As of: February 1, 2024, 7:00 p.m
By: Sebastian Grauvogl
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On the podium: Green Party member of the Bundestag Karl Bär and CSU Minister Michaela Kaniber.
SCREENSHOT: BR media library © Screenshot BR media library
After the BBV rally in Munich, Green Bundestag member Karl Bär from Holzkirchen also faced criticism from farmers on television.
And he made concrete suggestions.
District
- Even if the honking of the tractors in front of the town hall could be heard in the television studio set up there: the Holzkirchner Green Bundestag member Karl Bär had a much easier time acoustically on the BR program “Now red i” in Memmingen than he had a few weeks earlier big BBV rally on Munich's Odeonsplatz.
As reported, the arguments of the chairman of the Federal Government's Agriculture Committee were lost in the general chorus of whistles and boos from the demonstrators.
Police protection would still not have been necessary, Bär confessed on “Now red i” when presenter Tilmann Schöberl confronted him with the fact that two BKA officers had accompanied him to the demo.
“They’re just professionally cautious,” Bär noted with a wink.
The Holzkirchner did not sit alone on the BR podium, but with Bavaria's Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (CSU).
Both were cross-examined by the audience, which consisted largely of farmers, and tried to sort out the mix of criticism, questions and suggestions regarding agricultural policy with objective arguments.
In fact, both politicians managed to avoid blaming each other and instead presented concrete approaches to action.
Finally implement future prospects
Bär initially called for the future prospects for livestock farming developed after the referendum “Save the Bees” to be finally implemented together with agriculture and with the support of the experts from the Borchert Commission.
“The will of the farmers is there.” Specifically, Bär campaigned for an animal welfare cent and for mandatory contracts between farmers and dairies or meat processors in the sense of price planning security.
Also read: Karl Bär (Greens) constituency office in Holzkirchen smeared
The Holzkirchner responded to the criticism of the traffic light savings plans, which would hit farmers hard, with the mandatory debt brake in the federal budget.
This makes cuts necessary in many areas, not just in agriculture.
Bär gave hope with the prophecy that the area subsidies with watering cans, from which large farms in particular benefit, would be eliminated from 2027 in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Less meat consumption for health and environmental protection
Bär had to master a difficult balancing act at the end of the hour-long program when presenter Schöberl confronted him with the demand of an Animal Rebellion activist in the audience to reduce animal husbandry in Bavaria by 80 percent.
It is certainly better for health and the environment to consume fewer animal products, said Bär.
So there will be “no way around” a reduction.
Nevertheless, livestock farming is an integral part of local grassland farming.
sg