The world-famous intensive agriculture in the Netherlands, which the Schoof cabinet wants to “cherish”, is, according to Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, a “drama”. “The drama is that after the Second World War we started defining agriculture in terms of yield alone”, says Van der Ploeg, emeritus professor of rural sociology. “In pork, milk, potatoes. In kilos, litres and euros. While agriculture has traditionally been based on a balance with nature, on connection with society. That balance is gone, and the agro-industry is far removed from people.”
Van der Ploeg (73) has been conducting research worldwide since the 1970s and was a professor in ‘rural development’ for twenty-five years. He is a well-known critic of the Dutch agricultural model and of the dissemination of knowledge about it by his former employer: Wageningen University & Research (WUR). Van der Ploeg retired in 2017 and is now a part-time professor at the China Agricultural University in Beijing. His book Closed due to nitrogen about “failed agricultural policy and Wageningen theories”.
In Europe, the government wants to do “everything possible” to maintain the current revenue model of farmers.
“We did have a revenue model. That was continuous scaling up, intensification, specialization and market conquest. All things considered, that model is bankrupt, because Dutch agriculture and livestock farming are running up against ecological, legal and financial limits. And yet the agricultural sector does not want to get rid of it at all. Instead, farmers keep looking to the government: guarantee us a revenue model. Weren’t farmers self-reliant entrepreneurs? Or are they employed by the government?”
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After the fierce farmers’ protest and the collapse of the Agricultural Agreement under Rutte IV, it is up to the Schoof cabinet to outline the future of Dutch agriculture. After the summer recess, Minister of Agriculture Femke Wiersma (BBB) is faced with major, urgent problems: the manure crisis and Brussels deadlines for nitrogen and water quality.
The main agreement of PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB states that “new revenue models” are being developed – but not which ones and how. The cabinet is mainly focusing on less regulation, relaxation of environmental standards, technological solutions for pollution, no forced reduction of the livestock population.
Van der Ploeg himself comes from a farming family. His grandfather was a Frisian seasonal worker who mowed grass and milked cows in the Netherlands and Germany. After saving for seven years, his grandfather was able to buy a cow and a pig, get married and start a small farm. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg’s father was able to go to school and became a teacher, and he himself was later able to go to the Agricultural College in Wageningen.
His office is located in the ‘Schip van Blaauw’ (1920), the former Laboratory for Plant Physiology of the same university. It is now a national monument business premises with a wild garden, high above the water of the Nevengeul and wide, green floodplains.
Actually, you are the only one left here from Wageningen University & Research.
“That sounds poetic. Not that they give me an allowance for that, mind you.”
Your grandfather was a 20th century farmer. What do you think the farmer of the future will look like?
“In agricultural science, you see an interesting turn towards agroecology. It started in the US, was also picked up in South America, later hesitantly in France. It is the refoundation of agriculture on ecological principles, instead of with many external resources such as artificial fertilizers, pesticides and fossil energy. The Netherlands is dramatically behind in this new field; it seems to be the law of the inhibiting lead.”
Sounds like: agriculture should return to the small farmers of the past.
“It quickly sounds nostalgic, but the fascinating thing is that the earning capacity of smaller, ecological farmers can exceed that of more industrialized agriculture. It does require more labor, but there are fewer investments and costs and less money goes to suppliers, for example for fertilizer. At first the yields are lower, but with knowledge and expertise the income can become quite decent.”
How decent?
“We have there for example, in 2019 a large comparative study was conducted in Europein the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, among others. What was very surprising was that smaller, less intensive companies really earned more than larger intensive companies. Because those larger ones have very high costs, also high financing costs, and are confronted more with fluctuating prices and the volatile market. For example, for 100 kilograms of milk, smaller companies often earned double or more of what large, intensive companies earn.”
Yet, for example, organic farming in the Netherlands remains very small.
“It continues to amaze me. Everyone realises that the course needs to be changed, but a stubbornness has crept into the sector. The sector is also a closely interwoven whole of agro-industries, banks, farmers’ organisations and educational institutions – that clicks together. But there is a fear of acknowledging that smaller-scale, nature-friendly forms of agriculture can also be possible and economically attractive. Agriculture is too uniform, there need to be many more different types of agriculture.”
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If the agricultural sector does not want to know anything about it, is there any support among individual farmers for a transition to cleaner agriculture?
