In the end, the farmers in Erdinger Land made Ludwig Hartmann an offer. For a good hour, the head of the Greens in the state parliament called for more nature conservation and more animal welfare in agriculture at the district farmers’ day in the beer tent in Oberding in front of 450 farmers. He defended the bee referendum four years ago, which is still highly controversial among farmers. He has railed against farm deaths and demanded prices for wheat, milk and all other farm products that cover costs. And he objected to the fact that the Greens only have organic farmers in mind.
The farmers didn’t make it easy for Hartmann. You followed the speech with noticeable skepticism. Now Jakob Maier, the local district chairman of the farmers’ association, calls into the microphone: “There is still so much to talk about, but we don’t have the time anymore.” Then he invites Hartmann to another event of the farmers’ association. Hartmann agrees.
District Farmers’ Days – one can certainly say so – have been high masses of solidarity between the farmers in Bavaria, the farmers’ association and the CSU for decades. And most of them still are, even if the iron bond has cracked and many farmers are skeptical about the party. After all, the CSU can no longer refuse the increasing demands of consumers for more environmentally friendly agriculture. Many farmers dislike this, they feel pilloried and abandoned.
Nevertheless, the solidarity is still celebrated at district farmer days. The major events usually follow the same dry pattern. The welcome by the district chairman is followed by greetings from the respective mayor, district administrator, member of the state parliament and a high-ranking official from the farmers’ association. With the exception of the latter, all are usually from the CSU or at least from the Free Voters. This is followed by a one to one and a half hour lecture. Ideally, the Bavarian Minister of Agriculture and CSU politician Michaela Kaniber holds it. Apart from Prime Minister and party leader Markus Söder, every other state politician would be a second choice.
The Erdinger Farmers’ Association and its district chairman Maier have broken with this automatism. It is true that the greetings on their district farmer’s day all come from local CSU politicians. And with Social Affairs Minister Ulrike Scharf, a member of the state government even came. Scharf has her constituency in the region, the district farmer’s day is a must for her. But she also wants to stand up to Hartmann. Because the highlight of the evening this time is the Green politician Hartmann and his keynote speech.
This is just as much new territory for the farmers’ association as it is for Hartmann. District chairman Maier issued the invitation two years ago. Then the corona pandemic intervened. Now Maier has renewed them. One can assume that he had to listen to a lot of bad words, both in the association and in the party. Maier himself downplays that. “The Farmers’ Union and I are politically independent,” he says. “We have to be open to talks. After all, the Greens are now in government in Berlin.” With Cem Özedmir, they even provide the Minister of Agriculture.
He patiently repeats that the farmers could also supply many more people with grain
Hartmann had to take a lot of criticism that evening for Özdemir and his refusal to release the four percent of agricultural land in Germany, on which nature conservation should have priority in the future, for grain cultivation. The farmers themselves, but also the Erdinger district administrator Martin Bayerstorfer (CSU), Minister of Social Affairs Scharf and the vice-president of the farmers’ association, Ralf Huber, repeatedly denounce that the Greens are, so to speak, sinning against feeding the world. But Hartmann stood his ground.
He patiently repeats that the farmers could supply many more people with grain if they reduced the cultivation of fodder or energy corn a little. The Greens politician is technically knowledgeable and politically experienced. Just like before with visits to two farms in the region. On one – an organic farm that markets its grain, potatoes and many types of vegetables on its fields to Munich’s top restaurateurs – Hartmann talks shop with the farmer for a longer time about old, rare cherry varieties.
The other company is the Huberhof in Eitting. It is run by the scratch family. The scratches have 60 cows in the barn, large solar panels on their roofs, guest rooms and a farm shop. They also own two hectares of forest where they cut a lot of firewood. They would like to build a small biomass thermal power station for that, which could also supply the Eittingen kindergarten and a whole range of neighbors with environmentally friendly heat. The project now only depends on a special funding program planned by Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck. When Hartmann hears this, he immediately promises to “follow things up in Berlin when it comes up” – as naturally as only CSU politicians have been able to do so far.