display
The German Farmers' Association has once again warned emphatically about the government's insect protection plans.
"We consider the Federal Environment Minister's strategy of enforcing insect protection with bans to be grotto-wrong and even dangerous," said Farmer President Joachim Rukwied to the editorial network Germany.
"Many farming families would lose their livelihood."
The federal cabinet wants to pass an insect protection law on Wednesday at the suggestion of Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD), as well as an ordinance with stricter rules for the use of pesticides in the fields.
Rukwied objected to the ban on the use of pesticides in certain protected areas.
"If the minister prevails, for example, viticulture in the Kaiserstuhl would be completely history," said the farmers' president.
"We're not just talking about destroyed capital and lost jobs, but about the end of a centuries-old part of our culture."
display
Rukwied also refused to take parts of the agricultural area out of management for environmental protection.
"We farmers want to use our land and not leave it lying idle."
Orchards could also become fewer
Already today not all areas are intensively cultivated.
Many farming families would lose their livelihood as a result of this.
"We're not just talking about destroyed capital and lost jobs, but about the end of a centuries-old part of our culture."
Rukwied also assessed the protection of orchards planned by Schulze as critical.
“If you put the meadows under protection, you deprive the farmers of the funding opportunity.
Then the meadows are no longer cared for and the trees are no longer replanted.
That would not help the insects either - on the contrary, ”he said.
The farmer president admitted that agriculture also had to improve in terms of nature conservation and advocated a cooperative approach.
"What is important to me is not a legal obligation, but cooperative nature conservation," he said.