News Ammonia
Mesdag fund claims lost ammonia data
The 'disappeared' ammonia data from Wageningen University (WUR) did not appear to have disappeared after all. In a letter to the House of Representatives, the Mesdag Fund calls on the 'disappeared data' to be made available immediately.
On Friday 8 June it was announced that WUR had found the lost ammonia data again. This does not mean that the data will be made public immediately for research, although WUR has indicated that this will happen in due course. However, the Mesdag Fund is not satisfied with this.
Via Minister Schouten
In a letter to the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (of the House of Representatives), MPs are requested to move agriculture minister Schouten. This is to ensure that it requests the WUR to make the data available to the Mesdag Fund immediately. The Mesdag Fund can then make the data available to researchers, so that the underpinning of the ammonia policy can be tested.
The Mesdag Fund also calls on the House to start an in-depth investigation into the state of affairs within this file. The rule of law is at stake if WUR is not properly informed, writes Mesdagfonds chairman Jan Cees Vogelaar. This may have led to incorrect policy choices.
Years of issue
The issue has been going on for years. In 2015, scientist requested Jaap Hanekamp to WUR to make the source data from field trials between 1997 and 2003 available. At the request of some MPs, the then State Secretary Dijksma indicated that the source data was no longer available, but only adaptations of it. This limited the researchers in their research into the basis of the Dutch ammonia policy.
Wouter Job
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