Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (Netherlands)

The main office in the centre of The Hague

The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Voedselkwaliteit; LNV) was formerly the ministry of agriculture of the Netherlands. On 14 October 2010, when the Rutte cabinet took office, the department was merged with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to form the new Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation.

Responsibilities

The Ministry was responsible for four fields of policy:

• Agriculture and fisheries;
• Natural conservation, open air recreation and national parks;
• Food Safety;
• Rural development.

Organisation

The Ministry was headed by one Minister. Its main office was located in the centre of The Hague. The Ministry was divided into ten policy departments, which was headed by a governing council. The policy departments were responsible for: Industry and Trade, International Affairs, Juridical Affairs, Knowledge, Agriculture, Nature, Rural Affairs, Regional Affairs, Fishery and Food Quality and Animal Health.

It had several semi-independent services:

• General Inspection Service, which was the control service of the ministry, which enforced rules on food quality, animal welfare and the environment.
• ICT services, which supported the partners of LNV in their ICT.
• Rural Areas Service, which was involved in projects for the development of rural areas
• Rules Service, which was concerned with the execution of several specific fields of policy.
• Plant Health Service
• Food and Goods Authority, which controlled the quality of food. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports can also give orders to the Food and Goods Authority.

History

The Ministry was established as a separate ministry, called "Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries", in 1935. Agriculture and fisheries policy had previously been integrated into the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and later into the Ministry of Water, Trade and Industry.

After the Second World War the Ministry became responsible for the rationing of food and the reconstruction of the agricultural sector. As such it became much more important. Between 1946 and 1982 the ministry was a "client"-oriented ministry, oriented at the development of the agriculture sector in accordance to the European Common Agriculture Policy.^[1] In 1982 the ministry also became responsible for natural conservation and open air recreation, which used to be part of the responsibilities of the Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Social Work. As such it became more focused on sustainable development of the agricultural sector.

In 2003 the Food and Goods Authority became part of the ministry, which was renamed Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

Ministers

Since 1989 the following politicians have been minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality

• 2007-2010 Gerda Verburg (CDA)
• 2002-2007 Cees Veerman (CDA)
  • 2002 Jan Odink (LPF; state secretary)
• 1999-2002 Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst (D66)
• 1998-1999 Hayo Apotheker (D66)
  • 1998-2002 Geke Faber (PvdA; state secretary)
• 1994-1998 Jozias van Aartsen (VVD)
• 1990-1994 Piet Bukman (CDA)
  • 1990-1994 Dzsingisz Gabor (CDA)
• 1989-1990 Gerrit Braks (CDA)

See also

• Food Administration

References

1. Neelen et al. (2003), De bestuurlijk kaart van Nederland, p.69

External links

• Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality