Huitema represents the European liberals in this negotiating delegation of the ENVI environment committee especially because he is also a (substitute) member of the AGRI agricultural committee. Additionally, over recent years he has strongly advocated for the Dutch plan to process animal manure in such a way that it becomes cleaner and more environmentally friendly than many current fertilizers.
Huitema (38) has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014. In the previous term, he was part of the Agriculture committee but deliberately switched to the Environment committee in 2019. "I anticipated that many agricultural issues would increasingly have a greater environmental impact, and that traditional farming methods could not solve that. I see the yes/no and polarization over ‘less pesticides’ also occurring within the agricultural sector," Huitema stated.
The team of seven faction rapporteurs of the Environment committee is led by Austrian Sara Wiener (Greens). In recent years, this ENVI committee has 'taken over' several important files from the AGRI agriculture committee. This shift is a direct consequence of Vice-President Frans Timmermans making ‘Climate’ the main objective and flagship of the von der Leyen Commission. The Green Deal, Farm to Fork, biodiversity, and less environmental pollution are direct results of that.
Huitema points out that the agricultural sector itself wants to reduce the use of these agents. "Farmers don’t buy this stuff for fun, certainly not lately as it only keeps getting more expensive. They use such agents because they want to avoid the risk of a failed harvest. And because there are still no alternatives available…"
Huitema wants to make the lack of alternatives a spearhead in these negotiations. "I think we can win over many skeptics if the European priority is no longer 'reduction' but 'replacement.' In other words: our goal should be to replace half of all chemical agents with environmentally friendly and natural alternatives."
"And then of course, we must immediately address with the Agriculture Ministers that EFSA and other EU agencies speed up the approval process of new agents. Because now EU politicians say chemical fertilizers must be cut in half, while EU agencies say they have no budget and no staff for a solution. That simply can’t continue," Huitema said.
Besides focusing on those ‘replacements’, Huitema also wants to make binding agreements with Commissioners Kyriakides (Plant Protection), Timmermans (Climate), Sinkevicius (Environment), and Wojciechowski (Agriculture) on developing new breeding techniques.
If no agreement is reached on nature restoration, biodiversity, and limiting the use of agents in agriculture, then the entire issue (as in 2018) will be postponed until after the European elections in spring 2024.