The actors around the Telemark Cattle do what is in their power in order to save her as a breed through different projects. As an economic value toward her survival, grants are given to several projects and individual farmers. Social demands and the existing market contributes on deciding the economic values towards preferred initiatives. The County Governor is
guided by the current White Paper, the Parliamentary Adjustments, and the Agricultural Agreement when they are deciding on new projects or approving grant applications on
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projects. The Parliamentary Adjustments work as an answer and correction to the guiding White Paper, and the Agricultural Agreement shows where the money and resources go. I will guide you through a thought scenario inspired by my expert-group interview at the County Governor, and an extra phone call on the 22nd of May, to see if I were on the right track. The pictures below are addressing the issue “Bevaringsverdige raser”, which the Telemark Cattle is a part of through its history and level of extinction.
Illustration 3. Example from White Paper 11, 2016
White Paper 11, in chapter 5.3.8, stresses the issue around national older breeds of domestic animals in Norway, which are at an extinction level. The White Paper, uses words as, might have beneficial meat qualities, and can be useful in the cultural landscape. The White Paper, is on the other hand clear on existing research that proves how some of these endangered
55 animals have beneficial qualities compared to more modern, productive breeds, like
exploiting the nutritional value of plants growing in uncultivated.
After the White Paper, has been written and decided, it is sent to the Parliament to be checked and approved on an ongoing legal basis. This process does not change the White Paper, itself, but it sends an extra file with adjustment and corrections when the County Governor uses it for deciding new projects and processes.
Illustration 4. Example from Parliamentary Adjustments to the White Paper, 11, 2016
The committee who decides whether or not it adjustments are needed throughout the White Paper, are people representing the affected area of discipline on each subject. Together they find guidance and corrections to the existing White Paper. The adjustments presented here is clearly agreeing with the corresponding White Paper, but stress that there must be an
economic value for the farmers who choose this type of domestic animals. In addition to funds and grants given to those who chose this kind of breeds, the adjustment paper recommends a thorough plan of action to secure this line of work.
Even though this is not a linear progress where the White Paper alone sets the legal basis before the rest of the processes occur, I chose to present it this way, to make it
understandable as a process. The Parliamentary Adjustments are based on earlier Agricultural Agreements and a White Paper apply for several years at a time, requiring adjustments along the way. Every time there is a new government, the newly arrived politicians try to publish a new White Paper and regulations, but sometimes this can take a while. If there is no new White Paper, the processes in the agricultural field keeps on going with what they have.
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Illustration 5. Example from the Agricultural Agreement 2016-2017
The Agricultural Agreement is a concrete result from the agreements concerning the White Paper and the affected actors who collaborated on the Parliamentary Adjustment. This is where the money and allocation of resources is presented. The Agricultural Agreement shows us how much the issue presented in the White Paper is valued in actual resources (personal communication, the County Governor, 2016-2017). Here the amount of money given to each Telemark Cattle is presented as a result from the earlier public processes. As long as the grants are applied for within the application deadline, each Telemark Cattle is funded with additional production grants. Projects regarding the Telemark Cattle can be applied to through different agencies and grant programs, dependent on how the project is planned to have a societal, environmental, cultural or economic result.
I chose to draw upon an example of a project to save the Telemark Cattle, presented in the following section. The project is funded by public grants with a broad agreement on its importance.
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Telemark Cattle – A concerted effort to save the world’s most beautiful Cow.
The next project under the auspices of the County Governor would be a summer farm collaboration with different Telemark Cattle farmers. This summer farm is planned to
strengthen the tourist interest in the culture of Telemark, and, as a result, the breed itself. This program is called, “Telemarkskyri – Eit kraftak for å redde verdas vakraste kyr”.
This is the title of the ongoing project initiated by Landslaget for Telemarksfe and the County Governor. The project had planned to create a summer farm with the Telemark Cattle as an attraction for tourists travelling to Telemark. The cattle were planned to arrive from different farms. One issue regarding the project was how administrators of the project needed a plan for what to do with the milk production at the summer farm. When I was at the County Governor they talked about this project on an idea-level where they looked for who, when, and how to implement this project. The project initiated several events in order to increase and strengthen the population of the Telemark Cattle. More focus on qualitative breeding of the stock was initiated and, during the last year of the project, the number on Telemark Cattle increased from 298 to 339. This project also created a special brand for the products made from meat and milk from the Telemark Cattle. In 2016 the project funded an exhibition with information about the Cattle, and sold some products made of milk and meat from the cattle at the trade show, Dyrsku’n12.