“Yes, I think so. I speak to a lot of farmers, and that farmers’ protest that started in October 2019 was mainly a cry for attention and respect, is my position. Then that protest was quickly and largely hijacked by Farmers Defence Force and… what’s the name of that other club?”
Agraction?
“Yes, Agractie. And that protest was modeled after a right-wing populist movement. Farmers who did not participate, or were critical of the protest, were intimidated. I hear from many farmers that they have actually had enough of such actions. They do want a transition to cleaner agriculture, although they are also hesitant. First see what BBB can achieve in the cabinet.”
A silent majority?
“Yes, and I don’t think politics responded adequately to that at the time. They didn’t manage to reach that undercurrent of farmers.”
Is the transition to cleaner farms affordable for farmers? Many farmers who have started to intensify are stuck with expensive loans.
“In my opinion, Rabobank has the expensive duty to help pay for that change. They have invested money in expanding businesses in an incredibly irresponsible way in recent decades. The previous government wanted to invest an astronomical amount of 25 billion euros in rural areas – yes, that is gone now. But with their own earning capacity, organic farmers can also go a long way, I think.”
In my opinion, Rabobank has an expensive duty to contribute to the transition to cleaner farms
Cleaner agriculture is also more expensive – look at organic products. Are consumers willing to pay for that with cheaper products from abroad? Is it feasible?
“With well-considered market regulation, you can keep out products that are too cheap. Look, it starts with the fact that we as a government or as knowledge institutions, such as Wageningen, should no longer propagate that the current agricultural model is the optimal model. The image that the Netherlands is the champion of agriculture is stifling and prevents change. A completely illogical situation has arisen: the Netherlands is a small river delta with very expensive land. Half of that scarce, valuable land is used for agriculture and livestock farming, while it only represents a few percent of the GDP. About 70 percent of those products are exported all over the world, and we ourselves import grains from France and Ukraine and soy from Brazil to feed our pigs.”
The government says: The Netherlands feeds the world and fewer farmers means less food security – also in the Netherlands.
“Of course it is good to be more self-sufficient and to have a buffer for unstable times. But you can ask yourself whether all that food that is now produced in the Netherlands should also come from this small piece of earth.”
The Netherlands, as a small country, has been known for years as the largest agricultural exporter in the world, after the US. We are proud of that.
“The success also has a downside. For my grandfather and tens of thousands of others, the hard farm work was the emancipation path for their family. That shaped the Netherlands, although we have forgotten that. But in poor countries, small farmers also work very hard these days to follow the same path. The painful thing is that entire agricultural sectors are being outcompeted by the import of cheap agricultural products from Europe, and especially the Netherlands.”
Where do you see that happening?
“That whole bunch of countries in West Africa, for example, are being pumped full of cheap onions from the Netherlands: Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Mauritania. The elite there profit from that import, regional farmers’ unions are against it because it undermines local farmers. The justification in the Netherlands is: our onion cultivation is so efficient, but we are mowing down the future prospects of others.”
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Most agricultural exports go to our neighbouring countries in the EU.
“The Netherlands exports a lot to Germany, Belgium and France – and vice versa. Within the EU you see the same tough competition, with the Netherlands taking over market share elsewhere as a price fighter. In Germany, Dutch dairy has a market share of almost 25 percent, in France 10 percent. This has happened in more places and Dutch agriculture has not made good friends everywhere.”
At the same time, the cabinet will need support from other EU member states to relax nature standards for the Netherlands.
“That is what you hear now in the BBB world: we are going to solve it in Brussels. Forget it. I have worked a lot for the European Commission and in EU member states. The sentiment is: the Netherlands has outcompeted us with cheap production. In this way, they have ruined their own living environment. So let them solve it themselves.”
What would you do if you were Minister of Agriculture Femke Wiersma? What would be the first thing?
Van der Ploeg thinks for a moment…
“I would try to build coalitions with that silent majority of well-meaning farmers. Remind Rabobank that they have to help farmers financially, even if they are paying for it. I would spread the knowledge production about agriculture across many more universities and colleges; there is now one dominant vision from Wageningen. There should be many more start-up opportunities for young farmers. I would try to get many more small and medium-sized enterprises in food production off the ground – there is much more innovation there than in those giants… But thank God I am not the Minister of Agriculture.”
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