New direction for farm policy - Germany hopes to cut down on industrial monopoly of farming - Brief Article

Eurofood, Feb 13, 2001

German farm minister, Renate Kunast, announced a new national agricultural policy on 8 February 2001, which aims to cut excess production and encourage less industrial, more environmentally sustainable farming. This is to be achieved through the use of directed subsidies and a boost to organic agriculture. Calling for "class instead of mass," Kunast said the EU should give member states more freedom to distribute subsidies as they saw fit.. German farmers received DM27bn per year in subsidies, of which DM12.6bn came from the EU and the rest from the federal budget. In a speech to the German parliament, she said Germany needed large and small, organic and conventional farms, but the ministry planned to boost the share of organic farming from 2.5% to 20% within the next ten years. The achievement of this goal would depend on a shift in emphasis by retailers, from trying to offer the lowest prices to offering the largest choice of "good products". Kunast also called for a "purity law" for cattle production, similar to that which applies to German beer production. "Our cattle should only have water, grain and grass," she said.

SUPPORT

The minister's speech was supported by the opposition Christian Democrat leader, Angela Merkel, who said the move away from industrial farming was "urgently required". She supported a "consensus of democrats" to combat the national agricultural crisis, which has seen beef consumption drop by 57% since the country's first BSE case.

Leader of the National Farmers' Union (DBV) Gerd Sonnleitner welcomed Kunast's speech as "an honest offer of dialogue", but added that the government must not undermine the competitiveness of farmers.

He also said many questions remained unanswered, such as the financing of the purchase for destruction scheme and how to dispose of the country's mounting stocks of meat and bonemeal. Kunast has told the agricultural ministers of the German Lander that she expects them to contribute more to the costs of the BSE crisis.