As of: 01/16/2022 5:36 p.m
Producer prices are in the basement, the farmers are in crisis: Farmers’ President Rukwied is now demanding four billion euros a year from the government – to finance better stables for cattle and pigs.
The farmers want four billion euros a year to pay for new animal welfare stables. Farmers’ President Joachim Rukwied has therefore called on Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir to quickly clarify the financing for this. “The conversion costs about four billion euros a year. We need the money,” said Rukwied of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.
“The companies are giving up in rows”
With the restructuring of animal husbandry, keepers could reinvent themselves. “The farmers are ready for it,” said the President of the German Farmers’ Association. However, the project can only succeed if a decision is made quickly on how the new stables should be paid for and the financial pool created.
The Commission for the Future of Agriculture set up by the old federal government had estimated the costs of restructuring agriculture at seven to eleven billion euros per year. But the costs of “business as usual” are much higher: 90 billion euros a year, also through climate-damaging emissions, air and groundwater pollution and the loss of biodiversity. The Commission considers the financing to be a task for society as a whole; she pleaded for state support, but also for higher food prices. The animal population must therefore shrink significantly.
Rukwied once again expressed his concern about the future of agriculture in Germany. “The companies are giving up in rows.” The number of animals kept in Germany is lower than it has been for a long time. It is all the more important to start restructuring animal husbandry quickly in order to create perspectives.
Özdemir promises help
The traffic light coalition has set itself the goal of introducing mandatory animal husbandry labeling from 2022, which will also include transport and slaughter. Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir promised the farmers support in the Bundestag on Friday and praised their work: They made sure “that we have our food on the table every day”. It is not okay “and not without alternative” that a farmer only gets 22 cents of the euro that a customer spends on pork in the shop. “It’s just a mess. You can change that, you have to change that and this coalition will change that,” announced the minister.
According to Animal Welfare President Thomas Schröder, the development of mandatory state animal welfare labeling must have priority. This must cover the entire chain – from breeding to fattening and transport to the slaughterhouse, Schröder told the “NOZ”. For some animals there are still no legal husbandry standards. An animal protection label would not relieve the government of the obligation to create legal minimum standards for all animals. These are missing, for example, for cattle, turkeys, sheep and waterfowl, said Schröder.