This is sustainability that consumers pay for

Making consumers pay for food that is produced in a more environmentally conscious way and that gives more space to animals is proving to be a major challenge. Only grazing for dairy cows and related products appears to be a success. However, that threatens to come to an end when grazing becomes a legal requirement.  

Organic dairy is on the rise, but the demand for pasture products is also increasing. Apart from that, there are smaller concepts such as Weide Weelde that succeed in getting consumers to pay for more space for animals and a way of producing that is better for the environment. 

The discussion about grazing is slowly gaining ground in Germany, but for the most part it is still a typically Dutch discussion. Society wants the cow in the pasture. In the meantime, several attempts have been made to get this regulated by law and now D66, GroenLinks and SP are making a new attempt to get the legislation through. 

For dairy farmers it is mainly a pain point, because for the feeling of the entrepreneurs, politics is again trying to interfere with the daily work on the farm. Something that also played a role during the discussion about the calf with the cow. In Denmark this was used as change for grazing. From now on the calf will stay with the cow for 12 hours and then there will be no compulsory grazing. A way to meet the wishes of society. Although this is also difficult to control.

In the Netherlands, grazing is now stimulated by a premium, which can yield an average farm 14.000 euros per year. This does not alter the fact that there are dairy farmers who simply cannot apply grazing due to a lack of a house plot or a house plot that is too small. Regardless of whether a mandatory number of hours of grazing is beneficial to animal welfare.

For LTO it is especially important that one of the few forms of sustainability that the consumer contributes to is preserved. 'So leave the responsibility for encouraging outdoor grazing with the sector and market parties.'  

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