The economics and politics of the dutch manure problem

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Abstract
Rapid increases in livestock production in the Netherlands have changed manure from a valuable input into a mere waste. This is especially true for the south and the east of the country, where specialised pig and poultry farms are concentrated on sandy soils. As these farms generally own very little land, they largely depend on imported feedstuffs. As a consequence, manure is applied to land in such large quantities that huge amounts of nutrients, such as phosphate and nitrogen, have leached into the environment, causing serious environmental problems. In an attempt to decrease the adverse environmental effects from nutrient leakages, the Dutch government has developed a manure policy. The analysis of that policy reveals fundamental failures, which render the manure policy ineffective and inefficient. In order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of abating nutrient leakages economists suggest the use of economic instruments, such as regulatory levies on the input of nutrients or the emission of nutrients. Current manure policy is strongly dominated by ‘command and control’ instruments, such as emission standards and product and process requirements. Despite the frequent pleas for the use of economic instruments, hardly any of these are used. The lack of economic instruments in the Dutch manure policy is explained on the basis of the interests involved, that is the interests of politicians, bureaucrats, farmers and their organisations, supplying and processing industries, and the environmental movement.

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