Agricultural organizations: The Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Rural Development is undermining the foundations of Latvia's development!

Today, farmers' organizations representing approximately 10,000 farmers, forest owners and farms, with the mandate given to them, submitted a request to the Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM) Artūrs Tomas Plešs for dialogue, demanding an apology from the minister and asking him to stop dividing Latvian society using taxpayers' money. At the same time, representatives of the organizations warn that if the minister continues to avoid dialogue, a wave of protests will likely be launched throughout Latvia and AT Plešs' resignation will be demanded.

The three-point claim submitted by the associations includes the following demands:

Minister of Environment, Rural Development and Rural Affairs Artūrs Tomas Plešas must immediately apologize to the industry for the project implemented by the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund (LVAF) he heads, within the framework of which, at the expense of taxpayers' funds, more than 80,000 euros are being spent on spreading hateful and socially divisive information about Latvian farmers, calling them "mass murderers."

In the future, when allocating funding to projects under the activity “Promoting Public Environmental Awareness in the Media”, competent industry experts and scientists should be invited to develop content: farmers, foresters and representatives of higher education institutions, and not just representatives of environmental organizations. Thus, as much as possible, excluding the publication of scientifically unfounded, hate-inciting, one-sided or blatantly false information, which is paid for from taxpayers' funds.

to review the composition of the LVAF Council, including 1 representative from farmers, 1 from foresters and 1 from environmental organizations, respectively, thus promoting the development and sustainability of the sectors, as well as to restore the previously existing advisory council of agricultural, forestry and environmental organizations in order to initiate a meaningful and constructive dialogue with environmental organizations.

“The Minister has allowed unfounded and hateful information about Latvian farmers to be spread in society, so we demand not only an apology from the Minister, but also insist that in future projects to raise public environmental awareness, a requirement to invite competent industry experts – farmers, foresters and scientists – to create content is included. Only in this way can we be sure that the inhabitants of Latvia receive objective information, and it would only be natural if the Minister also stood up for the objectivity of content and information as a value of a democratic state,” emphasizes Sandra Stricka, chairwoman of the board of the association "Farmers' Association".

AT Plešs has also expressed a public opinion about the insignificance of the agricultural sector, which does not correspond to the real situation, noting that “the agricultural sector pays much less in taxes than it receives from public funds” and “agriculture in general is the largest source of environmental burden and threat with regard to the protection of species and habitats and the assessment of their conservation status.”[1]

Agriculture and forestry are important sectors in the Latvian economy, providing the population of Latvia with a wide range of food and wood resources, as well as employing thousands of residents in rural regions and cities of Latvia, also making a significant contribution to the Latvian economy.

In 2020, the agriculture and forestry sectors together accounted for around 40% of Latvia's total exports. In addition, the area of agriculture and forestry continues to grow every year. In 2020, the total area of managed agricultural land in Latvia increased, reaching 1.96 million hectares of agricultural land, which is 36% of all land in Latvia, while the number of economically active farms reaches 69 thousand.[2]^,[3]Meanwhile, last year, forest areas, according to the Latvian forest definition, reached 3,285 thousand hectares, representing an increase of about 21% compared to 2010.^[4] In turn, the total volume of reserves has increased by approximately 7.4% over 10 years, reaching 682 million m.³, which indicates that sustainable forest management exists in Latvia, increasing forest reserves in the long term. Every year, the agricultural and forestry sector pays around 170 million euros in taxes administered by the State Revenue Service.[5]

“The contribution of farmers to the Latvian economy is indisputable, which is why the minister’s rhetoric raises questions. For comparison, this year and in the future, the state budget has only allocated 180 million per year with great difficulty for the salaries of medical professionals, which is almost identical to the amount of funds from the farmers’ contribution to the state budget. Such statements are quite demagogic, because the contribution of the agricultural and forestry sector is not viewed in the context of the positive effect in related sectors (food industry, transport, raw material trade, etc.), as well as in the context of territorial development. I would like to hope that what the minister said regarding the economic contribution of the agricultural sector to the development of Latvia is a misunderstanding,” Juris Lazdiņš, chairman of the board of the association "Farmers' Council", admits.

The united farmers' organizations also see the purposefully disseminated information about farmers' allegedly negative stance towards the implementation of the Green Deal, very often contrasting different types of agriculture in this discussion, as a deception of the public.

“All organizations that have signed the request support the European Green Deal and its goals. For more than 2 years, farmers' organizations have been working on the logical implementation of the goals of the Green Deal, therefore we distance ourselves from any statements by the Minister of the Ministry of Regional Development, Regional Development and the Environment, which are aimed at spreading contrary information. Farmers and foresters are in favor of the implementation of the Green Deal, this protest is not related to the Green Deal, but to the blatant division of society over state budget money. We believe that this in no way contributes to the coexistence and development of Latvia's various types of agriculture, but creates a deliberate division into “good and bad”, threatening the demise of Latvian agriculture and forestry,” emphasizes Indulis Jansons, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Latvian Agricultural Cooperatives.

In the request submitted to the Minister of the Ministry of Environment, Rural Development and Rural Development, a number of organizations have united – the “Farmers' Council”, the “Latvian Forest Owners' Association”, the “Latvian Agricultural Cooperative Association”, the “Latvian Young Farmers' Club”, the “Cooperation Council of Agricultural Organizations” and the “Farmers' Association”, which in total unite almost 10,000 farmers, forest owners and farms, and which manage around 701,300 hectares of agricultural and forestry land in Latvia.

See the photo gallery from the submission of the claim to the Minister of Environment, Rural Development and Rural Development. here.

[1] https://www.delfi.lv/news/versijas/arturs-toms-pless-jarada-lidzsvars-starp-tautsaimniecibas-attistibu-un-apkartejas-vides-veselibu.d?id=53282319

[2] https://lvportals.lv/dienaskartiba/328067-lauku-saimniecibas-klust-lielakas-un-to-apsaimniekota-zemes-platiba-palielinas-2021

[3] https://www.zm.gov.lv/public/files/CMS_Static_Page_Doc/00/00/01/89/03/2020_lauksaimniecibas_gada_zinojums1.pdf

[4] https://www.zm.gov.lv/public/ck/files/ZM/mezhi/buklets/skaitlifakti_LV_2021.pdf

[5] https://www.delfi.lv/bizness/budzets_un_nodokli/petijums-lielakas-nozares-pec-samaksato-nodoklu-apjoma-2019-gada.d?id=52082803