2023-12-12 19:02:32
Failed in good consultation for the time being. That is, in short, the status of the discussions between farmer organizations, animal rights clubs and Agriculture Minister Piet Adema regarding animal welfare. The parties have been trying to reach an Animal Husbandry Agreement for a year, but that process will be stopped in the coming months, Adema announced on Monday followingnoon.
“The parties have concluded that they are well advanced in their plans, but that it is now not possible to arrive at a fully coherent package of agreements,” Adema writes. This is partly because the minister himself has his hands tied. Due to the fall of the cabinet, he is now unable to come up with money.
There is therefore no point in talking further now, according to the parties involved. However, discussions ‘can be resumed in the future’, Elbert Roest, chairman of the consultation, writes in his report. ‘The desire for this still exists among all participating parties.’
Natural behavior
The discussions arise from an amendment to the Animals Act, which the House of Representatives agreed to in 2021. At the initiative of the Party for the Animals, politicians then decided that housing should not hinder animals from exhibiting their natural behavior. A drastic change, because many livestock farming sectors now do not meet that definition. For example, pigs cannot root or take a mud bath in the vast majority of stables.
At the same time, the change in the law provokes discussion regarding what exactly constitutes natural behavior. Partly for this reason, the cabinet decided to discuss an agreement. This must include clear and broadly supported improvements in the field of animal welfare. But at the same time it also serves to sharpen the sharp edges of the law change. Because if it comes into effect – as planned – on July 1, 2024, it might have major legal consequences for livestock farms where ‘natural behavior’ is hindered.
Adema gets to work herself
To prevent this, Adema will now submit a proposal to the House of Representatives. He wants the underlying goal of the law change to be achieved in an ‘enforceable and executable manner’. He wants to do this by spreading the introduction of animal-friendly stable systems over a longer period of time. He wants to ‘connect with the usual investment rhythm’. In other words: livestock farmers will not immediately have to meet stricter requirements, but only when they renovate their stables anyway.
Representatives of dairy and pig farmers, for example, have already drawn up plans that Adema hopes to use in its policy. Caring Farmers, one of the parties that participated in discussions regarding the agreement, has already published its plans. It becomes clear that the progressive farmers’ organization sets the bar for ‘animal husbandry’ quite high, but at the same time does not expect any large-scale change until 2030.
Caring Farmers wants 10 percent of production to end up on the market in an animal-worthy manner in six years. The organization assumes, for example, that cows keep their horns and the calf stays with the mother. And of pigs that have access to a mud puddle. By 2040, all livestock farmers should meet these conditions.
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The pigs are doing well at Nieske’s farm, but can it be like this everywhere?
The pigs at organic company Nieske’s Erf in Heino are doing well. Everyone agreed on this during a working visit by Agriculture Minister Piet Adema. The key question remains: can it be done anywhere like here?
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