The NZO welcomes recommendations for sustainable farming

The Dutch Dairy Association (NZO) welcomes the recommendations published today by the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) to accelerate the sustainability of farming. The NZO supports the need to make Dutch farming more sustainable and to speed up this process.

The NZO is pleased with the commission’s recommendations, which will contribute to advancing sustainability throughout the sector in a way that assigns responsibility to each link in the chain.

The SER commission’s recommendations are in line with efforts in the dairy sector through its own program Sustainable Dairy Chain (a joint initiative of the NZO and LTO). The program encompasses concrete targets, with annual, independent performance monitoring by the LEI/WUR. The Sustainable Dairy Chain has an active Advisory Board made up of social organizations, professionals in peripheral sectors, banks, accountants, ministries, the WUR, etc. The Sustainable Dairy Chain has been praised by social organizations, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and by members of the commission itself for its approach and methods and as an example for other sectors. The report reiterates this recognition.

Such sector-wide governance only works when that governance can maintain its autonomy. The appeal to make use of the possibility of “general binding statements” is supported completely.