Orchards are threatened with extinction. Researchers at the University of Hohenheim assume that these areas of retreat for old types of fruit, insects, birds and other animals will disappear in Baden-Württemberg by 2050. It doesn’t look any better in other federal states. Cultivating them can be tedious, and many property owners don’t have the time or the will to do it. In addition, the settlement pressure is growing. Another major reason are failures in German agricultural policy. Ironically, the referendum to protect bees triggered an irrational deforestation in Bavaria two years ago. Fearing that their orchards could be placed under nature protection and thus more or less expropriated, some of the farmers used chainsaws and cut down some ancient trees. According to the motto: where there is nothing, there is nothing to protect.
The traditional orchards are the victim of a fatal mixture of ignorance and lack of appreciation for sustainable agriculture that has proven itself over centuries. Their decline is exemplary of the failure of an agricultural policy that was determined for more than 15 years by the CDU and CSU. During this time, the Union systematically delayed or even prevented important reforms, regardless of whether it concerns climate, water, animal or species protection. It also damaged the peasant class, more than a third of the farms were given up during this time – too great the economic pressure, too little prospect of better times.
The legacy of the Merkel era means a heavy burden for the future red-green-yellow federal government, it should now act quickly and decisively and eradicate the mistakes of the past. Expectations are huge and interest groups are putting pressure on them from all sides. Animal rights activists are calling for an end to factory farming, environmentalists for a ban on pesticides, climate protectors for CO₂-neutral cultivation methods and farmers for more help, to name just a few items on the long list. It is also clear that not all requirements can be met, especially not from now on.
Deep cuts – also for consumers
The main challenge for the future government is to set the right priorities. Where these are located should actually be clear to everyone. Since Sunday, the international community in Glasgow, Scotland, has been discussing how the Paris climate targets can somehow be achieved. Agriculture and nutrition play a decisive role in this; a good quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions occur in this area, especially in animal husbandry. Germany, too, cannot avoid significantly reducing the number of cattle and pigs kept in stables, the faster the better.
Another important goal is to secure nutrition, not by having everything necessary brought in from all parts of the world, but by achieving the highest possible level of self-sufficiency. This, too, can help to decisively improve the climate footprint. The entire food system must become more sustainable.
All of this means deep cuts, not only for farms, but also for consumers who have to get used to the fact that meat and dairy products, for example, become more expensive when their true costs are finally factored in.
Where necessary, bans are also required
It is also clear that the necessary change cannot be achieved with friendly appeals to the common sense of producers and consumers. In addition to financial incentives for more sustainable management in fields and stables, stricter laws, higher taxes and, where necessary, bans are needed. Social justice must not fall by the wayside, food must remain affordable for everyone – a minefield for the new federal government.
Continuing as in the past 15 years is definitely not an alternative, otherwise there is a risk of clear-cutting, as recently in the Bavarian orchards. It will be the task of the future federal government to develop perspectives for sustainable agriculture and to define clear goals, also to give the producers planning security. This will demand a lot from all sides, reforms are fraught with conflict, arduous and often painful. But they can also be liberating in the end.