Minister Wiersma tacks between Brussels and farmers

To put it mildly, Minister Wiersma is not yet receiving all the support she has been waiting for with her eagerly awaited response to the farmers. manure letter. It is mainly her plans to cut phosphate and animal rights in trading that are hard on the stomach of the sectors. The expectation is that a number of organisations will go to court if Wiersma's intentions are implemented. Farmers' organisation Agractie also missed the broader framework surrounding the manure. Nitrogen and other problems still remain, but Wiersma and her State Secretary Jean Rummenie say they will come back to that later. For the rest, Agractie thinks the long-term perspectives are good, but also far away.

Allowances
However, there are indeed concessions. The farmers' organisations are happy with the measures to narrow derogation-free zones around nature and to increase the correction for gaseous losses. At the same time, it is also indicated that the Expert Committee on Fertiliser Policy (CDM) is still a bit frugal and, also in view of its own documents, should perhaps have applied more up-to-date insights. The excretion standards for dairy cattle are also being adjusted, something that her two predecessors did not want to do for political reasons. However, that mainly helps with phosphate. Unlike her predecessor, the minister does not want a grassland standard and is focusing more on the feed track to limit emissions. She also wants more and faster manure processing by speeding up the granting of permits and increasing exports.

Disproportionate
The organisations in the pig and poultry sectors are dissatisfied, because they believe that they have already contributed to solving the manure problem in the past and that suggestions for more processing have been thwarted. According to them, the reduction in rights for their sectors is still disproportionate.

Dairy herd has already shrunk considerably
In her letter, the minister does try to take into account that the livestock population has already been reduced last year, as Brussels wants. According to her, that is not enough. Lubbert van Dellen, market director Agro at Flynth, estimates that the dairy livestock population has reduced by perhaps 4 to 5% in almost a year. That is a huge amount by Dutch standards, certainly when measured against the development in previous years. He bases his impressions on figures from cattle improver CRV, which show a monthly, increasing decrease since October last year. And on the falling manure sales prices, although there is also a seasonal component, and on the many conversations that he and his colleagues have had with farmers who intend to stop. Van Dellen is generally positive about the letter.

The leak and the play
In accordance with good Hague custom, a far-reaching decision or intention by a government official involves a leak, intended to prepare the minds and/or gauge the temperature of the water. This time, a directorial error seems to have occurred. Because either the leak was not directed properly, or De Telegraaf, which was allowed to write the story, exaggerated it too much. What followed was a nice BBB play. Caroline van der Plas, party leader in the House of Representatives, reacted very angrily towards her friend, now a minister, and even threatened to resign if coercion was exerted on farmers. That turned out not to be the case, actually not self-evident. But apparently that point had to be made.

Government program
Minister Wiersma's manure plan is embedded in the government program of the Schoof cabinet, which was published on Friday. The minister and state secretary Rummenie later provided an explanation. They want to go to Brussels, among other things, also to discuss a new derogation on adapting nature reserves. They also want a shift in climate policy, among other things, from deposition to emission.

MOB celebrates pig farming
Outside the Hague political arena, a number of cases also took place this week. In the legal field, one was remarkable. In a case of MOB against a Reeuwijk pig, the first party had to exercise patience once again. More than ten years after the club had first summoned the farmer, the Council of State now apparently wants to see even more arguments about the harm to nature of the pig farmer's business activities. Legal advisor Valentijn Wösten is angry, but despite the anniversary he still has to exercise more patience.

Trumpian conspiracy
The discussion about the harmfulness of nitrogen also continues. Last weekend, NRC published what it called a Trumpian-conservative conspiracy that wants to discredit the Dutch nitrogen policy and accounting heart Aerius. For convenience, it was omitted that there is also criticism from other quarters, and even from the supervision of the RIVM, about the ubiquitous applicability of Aerius (because it is included in the law and used for granting permits). To be honest, more and more reports are making clear how great the limitations of Aerius are. Even from old pieces where the 'mechanic' of Aerius (Wings), who lives in southern Africa, also contributed. The academic circles and their fans, who celebrated successes under the two previous cabinets, apparently had to vent their anger.