Dutch fair trade
At what milk price does sustainability become interesting?
Research by Milieudefensie in collaboration with the Grondig network shows that there is sufficient enthusiasm among Dutch dairy farmers to start working more sustainably. Which means: working in a way that is better for people, the planet and profits. The only thing that is needed for this appears to be a milk price of at least 41 cents per kg of milk.
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'This is clearly not a sustainable situation and inevitably leads to problems such as environmental pollution, economies of scale, intensification and increasing milk production per cow.' Reds for the association to conduct a survey among dairy farmers and see how sustainability can be boosted.
A total of 2.193 dairy farmers participated. The most important outcome was that 67 percent of dairy farmers want to supply supermarkets and dairy companies with a number of non-statutory sustainability requirements, provided that 4 cents are paid on top of a minimum price of 37 cents. It yields a total minimum price of 41 cents per kg.
The non-statutory requirements for sustainability include: land-based 2,25 LU/ha forage crops including young cattle, meadow bird management, concentrates from Europe and non-GMO soya, grazing for cows and a fair trade price for farmers. Fair trade means a price that is not below cost price. In this case the 37 cents that banks use.
Milieudefensie indicates that the supermarket has an important role to play in this dossier. The place where the majority of consumers buy their food. 'Supermarkets hold an important key to solving the major problems in dairy farming.' These problems include silent poverty, declining grazing, barren grasslands, economies of scale and increasing imports of GMO soya. On top of this are the adverse effects of soy cultivation in South America.
At the beginning of 2017, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ) indicated that it would make a proposal to make sustainability agreements possible. Now this is not possible because they are contrary to competition regulations. This proposal makes it easier to translate sustainability costs further down the chain.