Finally another Minister of Agriculture

Your Excellency, when this column appears, the new Rutte III cabinet will be under construction. And yes, we finally have a Minister of Agriculture again. It is a good thing to have a figurehead for farmers and horticulturists again in the Netherlands.

Dutch agriculture, which is much praised abroad, is undervalued at home. Agriculture is the carrier of the cultural-historical landscape and the associated natural values. However, in the Netherlands (in my opinion as the only country in the world) entire polders are flooded to attract exotic species, such as the sea eagle and osprey.

New nature
However impressive these birds are, they are found all over the world and the native birds (the little owls and barn owls), the 'common' field and meadow birds (the lapwing and the black-tailed godwit) and the farm birds (sparrows and swallows) are being driven out. . The new nature reserves are populated by released exotic horses, buffalo, cattle and deer which, if they are not fed additionally, are allowed to starve to death in winter.

With the 'new' nature, existing natural values ​​are destroyed. At the same time, despite all animal welfare demands, livestock farming is vilified and dismissed as (to put it mildly) unfriendly to animals. Even land-based agriculture is not unaffected. I dare say that the cows in the Netherlands have never had it so good.

Livestock farming in the Netherlands
Unfortunately, this does not apply to livestock farmers, who can barely keep their heads above water. This is because they are forced to downsize their company as a result of phosphate regulations. The phosphate rights were not created as a means for the phosphate load, but to control the nitrogen load of the groundwater. It meets the European standard almost everywhere, but still. I would like to give you some suggestions.

First of all; do not enter phosphate rights. That phosphate ceiling is fictitious, manure is exported that does not end up on Dutch soil. Land-relatedness should be a starting point. This could also include the arable land that receives the manure or grows the fodder crop. Raise usage standards. It is strange that according to manure accounting we are allowed to supply less minerals than the crops need.

The ground is getting poorer and we are literally empty-handed. Maintaining the organic matter content is limited by the phosphate standards. Make those phosphate rights, if they do come, in any case non-tradable. Then money disappears from the sector again, as happened with the milk quota (in retrospect, incorrectly). Do not impose a ceiling retroactively and do not apply a discount to companies that have not contributed at all to the problem.

Give them a future again
In short: explain in Brussels, with the strength of arguments, that there is no problem and give the livestock farmers a future again. I wish you a lot of wisdom, in particular for establishing a coherent policy on leasehold and land use. 

Peter van der Eijk

Piet van der Eijk was the chairman of the Association of Land Tenants and Own Land Users (BLHB) from 2012 to the beginning of 2019. He also has an arable farm in the Biesbosch polder in the outskirts of the Eiland van Dordrecht.

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