PBL PBL Reads An Emergency Bell On Farming Financial

The important cabinet advisor urges a new report that there is a kind of agricultural agreement between the parties involved to take a new course. For example, it is necessary to clarify the role that entrepreneurs, banks and the government should play

Intensification and scaling up

Individual farmers are now, so to speak, engaged in a process of development. Intensification and intensification. They are also increasingly dependent on processing and supply companies. Sometimes due to existing debts and contracts with suppliers and banks, there is hardly any alternative for the farmer.

This reality is often in conflict with social desires such as sustainability, animal welfare and public health. For example, headlines on the record figures of agricultural exports can be alternated with reports in which agriculture is actually socially controversial. Think about reports on Q fever, fipronil eggs, declining grassland numbers, fraud, surplus manure or farmers' incomes, says PBL

Structural Problems

answer to all this often adjusted years. But according to the PBL, this was rather in the "sphere of maintenance", without really tackling the structural problems.

Researchers at the planning office find that many people today consider Dutch agriculture as a product of Europe. see But it is not so simple. According to the consultative body, this does not take into account the fact that Brussels policy also offers room for maneuver and that choices must also be made at national and regional level.

Milieudefensie reacts violently. "Another report shows that agriculture in the Netherlands is totally bankrupt," says Bart van Opzeeland, campaign manager. "Four big supermarkets determine the price of our food and what the farmer gets for it.A farmer can not go green when it is red.It must be finished.Farmers must earn enough to work sustainably." "