Dutch minister upsets farmers

The first Dutch agriculture
minister of urban origin, Jozias van
Aartsen, has upset farmers in the
country, charmed free-market
enthusiasts, and at the same time
added fillip to the green movement. In his recent policy paper, he
envisions a rural development
scheme with less regulation and
financial- support. He suggests
involving more virgin tracts and
organic farming.

For decades, the Department of
Agriculture, Nature Management
and Fisheries, headed by Christiandemocrats belonging to the rural
stock, was a bulwark of the farmers' lobby. Conservation, organic
farming and environmental protection were touched up only grudgingly, and after much pressure. The main thrust was always for more
production, regardless of whatever
the side-effects may be.

The recent policy paper, Dynamism and Innovation, arguably
represents the most radical idea
ever conceived in Dutch consensus
politics. Van Aartsen expects
farmers to conform to 2 external
constraints: the market and the
environment. Both are, however,
remote perspectives.

About 1/3rd of the agricultural
production of the Netherlands
heavily depends on European
Union (EU) subsidies, and left to the
minister, it may have to survive
unsheltered in the stem climate of
the world market.

This was apparent from a draft
version of the paper which was distributed earlier this year among 30
sector opinion leaders. All this persuaded the free-marketeer minister
to amend his suggestions. But even
in the final text, he insists on
describing the interferences by the
EU as 'artificialities' that need to be
checked. This view which is gradually gaining ground, could prove
important for eastern Europe and the South.