Do you foresee that food production in the Netherlands will decrease due to more stringent regulations from the Green Deal?
Would it be a bad thing if it did? If we consume less meat and dairy products then it would be beneficial. Some 80% of our agricultural land is used to produce animal protein, of which most is feed for livestock. This is not the most efficient way for us to get our protein and we are running into a lot of problems in the Netherlands as a result. We have a huge problem where the soils are so full of nitrogen it is running off into the water systems. We are European champions in biodiversity loss and 99% of our water is polluted.
Although we are getting a lot of ‘cheap’ food, the external effects are negative. We are all in agreement, including conventional farmers, that we need to change the way we grow and consume food. The Green Deal stipulates that we need to reach a 50% reduction in pesticide use, and a 20% reduction in synthetic fertilisers by 2050. These are goals we are very happy about.
‘WE CAN’T EXPECT MUCH FROM CONSUMERS; INSTEAD WE NEED TO REDUCE THEIR CHOICE FOR BUYING NON-GREEN’
In the Netherlands, organic farmers make up 4% of the farming sector, and our goal is to get to 15% this year, and eventually 25% as per the Green Deal’s specifications. That leaves 75% of food production that can be farmed conventionally.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 15, 2023 من Farmer's Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 15, 2023 من Farmer's Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
A Karoo-farm holiday for the family or business traveller
This is the ideal Karoo-farm stopover between the Western Cape and Gauteng,
Toyota 48V: hybrid heavyweights in a changing world
Toyota's global mandate to lower overall emissions via a multi-technology approach sees the venerable Hilux and popular Fortuner packages receive their timely respective doses of hybridisation. By CAR.
Promising new cultivars on show at sorghum demonstration day
Magda du Toit recently attended a sorghum cultivar demonstration day and takes a look at the exciting new products making their way onto the market.
The basics of sheep shearing
Sheep shearing is a specialised skill, but with adequate training, anyone can learn how to effectively and efficiently shear a sheep,
Healthy soils lead to healthy plants and animals
Dr Louis du Pisani shed light on why biodiversity is important, and its impact on soil, plant and animal health at the World Veterinary Association Congress held in Cape Town.
'SA's water crisis could turn into a human catastrophe'
Abysmal management has left South Africa's water and wastewater infrastructure in a severely compromised position, Lambert de Klerk, manager of Environmental Affairs at AfriForum
Uganda gives a helping hand to Zambia with 500 000t maize pledge
Drought-stricken Zambia has reached out for more international assistance as the situation, the worst in 40 years, deteriorates in the African country
Shearing shed handover to wool growers
Shearing sheep made just a little easier for Eastern Cape farmers with donation,
Top agriculture students taken on by department
Twenty of the top achievers from the Cedara and Owen Sitole colleges of agriculture in KwaZulu-Natal officially received letters of appointment and signed two-year contracts under the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Unemployed Agriculture Graduates Youth Programme.
African leaders vow to tackle soil health ills to bolster food production
African Union leaders spoke as one voice at a recent fertiliser and soil health summit, pledging to take measures to improve Africa's soil quality