Juris Lazdiņš: Why should we allow people to mess with the land like that?

The association "Farmers' Council" is one of the strongest agricultural organizations in Latvia, with a membership approaching a thousand and covering all regions of the country. Since its establishment in 1999, the association has been promoting the growth of Latvian agricultural producers with its activities, which will ensure the sustainable development and economic stability of Latvian rural areas in the future.
In a conversation with JURI LAZDIŅ, Chairman of the Board of the "Farmers' Council", about the association's achievements so far, future plans and current agricultural issues.

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This is the anniversary year for the association “Zemnieku seima”. It has been 15 years since its founding. Looking back on history, why was it decided to establish the organization?

The history is even older than 15 years. The name of the “Farmers’ Council” was heard as early as 1994, when “Lauku Avīze” created a page where farmers could express their opinions and their thoughts on what should be done and what hinders them from doing agriculture more successfully. This was followed by annual “Farmers’ Council” meetings for four years, until the organization “Farmers’ Council” was founded in the spring of 1999. The founders were only 134 farms, currently the organization has 861 members.

At that time, farmers did not have a legal status to represent their interests and therefore could not speak in the government. Farmers could express their opinion as individuals, but it was not possible to influence the relevant decisions. That is why this legal status was necessary. At that time, discussions and consultations were already taking place about joining the European Union. By establishing the “Farmers’ Council” as a legal organization, we were able to define very clearly that we represent Latvian farmers.

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At the recent 15th Congress-Conference of the “Farmers' Parliament” “Agricultural Land – Latvia's Strategic Resource”, Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma praised your organization and expressed gratitude for the cooperation during her time as Minister of Agriculture. You are among those organizations that take an active part in the development of draft legislation.

We work constructively and productively, so we finish most of the things we start to do. We identify the problem, then we solve the problem and achieve the goal. Our activities are not focused only on telling the media, identifying the problem and then pretending not to know anything. If we start doing something, we bring it to a result. Of course, it doesn't always work out, but in most cases it does. That's why our circle of cooperation with the government is very wide, we work with the Ministry of Finance, Economy, Welfare, Agriculture and Transport. The circle of issues we solve is also very diverse.

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Read the entire interview: HERE!