The environmental association LBV is convinced that nature conservation in agriculture could be massively expanded without endangering food security in Germany. People would only have to eat more plant-based foods instead of meat. It would also be healthier. The LBV relies on a study by its umbrella organization Nabu. According to this, twice as much plant-based food for humans can be produced on one hectare of arable land as feed for livestock whose meat, milk or eggs are later consumed by humans. “We have nothing against the traditional Sunday roast,” says LBV boss Norbert Schäffer. “But it’s healthier for people, nature and the climate if we don’t eat meat every day and as a society halve meat consumption.”
In Bavaria, a dispute about appropriate nutrition has been raging for some time. Politicians from the CSU and Free Voters, above all Prime Minister Markus Söder and Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger, but also Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber, above all, accuse the Greens of banning the population from sausage and meat and instead wanting to prescribe a diet that is as vegetarian as possible, if not even vegan . Kaniber has recently repeatedly rejected attempts by the EU Commission to expand nature conservation in agriculture. Their argument: The EU Commission is thereby endangering food security in Europe.
LBV boss Schäffer now resolutely contradicts all of this. “To produce meat, a lot of arable land is needed for animal feed,” he says. “If we reduce these areas, we have much more space for effective nature and climate protection.” As an example, he cites the rewetting of moors, which thus regain their function as CO₂ storage and at the same time are new habitats for partridges, skylarks, lapwings and other increasingly rare bird species. The co-author of the study, Markus Kempen, also says: “There is enough space available for food security as well as for nature and biodiversity.” The prerequisite, however, is that “the population changes its consumer behavior”.