Interview Jan Cees Vogelaar
'Nitrogen plan is the same monstrosity as phosphate law'
Jan Cees Vogelaar, the chairman of the Mesdag Dairy Fund Foundation, is closely involved in the nitrogen dossier. After the hearing on Wednesday, October 16, in which he spoke himself, and the debate on Thursday evening, October 17, the chairman is not confident that the cabinet will come up with solutions.
How do you look back on the hearing and the nitrogen debate?
"The hearing was positive in a sense, because it acknowledged that external netting is probably not legally feasible. I look back less positively on the debate. Minister Carola Schouten (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) does not have a good plan. In this way, all farmers are stopped in their business development, while the latent space is reduced. It is logical that this results in farmer protests."
The minister goes in consultation with the provinces and has until 1 December to do so. What does this mean?
"Minister Schouten has bought time, but the problem has not been solved. If she sticks to her way of thinking, the nitrogen reduction plan will become a copy of the phosphate reduction plan. The legislation is a monstrosity and I fear that nitrogen will become that too. however, the nitrogen legislation is much larger than the phosphate legislation, because this also applies to sectors outside the livestock sector, such as construction. Ultimately, society as a whole will be affected by this, because the plans are likely to hit the economy hard. It is therefore quite possible that the farmers' protests are getting acclaim from more sectors."
What are solutions that do work?
"A solution could be to amend the Nature Conservation Act, because not all Natura 2000 areas can be labeled as nature. Heath, for example, is cultivated land and not so much nature. That is an essential difference. One could also think of the application of nitrogen reducing barn techniques. This is much cheaper than buying farms. The first costs between €2 and €8 per reduced kilo of nitrogen. The second is much more expensive and costs €800 to €1400 per kilo of nitrogen."
What is the Mesdag Dairy Fund doing in the meantime?
"We continue to do research to uncover the truth. We want to find out the emissions and deposition in order to be able to draw up policy on that. Not an arithmetic model that is as leaky as a basket. I happen to have another meeting on Friday afternoon October 18th with the University of Amsterdam that will do this research for us. We have been offered the help of 3 provinces and a few municipalities are also participating. We are happy with that. However, this research will take 3 years, so unfortunately we cannot provide any results in the short term refute."
Wouter Job
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