News
A historical overview: towards a more sustainable livestock sector
What has been done to make livestock farming more sustainable over the past 40 years? What measures and incentives have been in place in the livestock sectors in the past? Wageningen University & Research has made an assessment of this on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. The result is the report: Towards a more sustainable livestock sector – Measures and incentives in the dairy cattle, pig and poultry sectors from 1980 to 2020.
The overview contributes to the collective memory of parties involved or interested in making livestock farming more sustainable. The measures and incentives described include, for example, legislation and regulations by the national government or from the EU, management covenants, market initiatives and initiatives by NGOs. Sustainability in this report is mainly concerned with the themes of environment (nitrogen, phosphate), climate, animal welfare and animal health that relate fairly directly to the livestock sectors, and with less focus on nature policy and policy on spatial planning and development.
For each sector, the individual measures and incentives are described for each decade stating reason, content and impact. This is supplemented with a more general description of the period with developments in policy and market, research and technology and the development of the sector in the area of sustainability, structure and economy.
The development of the sector itself and of the sustainability is also presented in the form of graphs. With regard to sustainability this is done on the basis of, for example, phosphate and nitrogen excretions, greenhouse gas emissions, use of antibiotics, proportion of sustainable housing, proportion of biological farms and areas of nature managed by farms and the development of farmland birds. The sector development is mapped by, among other things, stating the number of animals and number of farms, the income and technical results. This is a selection
of the measures.
| 1980-1989 | This period was characterised by the restriction of milk production and the start of the manure policy. In 1984, the European Union introduced a milk quota system. This meant that limits were placed on the milk production of the individual dairy farmer. In 1987, the Decree on the Use of Animal Manure laid down rules for the use of animal manure on the basis of maximum permissible phosphate inputs. |
|---|---|
| 1990-1999 | This period started with the gradual tightening of the application standards for animal manure. The MINAS system based on the mineral balance was introduced in 1998. In it, the input of nutrients was compared with their output, and a levy was imposed on excessive nutrient losses. |
| 2000-2009 | A period of widening sustainability issues starts. The Maatlat Duurzame Veehouderij (Benchmark of Sustainable Livestock Farming), an instrument to promote the application of integrated sustainable housing practices, was developed. The dairy sector (processors and dairy farmers) launches development of sustainability programmes and jointly establishes the Duurzame Zuivelketen (Sustainable Dairy Chain) initiative with a number of concrete sustainability targets. As part of the manure and minerals policy, MINAS was done away with and replaced by a system based on application standards. |
| 2010-2020 | The milk quota system comes to an end in 2015. This is the period in which various management covenants are being drawn up. These included reducing phosphate excretion by cutting the amount of phosphate in feed, encouraging grazing in a wide range of ways and reducing the use of antibiotics. Biodiversity receives greater attention. This period is also characterised by various sustainability market concepts (Beter Leven quality label for dairy, On the way to PlanetProof and Beter voor Koe, Natuur en Boer), which have been developed for dairy products in addition to the already existing organic quality labels (EKO and Demeter). |
| 1980-1989 | A ban on setting up or expanding pig or poultry farms (Interim Act) was introduced in the Netherlands in 1984. No new licences were granted for poultry and pig farms. The aim was to curb manure production by limiting the growth in the number of animals in the Netherlands. However, this did not work out. The livestock population grew rapidly. |
|---|---|
| 1990-1999 | The outbreak of classical swine fever in 1997 and the manure problem lay behind the Pig Farming Restructuring Act of 1998. The purpose of this law was to reduce the number of inter-farm contacts and to reduce the size of the overall pig herd, partly by introducing pig production rights. |
| 2000-2010 | More room for more sustainability issues is created. Management covenants are concluded on the use of antibiotics and energy. Partly due to social pressure, the sector drew up the 2007 Innovatieagenda Nederlandse varkensvleesketen (Dutch Pork Chain Innovation Agenda). The basic principle was to produce all pork more sustainably. The Beter Leven quality label was introduced in 2007. |
| 2010-2020 | This period brings a sharper focus on animal welfare and greater market orientation. Since the introduction of the Beter Leven (Better Life) programme of the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals, the Den Bosch Association (2011) and the quality programme 'Pig of Tomorrow' (2013), welfare has continued to be defined mainly from the market perspective. |
| 1980-1989 | A ban on setting up or expanding pig or poultry farms (Interim Act) was introduced in the Netherlands in 1984. No new licences were granted for poultry and pig farms. The aim was to curb manure production by putting a brake on the growth in the number of animals in the Netherlands. However, this did not work out. The livestock population grew rapidly. |
|---|---|
| 1990-1999 | Like the other livestock sectors, poultry farming also had to deal with the increasing manure problem. This period is characterised by financial challenges for both laying hen and meat chicken (broiler) farmers. |
| 2000-2009 | This is a period of more market-oriented production, management covenants and avian influenza. Social pressure on the poultry sector rises, among other things because of animal welfare (battery farming) and the use of antibiotics. Agreements are made in various management covenants on reducing the use of antibiotics and improving energy efficiency. |
| 2010-2020 | Greater attention is paid to animal welfare by developing market concepts. A ban on enriched (battery farming) cages was announced for laying hens in 2001. It went into effect by the end of 2021. The ban on beak-trimming (clipping) had been introduced in 1996, but its implementation had repeatedly been postponed. As a result of demands from the German market, the discontinuation of beak-treatment was accelerated. Wakker Dier started its “plofkip” (factory-farmed chicken) campaign in 2012. The first supermarkets removed the fast-growing chickens from their shelves in 2016. |