The Audit Office report has been received with alarm by political parties. Several politicians call it a “time bomb” that could go off at any moment. According to them, it is clear that effective nitrogen emission management is only possible if the current situation of poor oversight ends first.
Recent environmental research revealed that the quality of surface water is much worse than previously calculated, especially in the hundreds of inlets, fjords, and river mouths along Denmark's long, rugged coasts. Denmark risks EU fines if nitrate pollution is not drastically reduced.
Landbrug & Fødevarer, the interest organization of Danish farmers, states that farmers are not easily guilty of excessive fertilizer use. However, they acknowledge that more can be done and are open to new monitoring systems.
The report has also ignited a political storm because negotiations are currently underway regarding the level of a future 'tripartite' CO2 tax on agriculture and livestock farming. Three variants of these rates are on the table. This new tax could lead to the conversion of about 11 percent of farmland to forest and nature reserves.
For farmers, the Audit Office report on the missing agricultural inspections arrives at a disadvantageous moment in two ways: while their negotiators try to keep the national CO2 levy as low as possible, asset research shows that Danish farmers have nearly doubled their wealth over the past five years, mainly due to higher prices, lower interest rates, and refinancing.
The value of Danish farms has thus almost doubled to about 17 million Danish kroner per farmer, mainly in crop farming and pig farming. It is now argued that the industry can well afford this new climate tax.
Furthermore, an impending reduction in agriculture and livestock farming is already impacting the demand for farmland. Prices per hectare have sometimes more than doubled on average over the past year (from 200,000 kroner to sometimes 500,000 kroner), depending on location and proximity to the power grid.
This offers retiring farmers the chance to sell their land at high prices but also causes major problems for young farmers trying to buy land for the first time.