After the Greens decided in favor of Cem Özdemir as the future Minister of Agriculture, the question immediately arose of how this news would be received by the markets.

Reinhard Bingener

Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.

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At the Südstädter Markt in Hanover, the response on Friday a few hours after the start of trading was muted: Butcher Björn Meisner also had no time to deal with the personnel in more detail;

he first had to bring his sausages from the Gifhorn district to the state capital.

Özdemir is a vegetarian

As the owner of a butcher's shop, he should perhaps take a closer look at the future minister: Özdemir is a staunch vegetarian.

“His problem,” says the butcher curtly.

A switch to veggie products is never an option for his company.

"We keep making the same sausage."

Farmer Banse, who brings among other things excellent rice pudding from his farm dairy in Wittingen, has already analyzed the new situation in more detail.

He is relieved that the Greens have chosen Özdemir.

“That's better than Anton Hofreiter,” says Banse.

“Because factual politics becomes difficult when ideology dominates.

I prefer a real like Özdemir. "

The organic question

Like many other dairy farmers, Banse is worried about the future. “We need a system change, no question about it.” But is that why you should switch to organic farming? Banse shrinks from it. “I know organic milk and poultry farms that have converted, but can't get rid of their products.” That is not only due to politics, but also to the mentality of the population. “First of all, we want to demonstrate at Fridays for Future, but then eat the chicken wings at Mäckes,” says Banse.

The fact that Özdemir is now a vegetarian to run the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture does not bother the dairy farmers as much.

“Everyone according to their own style.

Man is omnivorous.

If the good Lord had wanted us all to be vegetarians, He would have given us a few more stomachs.

And Özdemir is intelligent enough that that has no effect. "

Banses colleague "Siggi" Melzer, who represents conventional arable farming on the market, has also traveled from Wittingen.

At Melzer's stand there are very good potatoes from their own cultivation, and the price / performance ratio of the parsley is impressive.

Melzer also focuses on monetary issues with a view to the future direction of agricultural policy. At the moment he is particularly concerned about the sharp rise in fertilizer prices - a consequence of the high prices for natural gas. "There is certainly nothing wrong with becoming more sustainable overall," says the farmer, "but then the prices for food must also change". The potato farmer Melzer would have preferred a specialist politician as a minister instead of the foreign politician Özdemir.

“I don't think Özdemir knows that much about agricultural policy,” agrees organic farmer Sonja Rabe from the “Rabengarten” in Rodewald.

That does not mean, however, that she would have preferred Anton Hofreiter, a long-time specialist politician from the party's “Fundi” wing, to be Minister of Agriculture.

Because even the organic farmer is critical of the planned agricultural turnaround by the Greens.

“I'm already feeling a little sorry for my poor conventional colleagues,” says Rabe.

“They are getting more and more conditions, more and more pressure, zero appreciation - that's not okay.” Rabe has therefore also set up the green crosses of the rural protest movement “Land creates connections” on their own fields in their own fields.