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The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Voedselkwaliteit; LNV) is the Dutch ministry of agriculture. The current minister is Gerda Verburg.

Responsibilities

The Ministry is responsible for four fields of policy:

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

Organisation

The main office in the centre of the Hague

The ministry is currently headed by one minister. The ministry's main office is located in the centre of the Hague. The Ministry is organized in ten policy departments, which is headed by a governing council. The policy departments are responsible for: Industry and Trade, International Affairs, Juridical Affairs, Knowledge, Agriculture, Nature, Rural Affairs, Regional Affairs, Fishery and Food Quality and Animal Health.

It has several semi-independent services:

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

History

Since 1935 the Ministry was founded as a separate ministry, called "Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries". Before 1935 the agriculture and fisheries-policy was integrated into the Ministry of Home Affairs 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 becomes 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 becomes more focused on sustainable development of the agricultural sector.

In 2003 the Food and Goods Authority becomes part of the ministry and it is renamed to Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

Ministers

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

• 2007-now 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)

References

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

External links

• Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality
  

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