CDA leader criticized on food exports

Minister Henk Kamp (VVD - Economic Affairs) described the call by CDA leader Sybrand van Haersma Buma to make the Netherlands self-sufficient in agriculture as an incomprehensible story in the Volkskrant. According to the liberal minister the Netherlands, as a major agricultural exporting country, has no interest in subsistence farming. He went on to say that Dutch agriculture has grown so big because we do not think in the spirit of self-sufficiency. After the United States the Netherlands is the second agricultural exporting nation in the world. Buma stated in the Volkskrant that our country should not be dependent on unstable countries in the food sector. According to the Christian Democrat new international threats have major consequences for the Dutch energy, food and trade policy. Therefore we must strategically choose a Dutch agricultural sector that will provide the production of our daily food, he said. The minister said that in recent decades the world has become a safer place and challenges we face today, must be resolved. But pulling back behind our own borders and trying to become self sufficient, will be very bad for the Netherlands as an exporting country.