Dutch minister upsets farmers

The first Dutch agricultureminister of urban origin, Jozias vanAartsen, has upset farmers in thecountry, charmed free-marketenthusiasts, and at the same timeadded fillip to the green movement. In his recent policy paper, heenvisions a rural developmentscheme with less regulation andfinancial- support. He suggestsinvolving more virgin tracts andorganic farming.

For decades, the Department ofAgriculture, Nature Managementand Fisheries, headed by Christiandemocrats belonging to the ruralstock, was a bulwark of the farmers' lobby. Conservation, organicfarming and environmental protection were touched up only grudgingly, and after much pressure. The main thrust was always for moreproduction, regardless of whateverthe side-effects may be.

The recent policy paper, Dynamism and Innovation, arguablyrepresents the most radical ideaever conceived in Dutch consensuspolitics. Van Aartsen expectsfarmers to conform to 2 externalconstraints: the market and theenvironment. Both are, however,remote perspectives.

About 1/3rd of the agriculturalproduction of the Netherlandsheavily depends on EuropeanUnion (EU) subsidies, and left to theminister, it may have to surviveunsheltered in the stem climate ofthe world market.

This was apparent from a draftversion of the paper which was distributed earlier this year among 30sector opinion leaders. All this persuaded the free-marketeer ministerto amend his suggestions. But evenin the final text, he insists ondescribing the interferences by theEU as 'artificialities' that need to bechecked. This view which is gradually gaining ground, could proveimportant for eastern Europe and the South.