Opinions Niels van der Boom

How much longer will the farmer take it?

30 January 2019 - Niels van der Boom - 30 comments

Agricultural entrepreneurship requires multi-talent and a new discipline has been added in recent years: PR. Working with velvet gloves so as not to upset anyone, because food is inherent in emotion. However, the size is increasingly full, so that the velvet glove is exchanged for a boxing glove.

This is not a call for violence or yellow vests, but a statement of the facts. The debate has hardened. For years, the agricultural sector has allowed itself to be blackened on the internet and various platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The counter-sound was (too) little present. The term 'fake news' is therefore not foreign to the sector.

Fake news
Incorrect figures, statements taken out of context and images that do not show the Dutch reality. These are all things that you as an entrepreneur have to choose almost every day. Previously, such nonsense was mainly predestined for clubs of like-minded people on the above platforms. However, one of the changes is the role of general media.

The farmer is embraced and everyone has an opinion about the way his food is produced. This happens in a positive sense, but much more often in a negative sense. The news, current affairs and background reports often show a colored picture, based on shadowy (political) relationships and personal beliefs.

Beating wildly around you
Environmentalists don't have 'activist' in their name for nothing. Extreme actions such as breaking into stables are not shunned to realize their ideals. What changes in 2019 is that the sector is also hardening. Various organizations have been set up for this purpose. Some (consciously) take it slow and try to provide the consumer with correct information. However, there are also other initiatives. Beating wildly around you and reacting fiercely to everything achieves little in my view.

A good example of how it should be done is the Agri Facts Foundation (STAFF† They tackle fake news based on facts. Emotion does not predominate here. The organization achieved great success in its short existence and probably not for the last time. It is distressing that it is necessary, but the sector should be happy that STAF is committed to the sector's right. For example, entrepreneurs individually (or united) are forced to defend their profession. A completely different position from promoting the sector, which has often been about in the past.

gun factor
Is reality really that negative, or is it not that bad? I do not think so. The debate is hardening visibly. Animal welfare, food safety, climate and more, the sector is directly involved. Farmers are an easy group to attack. Nice and anonymous and the loss of a company is not immediately felt. Where in the past it was often thought: 'the soup is not eaten so hot', the situation is different now. The activists flawlessly manage to control social media and mobilize a growing group of people.

To top it off, the media follows faithfully. The farmer's engine has only just started and is currently 1-0 behind. The goodwill factor is lower (farmers always complain, according to the perception) and the lines in The Hague and Hilversum are often not so smooth.

Winners
These are exciting times for the sector. You don't have to expect anything from the agriculture ministry. The backlog is not easily made up, although all weapons are now being taken out of the closet. It is positive that agricultural entrepreneurs themselves are taking up the challenge and not taking it anymore. The companies in the sector support them in this, as far as possible.

PR has become a permanent part of entrepreneurship. Not bad per se, but let's avoid the trenches. Since extremists are targeting the sector, that will be quite a task. When the smoke clears, I'm convinced the jack will stand up as the winner. There is no country in the world where such cheap, safe and high-quality food is produced as in the Netherlands. No one can get around that. Not even an environmentalist.

Niels van der Boom

Niels van der Boom is a senior market specialist for arable crops at DCA Market Intelligence. He mainly makes analyses and market updates about the potato market. In columns he shares his sharp view on the arable sector and technology.

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.

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30 comments
Ton Westgeest 30 January 2019
This is in response to it Boerenbusiness article:
[url=http://www.boerenbusiness.nl/column/10881195/hoel-langer-pikt-de-boer-het-nog]How much longer will the farmer take it?[/url]
"I am convinced that the farmer will stand up as the winner"
Not me Niels.....

If all authorities, the Ministry, Wageningen University, Milk factories, Plan Bureau for the Environment, University of Twente, Banks, landlords and environmental groups do not come up with objective sounds. Once all the lies, false numbers and assumptions stop, it will be nothing here....

You see that the sustainability competition yields nothing and only has losers. The consumer wants is a well-known slogan that the dairies use to impose their power on their farmers, but you see that no consumer has started buying milk anymore. 25 million liters less in the last five years!!!
They are really not crazy, with the lies on a carton of milk, eg meadow milk all year round Zembla, backlight or inspection service of value takes a look at it and we are again millions of liters behind.

Ten thousand more rules in 8 years of Rutte!! I know very few people who enjoy their work anymore.... There is no clear strategy with the government, there is no line... and it will certainly be nothing!
Subscriber
Vicky 30 January 2019
Good story by Niels until the last paragraph.. In itself encouraging to conclude an opinion piece positively, but little substantiated, I think.
Like my upstairs neighbor, I think that the (semi-) government is already so steeped in anti-agricultural sentiment and rules that I don't see the tide turning just like that.
If our large interest organization does not even quickly exchange their polder, pamper and so-called purchasing advantages for a very firm, clear and if necessary hard lobby, then my membership in 2019 will have been the last year.
hans 30 January 2019
Unlike previous commenters, I found the last part of the last paragraph to be the most striking.

