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Cem Ozdemir
Photo: Sina Schuldt / dpa
The Ukraine is considered Europe's breadbasket, but the Russian war of aggression is threatening a large part of the harvest - and with it the food supply of many countries around the world.
Solutions are being sought within the EU to counteract the crisis.
However, a project by the EU Commission has been rejected by Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir: The Greens politician has criticized the EU Commission's announcement that it would relax environmental regulations for farmers in order to increase grain production.
"Instead of taking responsibility for a sustainable agricultural policy itself, the EU Commission is pushing the member states into the hole," Özdemir told the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" (NOZ, Monday edition).
The Commission eludes the resentment from parts of the agricultural sector about sustainability goals and shifts responsibility.
Özdemir warned that he could only relax environmental regulations if he tightened them elsewhere.
He must now check that carefully.
However, Özdemir is skeptical about the frequently demanded complete waiver of the planned set-aside of four percent of arable land.
There are "significantly larger levers that Brussels has unfortunately not pulled," said the Federal Minister.
Özdemir pointed out that plants that would later be used in biofuel production were grown on 14 percent of the arable land in Germany alone.
“There's no good reason for grain in the tank right now.
That has to be shut down, «demanded the Green politician.
From a global perspective, a possible loss of Ukraine as a grain supplier could be compensated for several times by this alone.
A moderate reduction in the number of animals in Germany would also mean that “we would no longer have to grow animal feed on 60 percent of the area under cultivation”.
He also expects proposals from the EU Commission on this, said Özdemir.
On Friday evening, the EU Commission declared that it wanted to suspend the so-called crop rotation rule in the coming year.
It stipulates that around 1.5 million hectares of arable land must normally lie fallow in the EU.
This is an area the size of Schleswig-Holstein.
The regulation is intended to protect the fertility of the soil and nature.
To compensate for the shortage of Russian and Ukrainian grain caused by the Ukraine war, the commission had already approved a "temporary" exception to the crop rotation rule for 2022 in March.
This enables farmers to grow "crops for food" on land that is actually fallow.
According to "NOZ", the German agriculture ministers want to discuss the EU Commission's plans for the coming year at their special meeting on Thursday.
asc/dpa
