INTERVIEW 64 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE August 2024 such as the Netherlands, the topic of less animal protein is heavily discussed, consumer demand for animal products such as milk, eggs and meat is growing rapidly internationally. This high demand has contributed to higher feed prices over the past few years. However, in contrast to this demand, food production is becoming increasingly difficult and productivity is declining due to various legislations on topics such as food safety, environmental impact and animal welfare. I think there will be a shortage in food supply due to this situation, which contradicts the increasing demand for food, and consequently feed prices will not fall easily in the coming period. Anyone who has studied economics knows that when there is a lack of food supply, there will be rising demand, and in that case, prices are high. This is exactly why we need to talk to the chain partners and figure out how farmers can cover these feed costs. For farmers to continue producing and for low-income consumers to have access to food, they need to be able to sell what they produce at a normal profit margin. Self-sufficiency is actually a contradiction to this whole process. How can we be self-sufficient? The European Commission talks about food security, self-sufficiency and getting less dependent, and now we come back to the same point. How are you going to do that? What is self-sufficient? For example, in the Netherlands, more than 50% of the raw materials we use in feed production are co-products, which we buy from food companies. There are also foodstuffs that farmers produce on their own farms, such as maize and grass, but these are more limited. About 20% of the rest of the raw materials are imported, 80% of which come from Europe. Soybean meal, which makes up a small amount of the raw materials used, is imported from North and South America. In the end, in the Netherlands, our dependence on imports is dependent on Europe. So for us, being self-sufficient means being self-sufficient on the European level. Across Europe, there are serious efforts and strict legal regulations to reduce carbon emissions. What is being done in the Netherlands in this regard? We are talking about Europe, but there is already serious work in the Netherlands. The new Dutch Minister of Agriculture, who is open to supporting innovation, is focused on the fact that we have to deal with food security as well as climate goals. As a country we have to align with the European Commission, but we also have to take care of healthy,
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