Because of his plans for the future, you would think that Rijfkogel might not find today’s protests so interesting. But his heart is definitely with his demonstrating colleagues in Stroe. “It feels powerless for everyone. That is why we are on the road today,” explains the young farmer. According to him, farmers are generally individual and self-reliant. “But in this way you conspire. Just to show: this can no longer be done. Something has to be done.”
What bothers him most about farming in the Netherlands? “That you don’t know where you stand at all”, Rijfkogel starts off. “There is no clarity. You can’t work towards anything. And then if you’ve worked towards something, it could be different in a few years. I’m done with it and still young now. So I’m going somewhere where it is can.”
That place is Canada for Rijfkogel, his wife and two young children. “Sure, there will also be something there,” he answers when asked whether everything is really better there. “But the general tendency is better. We’ve been there, and when you talk to people there, they’re happy that you want to be farmers. They need that food.”
According to the young farmer, there is also a difference in how the Dutch and Canadians deal with the food that the farmers produce. According to Rijfkogel, the Canadian is much more proud of the food that is made in their own country. “A Canadian basically only buys products from Canada if they have the chance. Here the consumer goes for the cheapest, it doesn’t matter where it comes from.”
At the beginning, Rijfkogel sold his dairy farm in Dalerpeel and since then he has lived with his family in a garden house on his parents’ yard in Nieuwlande. “Until we have a new location in Canada”, he laughs as he walks through the cozy house.
The family is helped in their search by Interfarms from Veeningen, a company that specializes in farmers who emigrate. “We are now in the middle of the visa application process. If that goes a bit quickly, I hope to be there within six months,” Rijfkogel looks ahead.
Leaving home, hearth and friends and acquaintances for a whole new adventure abroad sounds very rigorous to some. It is the only option for this young farmer, because he absolutely cannot imagine a life without farmers.
“My father and mother moved here from Overijssel when they had to leave. They did that because I already said at the time: I want to become a farmer. That’s in it, it won’t get out. wake up and know: I’m going to the cows. That makes it beautiful, that’s my life.”