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The new food coalition
There is almost a majority in The Hague in favour of a ministry of Food. Six parliamentary parties see such a ministry as the key to a new, integral food policy. Their coalition on this issue is fragile, however, due to numerous differences of opinion.
Two years ago the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WWR) published a report called Towards a food policy. The report is a plea for an integral food policy. It came out at a time when there were legal cases about food fraud, a public debate about factory farming, animal welfare and health, and complaints from farmers about low prices and the new power relations in food production chains. Although the Dutch agrofood sector was a major contributor to the Dutch economy, noted the WRR, public confidence in the sector was at a low ebb.