Today Johan Remkes’ Consultation on the nitrogen targets of the cabinet will take place. There is a lot of attention for the decision of the largest farmers’ advocacy organizations to boycott the consultations. Only LTO Nederland joins. Not as a fully-fledged discussion partner, but only as a representative of those who stayed away, who want to convey ‘a message’ to Remkes through LTO.
This will presumably be a list of conditions that must first be met before talking to each other can be started at all. You can only afford such an attitude if you have heavy artillery on hand and can use it with impunity.
All sectors and people who feel pushed into an impossible corner by the government now know: that cowardly hassle on the Malieveld is for suckers. Wasn’t there a cute tea party there recently about the drowning GP care? But let’s keep the focus on the farmers. On behalf of the government, the ministers Van der Wal (Nitrogen), Staghouwer (Agriculture) and Harbers (Infrastructure and Water Management) are meeting today. Our Prime Minister, Mr Rutte, is also present. A good gesture from the man who usually keeps his distance deftly.
All in all a strong delegation, one that GPs can only dream of. They had to knock on the door of the Binnenhof on 1 July to ask where Minister Kuipers, a busy man, actually was. Fortunately, the police were ready to enforce, because those GPs are an aggressive people. Send that bite away.
Today, eleven interest groups are making an appearance on behalf of the farmers, including representatives of sustainable farmers such as Caring Farmers and Biohuis. These are not representative of the sector in size, but may well represent the way forward. Ultimately, the main culprit for this nitrogen misery is damned nature itself, which, after decades of dutiful swallowing, now suddenly makes a sour face from a little ammonia. Scandalous. Those massively dying flora and fauna keep things up, while we were just as busy. Too bad about the complicated elaboration, otherwise we would have just messed up that egocentric earth. However, the organic farmers seem to know how to bring nature back into line, so let them throw in a few ideas. They now have Remkes’ conference table to themselves and with that a wealth of talk time.
Then of course the question remains what the cabinet should do now that the large farmers’ organizations refuse to start the conversation. Should the critical deposition value be released for them? Should the timeline of the nitrogen measures be extended? In other words, should the government give in to a sector that, given the government policies of recent years, has every right to be outraged but then seems to have lost decency? What to do with someone who denies themselves the opportunity to be heard?
I lack the political insight and biological expertise to answer those questions. What I do know is this: if my daughter has acute earaches, I thank God on my bare knees that I can go to the doctor right away, have a hearing test the next day and we are already at the ear a week later. doctor sitting. On the other hand, my pancakes also seem to taste great with a splash of that cowardly almond milk. Then no cow’s milk.
So let’s talk about the general practitioners – is there any progress?