"There is no country in the world where such cheap, safe and high-quality food is produced as in the Netherlands. Nobody can ignore that."

Cheap, depends on world supplies, but the Dutch farmer, already totally dependent on subsidies and tax benefits, is only dying.
Safe and high quality is an assumption with a manufacturing industry that puts profit above any ethics and is almost legally inviolable, after the meat scandals, the ear tag fraud and with a 60-70% reliance on GMO imports for livestock.
hans 30 January 2019
"How much longer will the farmer take it?"

Do you have a choice then?

Banks determine your future, mandatory to continue or who can stop when.
The government only looks at growing profits of the processing multinationals, and employment.
The EU prefers to move agricultural production directly to the east in order to stimulate economic growth there.
MKB and VNO Nederland see the primary agricultural sector as the group to blame for their environmental problems.
Ton Westgeest 30 January 2019
Completely agree Hans, but why do you have to throw in fake news again in your previous piece.....

with a 60-70% reliance on GMO import feed for livestock.

This is also not true at all! Now let's all try to come up with good numbers....

ps. I also made a mistake, it should not be 25 million ltr. drank less milk in 5 years, but in the last year!
flaming 30 January 2019
I completely agree with you, except that this high-quality, cheap and safe food does not only come from the Netherlands, take Belgium and by extension all of Western Europe.
They will only understand when it is too late, when the food becomes expensive or when they have to eat what other countries want to import without you being able to set requirements for the environment, food safety or animal welfare.
ps I read somewhere that in France 2018 farmers committed suicide in 350, that is 1 per day.
Subscriber
Jesse 30 January 2019
Good story Niels but something is being done about it............ The initiative ta ta ta taaaaaaaa https://www.denieuweboerenfamilie.nl/ join it and you will get a coach!!! No, not Louis van Gaal but, for example, cook Boudewijn who teaches you how to make tasty dishes from your regional products. Or Lidewijn from Diemen Noord who makes a beautiful corporate film of your company or Sharon from Leiden a communication animal who makes a beautiful logo for your company!!

Everyone come to the kick-off evening somewhere in a warehouse in Amsterdam (don't think about the canal belt!!) The minister is coming too!! Logically, her ministry pays from some kind of money. In other words, on to the new future!!!

gr Jesse green Clover for all your green fertilizer advice
hans 30 January 2019
ton,
cows is maintenance + 10 liters of roughage, the rest up to 40 - 50 liters is (simple) concentrates, (processed) GMO wheat, maize, soya and barley.
This concentrate story applies 100% to pigs and chickens.

Where am I wrong with a 60-70% dependency on GMO import feed for livestock?


Jk 30 January 2019
Ton Westgeest wrote:
This is in response to it Boerenbusiness article:
[url=http://www.boerenbusiness.nl/column/10881195/hoel-langer-pikt-de-boer-het-nog]How much longer will the farmer take it?[/url]
"I am convinced that the farmer will stand up as the winner"
Not me Niels.....

If all authorities, the Ministry, Wageningen University, Milk factories, Plan Bureau for the Environment, University of Twente, Banks, landlords and environmental groups do not come up with objective sounds. Once all the lies, false numbers and assumptions stop, it will be nothing here....

You see that the sustainability competition yields nothing and only has losers. The consumer wants is a well-known slogan that the dairies use to impose their power on their farmers, but you see that no consumer has started buying milk anymore. 25 million liters less in the last five years!!!
They are really not crazy, with the lies on a carton of milk, eg meadow milk all year round Zembla, backlight or inspection service of value takes a look at it and we are again millions of liters behind.

Ten thousand more rules in 8 years of Rutte!! I know very few people who enjoy their work anymore.... There is no clear strategy with the government, there is no line... and it will certainly be nothing!
Why do you put the program inspection service of value in the list of zembla and backlight? I think this program shows a realistic picture
Jan 30 January 2019
Hans clearly does not feed cows!!!
hans 30 January 2019
John, tell me? 40 liter cow?
Skirt 30 January 2019
You can see the Netherlands as a big city, there are no farms in a city, what is green becomes a park or petting zoo.
Viewed in this way, it is logical that the majority of the urbanized Dutch have no problem with reducing the farming population.
Ton Westgeest 30 January 2019
hans my cows don't give much, but get
90 kg. grass, which you do not like.
Beer grain, which otherwise has to be disposed of (e.g. CO2)
waste of the fries, I see a Vega like you don't eat that either.
and a few kg of A chunk consisting of: soy husks, palm kernel waste, Tapioca waste, linseed oil and beet pulp waste, sugar industry waste......

Gosh, how bad are those farmers!

And we do that with solar energy, without gas, without mains water, with frequency meters. So we are 24/7 in the back for c*tvolk and an arrogant minister, who kick us every day.

