Özdemir at Farmers’ Day: “It can’t go on like this”

Energy costs, food prices, the climate crisis – German farmers are facing enormous challenges. At the farmer’s day, Minister of Agriculture Özdemir swore them to make far-reaching changes and presented three concrete goals.

Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir has promised farmers support in the current crises. In his speech at the Farmers’ Day in Lübeck, he emphasized the outstanding importance of agriculture for Germany. In addition to financial support, concrete measures would also be taken, such as the use of ecological priority areas for growing cereals or the suspension of a crop rotation rule planned from 2023. Özdemir also advocated temporarily reducing VAT on certain products.

Current and old problems

At the same time, he swore the farmers to make far-reaching changes. There are major challenges, on the one hand because of the current Ukraine war, but on the other hand there are also problems that have been known for a long time but have not been tackled. These included farm deaths, over-fertilization and, above all, the climate crisis. That’s why you have to dare something new and question the old – “it can’t go on the way it is”.

Özdemir spoke out in favor of pragmatic solutions, but warned against questioning the climate-friendly restructuring of agriculture because of the current crisis. Anyone who thinks so is doing the generation of children and grandchildren “a disservice”.

He set three goals for his term of office: On the one hand, security of supply must be guaranteed in Germany and worldwide, on the other hand, climate protection must play a greater role. And finally, life in the country and the farms should have good prospects for the future.

animal husbandry and financial security

He intends to achieve these goals with various measures. An important role is played by a label that identifies five different forms of husbandry and is initially only to be introduced for pigs. Özdemir emphasized that consumers also have to change their habits: “If the animal is to be better off, the farmer must also notice this in his wallet.” He also promised to offer farmers long-term financing prospects when converting to more sustainable agriculture and to adapt the building and approval laws for the construction of stables.

prices will rise

However, this will not make food prices cheaper in the short term. On the contrary, the minister expects “increases in autumn and winter, because retailers now have to supply themselves with expensive energy and the price increases are passed on to customers.”

Farmer President Joachim Rukwied had previously made a similar statement. “Fertilizer costs four times as much, feed costs twice as much, and diesel is almost unaffordable,” he said NDR. Therefore, the prices for agricultural products should continue to rise.

Use more brownfields?

Rukwied campaigned for the temporary use of additional land, which would mean that 1.4 million tons more wheat could be produced – with a total German harvest of more than 40 million tons of grain. Every additional ton weakens the aggressor Russia, argued the farm president. He expects politicians to use the instrument.

At the same time, Rukwied made it clear that there was a “crystal clear no” to a general about-face in agricultural policy. Work must continue on the change towards more sustainability and climate protection. However, regulations need to be adjusted.