In 2023, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will change. The aim of this new CAP is to make agriculture more sustainable together by rewarding future-proof farming more strongly. The cropping plan is the basis of every farmer. For every hectare of eligible farmland, one gets a basic premium that will be a lot lower in 2023. Additional premiums can be obtained through eco-activities. The basic premium from the new CAP resembles the basic payment from the current agricultural policy. One of the differences: there are no more payment entitlements. There will also be an additional payment for the first 40 hectares of the farm and for young farmers. One advantage of the new basic premium is that one no longer needs payment entitlements. Also new is that landscape elements will be seen as eligible land and you no longer have to be an active farmer if last year's payment was less than €5,000.
The new CAP is still evolving. New subsidies can be applied for as early as 2022. More information via https://www.rvo.nl/onderwerpen/glb.
The Nutri-Score assesses products as a whole, in context of the food group to which they belong. It looks at the nutrients and individual ingredients and not at the food as a whole. So no distinction is made between healthy and less healthy foods. Vegetables and biscuits, for instance, are measured by the same yardstick, so foods in almost all product groups can end up with a good score. For instance, Nesquik instant chocolate milk has a nutrient score of B with a main ingredient of 75% sugar. How do they arrive at a score of B? Simple, they put iron, vitamin D, and zinc in it. That way, the product scores enough "positives" to balance out the negatives of the sugar.
An update has now come for the Nutri-Score algorithm. The document was adopted at the International Nutri-Score Steering Committee on 26 July 2022. Not that it makes things any clearer. It provides an update for the Nutri-Score algorithm, in the categories of general foods (main algorithm), fats, oils and nuts and seeds and specific rules for meat products. The Health Council will issue an opinion based on this document. This opinion will be used to prepare the decision-making process on the introduction of Nutri-Score in the Netherlands later this year.
