The New Farmers ‘Organization should represent all farmers:’ It’s about farmers ‘sentiment’

Jaco van der Moss, Keys Hans and Esther Vermouth are geelers in the new system. “But we’re not an organization,” Vermu says. “We don’t have a board, it’s just a group of farmers.”

Farmers

“We want to convey that there should be cooperation between farmers and politicians and all parties involved in agriculture,” he says. “Things went wrong in the Agri NL last week.” It put forward an action plan for nitrogen that many farmers did not accept. “They decided about us without really involving us. Yes, there was LTO, but it was not the whole farming community.”

“Yes, as BoerNL we represent the entire farming community,” says Vermu. “We are all involved in all kinds of interest groups, including the LTO.” Vermu says this relationship with companies will be a barrier. “We want to hear if something goes wrong. Then no one has to think: ‘I belong to that interested group, so I did not go with it’. This is the feeling of the farmers. We can do something.”

Verma says that despite many major protests, farmers have not listened. “For example about the acquisition process if you look at what’s happening in Krimpenerwaard: farmers get half the value of their land. You can not start a new business from what is being done.”