Worldlog Week 05 – 2011

Last week on Wednesday, the Lower House held a debate on all forms of keeping animals. I talked about such subjects as Dutch mega stalls – enormous factory farming stalls of up to 2.5 hectares in size. I requested the state secretary of Agriculture to place a moratorium on these mega stalls because of the country has so strongly protested their presence. The state secretary unfortunately did not act as we 'also need to take cattle holder's interests into account'. I have polled the other parties on their stance on a moratorium and The Freedom Party (PVV) told me in the debate that they stand behind it, so a majority for my proposal seems possible.

According to research by environmental organisation Milieudefensie, the number of mega stalls is rising sharply. In 2005, the Netherlands did not even have 100 of these huge cattle stalls, now the Netherlands has 242 over the entire country! Because provincial administrators, the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA), the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Labour Party (PvdA) in particular are doing everything they can to increase mega stall numbers, we are arguing for a national moratorium on mega stall construction so further is expansion is halted.

The mega stall issue will undoubtedly dominate the Provincial Council election and we must prevent a number of provincial administrators from fast-tracking a number of expansions has a parting gift to the factory farming industry, no matter what it costs. Stopping the construction of mega stalls must become national policy before it is too late, and the transformation of the country has been irreversibly effected.

The past few weeks, the Lower House's work has focused intensely on Afghanistan. The current People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) government wants to send a paramilitary police mission to Kaduz, a province in Afghanistan. Dutch police officers will then, under military guidance, train Afghan police officers. The Party for the Animals voted against the mission in Afghanistan and learned, with great disappointment, that the opposition – D66, Christian Union and GroenLinks voted in favour of the mission.

The Party for the Animals does not in any way believe that this mission to train police officers in 18 weeks – a programme where the Afghans will need to learn how to read and write alongside their professional training – has any chance of success. Also, the fact that this 'education' needs four F16 jet fighters and 165 NATO military trainers gives our party no confidence in the civil nature of this mission. The Party for the Animals believes strongly in cooperation for development's sake, but not this paramilitary mission.

To conclude, we are right in the middle of our election campaign for the Provincial Council elections on 2 March. We have put up the first of our election posters and held our first debates. We are going to be found in several places around the Netherlands over the coming weeks with our message: Animals, Nature and Environment in every Provincial Council! We hope to bring it to every Dutch citizen's attention.

See you next week!

Marianne