Almost forgot the film in government communication

The attention for area processes in government policy is reviving interest in the old land consolidation. Some long for the old agricultural extension service or the DLG, the Rural Areas Service. But these were not the only instruments that the government used in the XNUMXs and XNUMXs to adapt agriculture to the demands of the new era.

An almost forgotten instrument is communication. And not so much appearances by ministers on bar days and agricultural exhibitions. But especially the medium of film. I recently read Peter Veer's dissertation: Moving landscape. The book dates from 2020 and is therefore not yet a classic, but is too interesting not to discuss here. Veer, a film-maker himself, describes how the Ministry of Agriculture had or purchased a collection of no fewer than 1945 information films between 1985 and 533. These were shown by agricultural advisers in the halls of village pubs and agricultural schools and had to adapt the thinking of the farmer and his wife to modern times. They had to start longing for the tractor and say goodbye to the horse more easily.

The idea came partly with the Marshall Aid from the United States, but the German occupier had already turned to the medium of film. Films about the modernization of the farm sometimes came from abroad, even from behind the Iron Curtain. But most films were made to order in the Netherlands by various directors, including well-known names such as Bert Haanstra and Marten Toonder. I saw a film about the latter a few years ago with images of the then destruction factory of the Gekro in Rotterdam-Overschie, mixed with cartoon images of the cow Theodora.

Contribute to the reconstruction of your country
She had expressed the wish to be buried in a pest grove, but her descendant Klara convinced her of the usefulness of destruction. And with Theodora apparently the farmers had to be convinced. That benefit also included recycling Theodora as bone meal in animal feed, saving dollars for animal feed imports. In this way you contributed to the reconstruction of the country. The cows marked had something of Toonder's Tom Poes. A large part of the collection with nostalgic fifties images is now in the archives of Sound & Vision in Hilversum, part in the United States and part is lost.

What Veer shows in his dissertation is that a transition does not only consist of physical intervention in the landscape, but also includes social and mental intervention. The 50s was perhaps the pre-eminent period of the social engineering, the question is whether such government intervention in this way is now accepted. Perhaps films for farmers' meetings in village houses are also a bit outdated and you should now turn to serious gaming or TikTok. Still, a good series of TV documentaries about the intended changes in the food system and the future of the countryside in the Dutch urban landscape doesn't seem so crazy to me. Lately it has been very much about indicators, standards and instruments and little about where we want to go with this country.

Communicative action is also important for the government and is not only about the head, but also through the heart. Perhaps film makers and makers of location theater can take us to the modernized urban-rural relations of 2040. And among the many government officials there are probably a few who can breathe new life into the old film agency of LNV.

Krijn J. Poppe

Krijn Poppe worked for almost 40 years as an economist at LEI and Wageningen UR and now holds a number of advisory and management positions. For Boerenbusiness he dives into his bookcase and discusses current developments on the basis of studies that have become classic.

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