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Combine harvester at work: More fields, fewer meadows?
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Inderlied/Kirchner-Media/ imago images/Kirchner-Media
Which is more important: environmental protection or food security?
In view of rising food prices worldwide and impending bottlenecks, environmental rules for farmers are to be relaxed in the EU.
The EU Commission announced on Friday that food production should thus be increased.
Specifically, the authority proposed granting exceptions for so-called crop rotation rules and set-aside of arable land for one year.
With the reform of the EU agricultural policy, which is to take effect from 2023, environmental standards for agriculture have been expanded.
It also contains specifications that farmers should not plant the same crops one after the other in order to protect the soil.
In addition, four percent of the arable land should no longer be cultivated in order to counteract the extinction of species with fallow areas, flower strips or hedges.
Since the start of the Ukraine war there have been calls to relax environmental protection in order to produce more grain.
The decision that has now been made is welcomed by CDU politicians, among others: "The European Commission made the right and urgently needed decision today," said MEPs Peter Jahr and Norbert Lins.
Ukraine is one of the most important of wheat exporters.
Because of the Russian war, millions of tons cannot be exported.
Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Die Grünen) supports exceptions for crop rotation, but is critical of the suspension of set-aside.
The environmental organization WWF made a similar statement.
Calculations by the Ministry of Agriculture showed that significantly more grain could be harvested in this way, the Green politician said a few days ago in Brussels.
A cultivation of wheat on wheat in Germany is expected to bring in 3.4 million tons more.
By contrast, suspending the four percent rule would yield only 3.6 million to 5.3 million tonnes more wheat across the EU.
mic/dpa-AFX
