As I leave Holland the two debates in my mind which I am looking for greater understanding during the next few weeks are:
1: Why does the CAP subsidy environment seem to impact negatively on farmer uptake of innovation. The discussions with my fellow Scholars and some speakers suggests that subsidies are the antithesis of innovation. I am unconvinced of this as I cannot see why there should be a direct link between subsidy payments and uptake and adoption of new ideas.
2: Should New Zealand farmers have a greater stake in the ownership of the value chain. Some of the discussion during the time in Holland revolved around the performance of cooperatives and the performance of the likes of Fonterra and Freislandia and such. There are seriously big co op's in Holland which suggest collective ownership of big business is possible if not positive (as argued by the Co operative exectives). The performance of the co-operatives were questioned by farmer suppliers and there is the ongoing tensions between suppliers and processors whether co operatively owned or fully privately owned.
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