"The phosphate policy of Minister Carola Schouten (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) is the death knell for organic dairy farming," reports Sybrand Bouma, initiator of the SOS group (action group for organic dairy farmers). According to Bouma, an exemption for the so-called 'latent space' is the solution to their problem.
To address the problem, the group will take action in The Hague on Wednesday 27 June. In conversation with Wouter Baan, Bouma tells where the shoe pinches and what the protest action entails.
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They could not stay behind the biological dynamic farmers have already gone ahead as well as innovatively out of the bottle and there are probably a few more. http://stichtingdemeter.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ontheffingsvraag-Demeter-melkveehouders-aan-Minister-LNV.pdf
The fact is that this is not about organic European guidelines or fertilizer standards/LU/ha, but about water quality. This can also be below par among organic farms, despite the so-called own manure restrictions. This depends on several factors. Making an exception also sets a precedent and this will not happen. An exception will only further increase the division within the sector, after all, it has to come from somewhere else (more has already been spent than the phosphate ceiling).