Speech on the occasion of the opening of the 30th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation.
Delivered by deputy Femke Wiersma in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden
June 10, 2024
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening! Welcome to our beautiful province Fryslân. It’s great to see so many scientists, advisors, teachers, and other people from the European Grassland Federation, who all care about grassland. I would like to officially welcome you here in Leeuwarden, the capital of this province.
The province Fryslân is located in a fertile delta where agriculture is very productive. Fryslân is known for its extensive grassland area. With more than 180 thousand hectares of grasslands, Fryslân is the province with the largest area of grasslands in the Netherlands.
Our region is very suitable for the production of high-quality grass. With this grass, that is not suitable for human consumption, with the help of dairy cows, a valuable and nutritious product can be made for people: milk. That process makes our extensive coverage of grasslands play a crucial role in the region’s agriculture, biodiversity and cultural significance.
Milk has many processing options into a multitude of dairy products that are exported all over the world but are also widely consumed in the Netherlands and Europe. There is also an agro-food chain associated with it with great economic significance.
Unfortunately, the fertilization standard for fertile soils in the Netherlands is under pressure because the Netherlands (and Flanders and Denmark, among others) must apply the same manure standard (for grassland) as the slopes in Austria or the fields in Spain, with their often tropical and very dry summers. This puts food production under pressure.
Fertilization is important for a healthy soil and hopefully these insights and with them the fertilization standards for, among other things, Dutch grasslands will change in the long term, and it will be demonstrated that animal manure is healthier and more sustainable for the soil than the use of artificial fertilizer.
Besides of their feed production function for farm animals and the fact that they’re home to lots of different plants and animals, grasslands help prevent soil erosion, manage water, store carbon, but most of all clean water. It’s not sensitive for washout of nutrients because of its long growing season.
And finally, green fields are a big part of our culture.
All of the characteristics and functions I’ve mentioned are not only true for our province, but also for the whole of Europe.
But, because of changes in farming and how we use land, they’re in danger. The area of grassland in Europe is less than what it used to be. That’s why we need to look after them and manage them in a way that’s good for the environment and for the farmers.
It is therefore not surprising that the province of Fryslân attaches great importance to knowledge and innovations in grassland management. Together with partners, we continuously invest in research and practice. In all cases there is good cooperation between business and knowledge institutions such as the Universities in Wageningen and Groningen and our Universities of Applied Sciences. This will be made visible to you during EGF. A number of you visited one of them yesterday for the Grazing Working Group: Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences. You will visit the Dairy Campus tomorrow as well as practical research plots in the Frisian peat meadow area, nature-inclusive agriculture in the Noordelijke Friese Wouden, and leading innovative companies supporting our agriculture. They are well represented during the EGF2024 in Leeuwarden.
This is also why the theme of your conference (“Why grasslands?”) is really topical. You are going to be thinking about what the future of our grasslands might look like and how we can use what we already know about grassland and its ecosystem services. Grassland science is thus not just about understanding the world beneath our feet, but also about using that understanding to improve our world.
I was told that this conference is a platform to exchange innovative ideas, share unique research findings, and foster collaborations across various grassland science disciplines. You are gathered here today not just to learn from each other, but also to challenge our understanding, broaden our perspectives, and inspire future innovations. I hope and expect that Leeuwarden and the province Fryslân are just the perfect decoration for this.
I hope that all the meetings during this conference will make you curious, make you think, and help you come up with new ideas about grassland science.
What you bring to the grassland science community is really important. So welcome again to the 2024 European Grassland Federation conference. Let’s work together for the future of grassland science!
Thank you.