When Germany's farmers woke up on Friday, they were amazed: Hardly anyone in the industry had expected that the transport politician Cem Özdemir will now take over the Ministry of Agriculture for the Greens and not the agricultural politician Toni Hofreiter.

But farmers' president Joachim Rukwied was satisfied with the outcome of this power struggle within the Greens.

“It doesn't matter to me whether someone has a stable smell,” he said.

“A prominent face in the Ministry of Agriculture helps agriculture.” A green minister of agriculture was not the farmers' wish - but they prefer a “realo” like Özdemir to a representative of the left wing.

Julia Löhr

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

But even if Rukwied and representatives of other associations breathed a sigh of relief, it remains to be seen whether their hopes for a pragmatic agricultural policy will be fulfilled. In hardly any other area have the fronts between politicians and practitioners hardened as they did in this one. Many farmers felt provoked, for example, by the tightened fertilizer ordinance and the legislative package on insect protection. Again and again they demonstrated with their trekkers in the government district. The future commission for agriculture, which was convened by Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), made up of farmers, environmental associations and the food industry, pacified the situation somewhat and jointly presented a concept for restructuring agriculture. But the traffic light coalition has formulated its own plans in the coalition agreement,who set other priorities.

30 percent of German agriculture should be based on ecological criteria by 2030. It is still only a good 10 percent. However, the willingness of consumers to buy the much more expensive organic products is manageable. The market has to show whether the target number will be reached, said Rukwied. Another controversial topic is likely to be the conversion of animal husbandry. The SPD, the Greens and the FDP want a “financial system supported by market participants”, the income of which is to be used to finance the conversion of the stables to a species-appropriate attitude. The big question will be: who pays for it in the end? Farmers have already warned: If they should, the number of farms in this country will continue to fall. "It cannot be that we are relocating animal husbandry to other European countries," said Rukwied on Friday.And the use of pesticides is as competitive as ever.

Julia Klöckner has already congratulated Özdemir

Like the farmers, the employees in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture also breathed a sigh of relief this week. The fact that it will be retained as an independent ministry and not, as has since been rumored from the negotiations, will be merged with the environment ministry, provided relief at the offices in Berlin and Bonn. This means that there will continue to be conflicts between the two houses. But since both the agriculture and the environment departments are in the green hands in the future, disagreements, at least that's the hope, could no longer escalate as in the past - even if Steffi Lemke, one of the party links, takes over the environment ministry. It is still unclear whether responsibility for the forest will remain with the Ministry of Agriculture. It would also fit into the environment or the economics and climate ministries.

The managing minister of agriculture Julia Klöckner (CDU) has already congratulated Özdemir, according to her spokesman, and promised a smooth transition.

Farmer President Rukwied also wants to talk to Özdemir soon, whether in Berlin or on his farm in Eberstadt;

Rukwied and Özdemir both come from Baden-Württemberg.

At the Green Week, the traditional industry meeting in January, there will be no joint appearances this year either: The fair was canceled on Friday due to the high Corona numbers.