Environmental protection and economy don't go together without it hurting a little.

At least that was the picture presented to visitors at the official opening of this year's asparagus season in Hesse on Wednesday.

While the Hessian Environment Minister Priska Hinz (Die Grünen) emphasized how important sustainability is, planes headed for Frankfurt Airport thundered over the field of Spargelhof Mager in Weiterstadt every few minutes.

"It's not climate friendly when asparagus is brought in from far away by truck or plane," she said.

Kim Maurus

volunteer.

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In order to remain competitive, the Hessian farmers exhausted the cultivation period "with efficient cultivation methods".

On Hessen's fields, these are plastic covers that keep the asparagus warm in the ground and allow them to grow earlier in the year.

"That's not without controversy, and we would all like to do without it if there were something else," said Hinz.

The working group Spargel Südhessen came up with an interim solution and recycled 400 tons of foil last year, said chairman Rolf Meinhardt.

This saved around 273 tons of CO2, which is what around 20 trees bind every year.

This year's asparagus harvest isn't giving Meinhardt any headaches.

Minority vaccinated against Corona

In 2021 it had rained enough and the sunny March was ideal: "We can hope for a good, safe harvest." But the good poles are becoming more expensive again: the higher costs for energy, fertilizer, machine parts and wages have to be absorbed .

Above all, the fertilizer that has to be bought this year for the coming year is many times more expensive.

"There's still more to come," said Meinhardt.

Asparagus will cost between 8 euros and 18 euros per kilogram this year.

This time, however, there is no shortage of harvest workers.

Most come from Croatia and Romania.

The farmer knows that people who live on the border with Ukraine are not there this year because they work in border security because of the war.

The companies are still busy with Corona.

Only about a third of harvest workers have been vaccinated against the virus.

It is up to the managers to do the convincing work here.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, asparagus was grown on around 1,700 hectares in Hesse in 2021.

That is about 30 percent of the area under cultivation for vegetables outdoors.

9585 tons of asparagus were harvested, each Hessian ate an average of 1.5 kilos.