‘Improving the hell out of things’ – Nieuwe Oogst

A government that fully supports the agricultural sector, because it knows how great the social and economic importance of our agriculture is. A government that makes agreements about goals with farmers and gardeners, based on confidence in their craftsmanship and stops endlessly prescribing bans, obligations and resource requirements. Finally: a government that is committed to ensuring that European agricultural policy becomes feasible and realistic again without piling national heads on top of it.

These are the three goals I have set for myself as the new chairman of LTO. They therefore apply to all animal and plant sectors.

The importance of those goals became startlingly clear last week. The Netherlands is the only EU member state that wants to ban two crop protection products in fruit growing. Both products are used to protect cherries against the Suzuki fruit fly. There are no alternatives to these remedies. Fruit growers are rightly raising the alarm en masse: both regular and organic cherry cultivation is in danger of disappearing from the Netherlands.

The reason why the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality wants to withdraw these funds at the start of the season is because compliance with the rules in 2021 was insufficient. This is sad, because many entrepreneurs invested heavily in the past year to comply with increasingly strict environmental regulations. It is extra painful because the drugs are permitted elsewhere in Europe and even in our neighboring countries.

Of course, resources must be deployed correctly. If that is not the case, the sector and government must work together to improve. But simply withdrawing resources for which there is no alternative is tantamount to ‘destroying things’. A phenomenon that all sectors – animal and vegetable – are confronted on several fronts. Incomprehensible and unacceptable.