I think we deserve a ribbon.
Ton Westgeest 30 January 2019
By the way, if this isn't a cycle, I don't know what is...
The shit also ends up on the land, or you have to want to do other things with it... that's also possible!
We're all set.....and ready!
hans 30 January 2019
Ton, I like to believe you, and I also know that your production method is clean, animal-friendly and sustainable.

I myself did almost the same, lots of grass, limited production, high components, healthy animals, little trouble.

However, you know as well as I do that you are the exception.

Grooooot, veeeel, meeeer, intensify and borrow, borrow, borrow has been the adage in the Netherlands for years. Not your animals, but means of production. No names, just numbers. Your product became a raw material, a cost item in the sector.

That agriculture in the Netherlands, 95% of the farmers, that's what I'm talking about.

Jan 30 January 2019
Hans much more milk from roughage, the rest mostly scrap products!!
Subscriber
Skirt 30 January 2019
The average citizen doesn't give a damn how you produce as long as it's cheap on the shelves, a small group makes a fuss and uses fake news to get their money's worth.
If the NL farmers produced everything abroad, the hypocritical NL citizen would like to receive food from those NL foreign farmers, as long as it comes far away, I would say make good use of it.
hans 30 January 2019
Grass and maize ensiled with 30% ds, to eat a total of about 30 kilos of ds.
So there will have to be something dry, otherwise the cow will not process this per day. So, a lot of scrap from GMO imported products.
Incidentally, soy scrap is not a waste product. Without the selling price for the scrap, soy production would not be profitable.
Subscriber
roy 31 January 2019
nail on the head lol. LTO is completely wrong and should be the first to respond to false accusations.
bookscook 31 January 2019
LTO keeps popping up here, what kind of phenomenon is that?
flaming 31 January 2019
@ Hans
Soybeans for human consumption have an efficiency of 19 - 20%, luckily there are still the animals that eat the rest and turn it into meat or milk.
Glass 31 January 2019
Farmers only facilitate the earnings model of the periphery. We are not allowed to receive the profit from society's criticism of the production method.

It is therefore better for pigs in distress to demonstrate at the head office of a compound feed factory, for example. Or secretly film there.
Farmers are stuck in the system and yet can't change the production method, especially the large modern companies can't even stop if they wanted to because they have nothing net. These companies will probably eventually be taken over by companies from the periphery and everything will continue in the same vein. Without you seeing anything from the outside. The current system yields the most money for the periphery and they are not going to change that just like that.
frans 31 January 2019
Pig farmers are only needed for the permit application. A farmer who has lived in the village for 30 years will still receive a permit. And still has the gun factor of the neighborhood.
When a multinational applies for a permit for a pigsty, nobody will approve.
If the building lot is full and there's no more development space on the site, you can fuck off and they'll set up a manager for it.
Ton Westgeest 31 January 2019
Klaas you said: Farmers are stuck in the system
That's what my neighbor said, who was at the ABN "I have to go with the system"
But I think you always have a choice.....

After that there are big differences, he was fired with € 8 million and we can only stop with not much more than nothing!
Glass 31 January 2019
If you have little debt on your company, you don't have any other choice since. When farmers can choose, stop and continue the debt restructuring in the system.
most farmers opt for the latter. When they are still farmers to the outside world, they are at peace with that. Even if they are deep underwater.
Henk 31 January 2019
If the advocacy is only for personal gain, you get such a situation. You have to fight for every meter. And you do that together, and not with animal and environmental activists, who want to destroy everything. But unfortunately confidence in the interest group has been badly damaged. In addition, the Banks and politics have totally ruined it. People who have done well are transfixed by those figures who ruin everything. All confidence in the STAK who thoroughly check everything for truth! And they support and keep going!
shoemakers1 31 January 2019
if you raise the issue in a meeting that things can't go on like this, you just stand alone, apparently nobody dares to make a fist at the moment, and this is thoroughly taken advantage of
Everts 31 January 2019
During meetings, I sometimes wonder how many farmers are still really self-employed and which are now employed on their former farm.
De Vries 2 February 2019
Yes, there is criticism of the agricultural sector. Sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly. But there's also a lot of calimero behavior here. the government has caused regulatory pressure, but has also supported the sector financially for decades. And has assisted in crises in the past. In recent years, the agricultural sector has become more equal to other less privileged sectors. More responsibility is expected from farmers. And rightly so. This personal responsibility also includes being able to explain how you do your work.
De Vries 11 February 2019
Yes, there is criticism of the agricultural sector. Sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly. But there's also a lot of calimero behavior here. the government has caused regulatory pressure, but has also supported the sector financially for decades. And has assisted in crises in the past. In recent years, the agricultural sector has become more equal to other less privileged sectors. More responsibility is expected from farmers. And rightly so. This personal responsibility also includes being able to explain how you do your work.
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