Agriculture

Agriculture

Farmers work hard and with a lot of heart for their business. They still think in next-generation succession and so generally have a long-term view of their business. Farmers produce our every day food and therefore deserve the respect of the whole society. In addition, farmers are often an important factor in landscape management and they sometimes also fulfill social tasks (for example, care farms).

Rules

At the moment, farmers are hindered by an excess of rules from The Hague, which make it increasingly difficult to comply with them. In addition, these rules tend to change every few years, causing farmers to run into problems again and again and to force them to make expensive investments or sell off part of their livestock that they had recently expanded. Finally, the Netherlands acts as if there were no European market to compete on. That makes the rules even more counterproductive and harder to explain.

In Frij Fryslân we want to limit the amount of rules and make them clearer and more logical. These rules should enable farmers to conduct healthy business operations.

Banks

The banks also play too big a role in the lifes of farmers. In recent years, many farmers have been tempted to borrow millions from the bank due to the call to scale up their businesses. As a result, they are in many cases up to their ears in debt.

In Frij Fryslân, therefore, citizen participation is encouraged, whereby residents in the region of the farmer can acquire an interest in the farming business. There is then a small compensation. The main thing is that Frisian land will once again belong to the inhabitants of Fryslân and that the farmers are no longer in the grip of the banks.

Landscape management

Farmers play an important role in landscape management. Taking care of meadow birds, the quality of the soil, the water level: these are all issues that farmers have to deal with. Here too, he is in constant dialogue with the government, which sometimes punishes and sometimes grants subsidies if the farmer takes on certain landscape management tasks. An example of the latter is the construction and maintenance of wooded banks or zones with weeds and flowers, which have a positive effect on the flora and fauna.

Connection between farmer and consumer

The direct connection between farmer and consumer must be restored. This is possible through subscriptions with local pick-up points, by buying directly from the farmer, farmer's markets and food cooperatives. This gives the farmer a higher price for his products, and more contact and appreciation from the consumer for the farmer. An important side effect is that the power of the large supermarkets is being broken. Farmers are then no longer dependent on the rigid purchasing policy and power of these large retail chains, but get more control over their own future.

Added value on products

Farmers who - alone or in collaboration with others - want to create added value on their products, for example by making cheese from milk, should be brought into contact with professionals who can help with this or who want to do it themselves. In this way, the processing of products can generate additional income for the farmer.

Cooperatives

Cooperatives are an important concept in Frij Fryslân. This is certainly also applicable to the agricultural sector. Here, cooperatives can be a way of breaking free from the banks, combating expropriation and giving the farmer the freedom of movement he needs to run his business optimally.