The rural feeling: in which country do we want to live?

The year is almost over. The top 2000 accompanies the latest work, we are bombarded with lists and annual overviews. Farmer protests and inverted flags will make it to the New Year's Eve conferences. With that in mind, I took 'This is my court' by Chris de Stoop from the bookcase.

Not an economic classic, but a personal story about the parental farm and the decline of farming status. After the self-imposed death of his brother, the Flemish journalist returns head over heels to his native soil to take care of his old mother and the family farm. Eyes open for the star reporter who reported on injustice from all corners of the world: his beloved land of Waas is being squandered, and with it the familiar peasant culture.

Lack of appreciation
Many Dutch farmers must have recognized themselves in the feeling of De Stoop in the past year. Two things particularly bother him. First of all, the lack of appreciation for that beautiful, more than 1000-year-old cultural landscape. The flat land of Flanders, so beautifully sung about by Jacques Brel, is misunderstood. The glorious history fades from memory. Incidentally, De Stoop itself is not very detailed about the centuries of innovation in this area between the major cities of Ghent and Antwerp, around Sint-Niklaas, just across the border at Hulst and the Duchess Hedwige polder, which was flooded this year. The leading agriculture there was based, among other things, on manure imports. There were manure warehouses along the Scheldt that did business with the city councils of Vianen and Rotterdam. Their farmers would also have liked that city manure, but the Flemings offered more, they had excellent sales in the nearby towns.

The second annoyance lies in the relationship between the Antwerp port authority and the nature movement. The latter supports the project developers of the port as long as they are involved in nature development at the same time. In doing so, they send out a signal that they consider the new nature, which for the time being consists of shrubs and nettles, to be more valuable than the nature of farmland birds, hares and pheasants on farmland. That stings De Stoop.

What kind of country do we want to live in
On my list of books that best describe the rural feeling of 2022, Dit is mijn Hof is number 1. The feelings and despair it describes deserve to be taken to 2023. Then our country will get started with a agricultural agreement. You can hope that this will lead to an agreement with society about the role of the countryside between the big cities. About the question of what kind of country we want to live in, about what farming and entrepreneurship means in that regard. With respect and appreciation for history. And farmland without nettles as an opportunity. I have yet to see whether that fundamental orientation is addressed at the negotiators' main table or at side tables with titles like Feed and Manure. Perhaps all those table guests can start the new year with the good intention to reread This is my court and leave it on the bedside table during the negotiations.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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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