High time for a clean sweep in manure file

It is becoming increasingly difficult to see the wood for the trees in the phosphate file. This is not without consequences for individual entrepreneurs, but innovative projects are also at risk. This also applies to the Simmpeel project. Reason enough to write an open letter to the agricultural spokespersons of the Senate and House of Representatives.   

We are 4 livestock farmers with cows, pigs and chickens. An agriculturist is also involved. Together with a technical company we are working on a solution for the mineral problem. Our companies are located in the Peel, the area with the highest livestock density in the world.

With us, manure is a valuable raw material and the mineral problem has already been solved. The soils we use are not over-fertilized and get the minerals they need. We process surpluses in such a way that they can be sold outside Dutch agriculture.

The problem is the drain
We innovate to improve mineral management. The problem in the Peel is the inadequate removal of mineral surpluses, such as slurry. As a result, the organic matter in the manure also leaves the region and our land is impoverished. We are therefore developing manure refining, in which we separate minerals and organic matter, so that we can remove the excess of minerals and maintain the deficiency of organic matter for a better soil.

Get commercial fertilizer from manure
We want (this year) to recycle commercially attractive amounts of fertilizer nitrogen from manure, so that the expensive purchase of industrial fertilizer from fossil energy can stop. We look further. We are working on a barn for dairy cattle, in which methane emissions will be reduced to zero. We innovate because we have healthy companies with successors and a lot of confidence in the future. We work together with knowledge institutions, local and regional authorities and social organizations (KOMBi). We know that our knowledge of agriculture and our innovative capacity are important trump cards in the long term. 3 of us undertake and invest in global projects, in which we value that knowledge.

Policy further in the swamp
In the past week, the policy on phosphate legislation has become further mired. This is partly due to the controversial young stock provision and the court decision of 4 May. In that statement, the Phosphate reduction regulation declared non-binding for organic farmers and for all entrepreneurs who invested in an expansion of their dairy herd before 2 July 2015. This legislation has caused a lot of unrest among all livestock farmers in recent months. In a hearing before the first chamber in January, experts spoke of gossip and a patchwork quilt to drive you crazy.

great uncertainty
It leads in our companies, each in a different way, in any case to great uncertainty about our future and about the financial basis of our innovations. For the dairy farm in our group it seemed almost the end of the exercise. This is because the growth of the company, which has been working on since 2006 and which has been effected with the expansion of stables from 2013, came into question.

We hope the judge's ruling will rectify this. But that immediately means the bankruptcy of the patchwork of instrumental legislation, which has been rigged for manure by the lawyers in The Hague in recent decades.

No trust between government and entrepreneur
The same situation has arisen in dairy farming as in pig and chicken farming since the 80s. There is no longer any trust between government and entrepreneurs. Out of mistrust, the government comes up with more and more instrumental laws and, unwittingly, challenges entrepreneurs to focus innovations on the loopholes of those laws.

In addition, in Dutch dairy farming there are major regional differences in farm structure, land-relatedness and physical principles. The interests of the entrepreneurs and the organizations that claim to represent the interests of those entrepreneurs differ. If only because those organizations in The Hague have to speak with one voice, while the solutions for entrepreneurs in Friesland are different than in the Flevopolders, the Groene Hart or with us in the Peel.

Clean ship
How further? In order to get out of the quagmire, are we going to make detailed legislation again, sow even more mistrust, forcibly smooth out even more regional differences? We suggest a clean sweep. That will start with the harmonization of phosphate legislation in the Senate on 15 May.

The new Environment and Planning Act offers a good opportunity to set up an entirely new policy, after all the smoke has cleared and the damage has been settled. The SER committee Nijpels makes valuable recommendations in its report 'Accelerating sustainable livestock farming' from 2016.

Ask for strategic goals
The goals of the soil, water and minerals policy are laid down in European directives. The same will happen with climate policy. It is not complicated to translate these to the Dutch regions. Not in instrumental legislation, but in a few strategic goals, which apply to all regions, but have to be worked out differently everywhere: 

• Make a long-term plan for the management of soil, minerals, water and climate in the region, as part of environmental policy, with the KOMBi parties (including all livestock sectors) (and with the EU guidelines as a starting point) and adjust where necessary.
• Create a regional balance in mineral input and output.
• The polluter must pay the costs.
• Create more with the crowdfunding of the KOMBi (regional commercial revolving funds) for remediation, bottlenecks, knowledge development and innovation, which the KOMBi decides in the region.
• The government creates areas for policy, experimentation and innovation and adheres to agreements.

René van Bakel is a cattle farmer in Vredepeel (L.) and a participant in the Simmpeel project. This project aims to design and implement innovative techniques that contribute to a solution for the mineral surplus in the Peel region. The province, water board, municipalities and agricultural companies participate in Simmpeel. 

Read more about this topic in the dossier on the Phosphate Reduction Regulation 2017.

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