“FRP’s Sivert Bjørnstad slams farmers’ demand for billion-dollar settlement”

GARDERMOEN (Dagbladet): The farmers demand NOK 6.9 billion in this year’s agricultural settlement.

FRP’s Sivert Bjørnstad almost gapes at the demand. He asks the government to put its foot down.

– I hope there are some adults at home in the government now. This just won’t work, he says of the billion demand.

– Hair-raising transfer

Bjørnstad says that it is irresponsible if Agriculture Minister Sandra Borch (Sp) approaches the farmers’ demands at all. The FRP summit shows that the government has said again and again that the state must prioritize hard in an economically demanding year. Then the farmers cannot get everything they point to, argues Bjørnstad.

– This will be a hair-raising transfer of the community’s funds to a relatively small group of self-employed people. These are budget funds that can be used far better on other things, he adds.

Bjørnstad points out that last year the farmers were compensated for all cost increases through the record settlement of NOK 10.9 billion.

In 2022, incomes increased on average by 14.4 per cent, according to the Budget Committee for Agriculture. Even the oil workers could not match the farmers’ income growth last year.

Lost the top job: Acquitted

– More expensive food

The financing of this year’s settlement is proposed to be done through increased target prices of NOK 1.07 billion and budget transfers of NOK 5.4 billion.

That means more expensive food for the man in the street.

– One billion must be raised through increasing food prices. It is therefore the consumer who has to pay a large part of the bill for Sandra Borch to stay in a demanding industry, says Sivert Bjørnstad.

Got secret support

– Communism

For the first time since 1950, the farmers’ organizations in the agricultural settlement were unable to agree on a common demand for this year’s agricultural negotiations.

Bjørnstad calls the whole model a hoax from the past, and reminds that farmers must be self-employed.

– Agriculture in Norway is a communist system, completely disconnected from the market. Tina and Nortura decide how much food will cost. The result is an industry with inefficient operations – which also contributes to generally high food prices in Norway.

Arguments for generous conditions for farmers are often the desire to secure settlement in rural areas, protect smaller farms, and ensure preparedness through food production.

– It is in the rural areas that it is possible to produce food in Norway, so I am not worried about settlement. But Norway cannot continue to measure agriculture in the number of farmers – we must measure in how much is actually produced. FRP wants farmers to be allowed to grow without being limited by old-fashioned concession limits, he says.