Poems, visions and nightmares about the farmer

It was to no avail. The knives had already been sharpened and the texts prepared. PvdD Member of Parliament Esther Ouwehand requested (in vain) to make the debate a little more spectacular by showing video footage of suffering animals, and GroenLinks/PvdA Member of Parliament Laura Bromet read a vision peppered with official language for a better world, without all the current and, according to her, pernicious agricultural practices.

Doubt and Complaining
What followed was an exchange of arguments and positions between members of parliament and with the ministers of LVVN, which led to few concrete results. And although earlier in the week a vote had already been taken on the establishment of (measures for meeting) manure ceilings, several members of parliament could not help but once again display their doubts or complain about a matter they had already agreed to. NSC member Harm Holman and his VVD colleague Thom van Campen in particular made quite a point of this, supported and encouraged by opposition members of parliament. Holman even brought up nightmare scenarios about a Titanic sinking in a sea full of manure.

Another line in the debate was that various members of parliament, both from the coalition and the opposition, still thought (and apparently continue to think) entirely from the policy of the previous cabinets. In this they saw themselves supported by an official note, in which Minister Wiersma was warned about the consequences of stopping the NPLG, as if this program were the only way to meet a series of international obligations. The cabinet has indicated that it wants to do things differently and must prove that it can do so.

Drenthe also dumps PLG
The province of Drenthe has also indicated that it can do without its own PLG (the provincial elaboration of the NPLG), but the politicians in The Hague did not mention that. Incidentally, not only members of parliament had difficulty breaking away from previous ways of thinking, many media that report on the discussion also apparently think that problems can only be tackled in one way.

Worn paths are apparently hard to ignore. It is also often noticeable when an investigation has to be done somewhere, such as recently with the granting of permits in connection with the nature conservation law. For example, VVD member Van Campen asks for an 'independent' investigation into possible scenarios by ABD Topconsult (civil servants on severance pay), instead of by an agency that is further removed from politics, and that hopefully has a fresher perspective. Perhaps ABD Topconsult is cheaper because the civil servants there are already on the government payroll, but always have investigations carried out by the usual suspects rarely provides a fresh perspective.

Very difficult, or not?
This does not mean that it is easy to break free from the administrative-political knot in which the countryside finds itself. According to CDA Member of Parliament Eline Vedder, it is 'extremely difficult'. She said this in connection with helping PAS reporters, but the nuance that the CDA itself did little concrete to help this category in the previous cabinet is appropriate. For example, it was a political decision not to freeze the legal status of these companies at the situation they were in at the start of the problem. Now, due to successive adjustments by Aerius, they are increasingly short of emission space. According to Minister Wiersma, a small glimmer of hope is that new space may become available for them through the successful purchase of companies with the aid of the livestock farming termination schemes (Lbv/Lbv+).

For Vedder it was a difficult debate, because her husband's company also got into trouble because of the nitrogen problem. She was emotionally unstable, out of balance and actually between two fires; that because of the fate of the farm and the politically chosen line.

The debate on the agricultural budget may have yielded little in the way of concrete results, but in addition to the implementation of the manure plans, water and nitrogen concerns, a few problems still hang over the sector, it became clear. For example, the possible designation of an additional black-tailed godwit protection area. Where and under what conditions should that be?

Much time was also lost in discussions about nature policy and the discussion about the wolf. Should that animal be chased away more often and possibly shot, or should a contraceptive team follow it, as proposed by PVV Member of Parliament Dion Graus.

Raise money now 
Now that the Lower House has agreed to Minister Wiersma's manure plan, the dairy farming and dairy industry in particular must look for money to temporarily take dairy cows out of production. That is still quite a job. Because how do you get the money for that from those who remain and do they agree to it? In the past, the Dairy Board was 'the ATM' for the sector, now a General Binding Declaration (AVV) is required.