Informing doesn't help, taxing does

"This meal contains 503 kilocalories." and 'Caution! Borrowing money, costs money.' We are bombarded in our daily lives with information campaigns about the choices we make. Why is that anyway?

The starting point is often that people make wrong choices because they don't know any better. For example, before the major publicity campaigns in the 80s, many would not have known that smoking can cause cancer. The number of smokers has indeed fallen since then.

However, providing information only partially works. You have to know that your choice is wrong before you change it; although people do make more choices that they know are wrong. Information alone (however well-intentioned) will not make the world a better place. Perhaps, as with smoking, we should limit the supply with all its possibilities.

It's like a pole above water
The following applies to the agricultural sector: meat that is, of course, produced without hormones and with little or no use of medicines. It must also be traceable to the company of origin. And of course the milk must come from pasture cows that reach a sustainable age and here too there must be a link to the farm of origin. In short: meat from our own Dutch soil.

How are you going to tax that? How do you ensure that everyone has access to healthy food? Charging on to the consumer just doesn't work. Maybe it's a good idea to tax margins to the farm above a maximum so that our efforts can get to everyone's table.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that (yet) in our sector. However, that it will come is clear to me. You should not want to stunt with food and immediately build in all possible guarantees, because our health is too important for that.

We must also reward agricultural entrepreneurs who are innovative in this area. This is because every educator knows that in the end you will not get there with only burdening. Then in 20 years we won't be able to say that we didn't know now.

Critical Revenue Price
Until that moment, we must continue to reward ourselves, for example with knowledge of our own critical yield price. For the time being, this will guide the business decisions that will be taken. For us, the quality is not even an issue, but the standard that belongs to the production of human food.

If we allow this with all the preconditions that exist, we will think back to the 20s for a long time to come. We know better and stand behind our choices.

Ernst van Heyden

Ernst van Heijden is senior relationship manager at Farmers Funding. Van Heijden studied at the HAS in Deventer and previously worked as a business manager in agricultural extension services. In 1996 he switched to accountancy.