policy.
Difficult to swallow
This is a difficult criticism for the RIVM to swallow, as is evident from a response the institute gave to questions from magazine Domestic Administration. RIVM spokespersons said they took the criticism to heart, but then refuted it with the same speed. You wonder how much criticism the RIVM still needs for a little more self-reflection, or would that not be politically convenient?
Aerius machinery
For those who have no idea, according to the audit report mentioned, 176 people (160 FTE) work on the Aerius machinery in all its aspects and it requires €55 million in taxpayers' money annually. Outside the RIVM, the Aerius tool gives existence and income to dozens of consultancy firms plus ecologists at local authorities.
Eppo Bruinsje with Adema
In the meantime, former Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality Piet Adema thought he should open a book about Caroline van der Plas' search for a new agriculture minister. In an interview in the Nederlands Dagblad he said that Van der Plas had tried to do another 'Eppo Bruinsje' (Christian Union minister who joined the Schoof cabinet for NSC). According to him, she had 'informally asked' whether he did not want to continue at LNV, but for the BBB. Van der Plas denied vehemently. It would also be an absurd choice, but Van der Plas could perhaps have denied it a little less emphatically. And why Adema came up with his revelation? Melancholy, resentment? We'll probably never know.