Bart Kemp (Agractie Nederland) wins Issue Award 2020

Amstelveen, January 23, 2020 –The farmers' protest of October 1, started by sheep farmer Bart Kemp (Agractie Nederland) has won the Issue Award 2020. Agractie leader Bart Kemp just received the award at De Balie in Amsterdam. The Issue Award is presented every year to the person or organization that managed to put a social and political issue on the agenda in a striking, effective way in the past year.

The jury, led by behavioral scientist Reint Jan Renes, appreciates the large-scale and impressive demonstration with which Kemp and his organization have put the nitrogen problem in relation to Dutch farmers on the social agenda. For the first time in thirty years, farmers took to the streets en masse with their tractors: one message from Bart Kemp on WhatsApp resulted in one of the largest farmers' protests in history. The jury further expressed its appreciation that Kemp remained close to his original objective in the unprecedented commotion surrounding the farmers' protests and continued to draw attention in a personal way to the importance of farmers and their products for Dutch society.

“As a result of this initiative, 21,000 farmers with more than 5,000 tractors came to a crowded Malieveld on October 1, 2019 to demonstrate against government policy in the field of agriculture. The demonstration had an Elfstedentocht allure that day: everyone in the Netherlands talked about it, whether you wanted to or not, you could - almost literally - not ignore the farmers on October 1. The media attention was enormous. A special achievement that has not been surpassed by any other “issue-maker” in 2019. By presenting the award to Bart Kemp, the jury wants to indicate that it appreciates the way in which he has taken the initiative to put the issue on the agenda and advance it. This campaign made 2019 the year of the farmers,” said jury chairman Renes.

The prize was presented by Marjan Olfers, lawyer and professor of sport and law at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam.

Bart Kemp of Agractie Nederland responded happily to the award: “This award also underlines the relevance of Dutch food makers for all of us. Agractie Nederland will continue to work on telling the story of Dutch food, including through fun actions."

Nominees
The other two nominees were the SIRE foundation (Stichting Ideële Reclame) with the #DOESLIEF campaign and councilor Rob Jonkman (Christian Union, municipality of Opsterland) with the petition on youth care that was signed by 140 municipalities. With the #DOESLIEF campaign, SIRE encouraged people to treat each other more kindly and with more respect, both in daily life and on social media. Jonkman initiated and coordinated the petition, in which the House of Representatives and the cabinet were asked to assist municipalities and make more money available for youth care.

Jury
The professional jury of the Issue Award consists of chairman Reint Jan Renes (lecturer at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences), Marjan Olfers (lawyer and professor of sport and law at the VU), Kemal Rijken (publicist, writer, historian and political scientist), Liesbeth Breeveld (head of communications). of the SER), Rob de Lange (author and general reporter at the Financieel Dagblad), Guido Rijnja (communication policy advisor for the Government Information Service) and André Manning (director of Logeion, the professional organization for communication professionals).

Previous winners
Last year, the Issue Award went to Tim Hofman for his initiative of a petition for a broader child pardon. In addition, Arjen Lubach received an Oeuvre award with his program “Sunday with Lubach” in which Lubach highlights social issues. In 2018, educational action group PO in Actie won the award for the way in which workload and salary problems in primary education are put on the agenda, in 2017 the prize went to Hugo Borst and Carin Gaemers for the issue 'Quality of elderly care'. The Issue Award has existed since 2010.

About The Issuemakers
The Issue Award is an initiative of communications agency De Issuemakers. De Issuemakers is a communications consultancy specialized in agenda-setting and... manage of social issues in media, society and politics. The Issuemakers supports companies or organizations that have an impact on society or that want to do so. The Issuemakers sees issues as opportunities, identifies them at an early stage and links them to companies or organizations, allowing them to anchor themselves socially and manage their reputation even better.