Minister Wiersma Refuses to Publish Farmer Data Quickly and Ignores Advice

Despite a weighty recommendation, Minister Wiersma of Agriculture has decided to approach all farmers anyway. The question will be whether they object to their data on emissions being made public, even though they cannot prevent publication.

Emissions data from 60,000 farms in the Netherlands will soon become public – what does that mean for farmers?

Minister Femke Wiersma is rejecting a devastating recommendation to quickly publish figures on the livestock of Dutch farmers. She announced this to the Lower House today. In that recommendation, Wiersma was accused of ‘improper management’ because she wants to start a months-long, ‘unnecessary and expensive’ procedure to postpone transparency on the livestock.