The 5 dairy farmers are appealing against the use of the Agriculture Act to safeguard the phosphate reduction plan.
They do this in response to the decision of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (of Friday 12 May) to also in higher appeal against the judge's phosphate ruling on May 4† These 5 dairy farmers, represented by lawyer Peter Goumans of Hekkelman Advocaten, were 1 of the 5 groups of dairy farmers that had initiated summary proceedings.
Continue to litigate
Goumans: 'Our appeal has a direct relationship with that of the Ministry of Economic Affairs last Friday. They are challenging the judge's decision. We are then forced to litigate further.' The dairy farmers want to use the Agriculture Act as legal guarantee of the 2017 Phosphate Reduction Regulation to be assessed by the court.
According to Goumans, this law may not be used for fertilizer purposes. 'The Agriculture Act is intended to regulate food production and food prices. For example, the super levy, a quota for milk, is regulated by the Agriculture Act. It's not about food now, it's about phosphate.'
Agriculture Act
State Secretary Martijn van Dam has used the Agriculture Act to provide legal safeguards for the regulation for a universally binding declaration. This is necessary to bring all dairy farmers under the scheme. The Agriculture Act is an old law, made in 1957.
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