BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) – Despite the tense situation on the grain markets, Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Greens) is critical of exceptions to land set-aside. “We’re welcome to discuss areas, but then we’ll talk about the whole picture,” he said in Brussels on Monday. Then there is talk, for example, about converting animal husbandry in order to gain land for food instead of using it for fodder production.
The background is that in the EU from 2023 at least four percent of the arable land should no longer be cultivated. This is to protect flora and fauna. Since Russia’s war against Ukraine broke out, calls for less stringent environmental protection in order to produce more crops have grown louder. Özdemir thinks little of it. “We are in the middle of the climate crisis, you could also say in the climate catastrophe,” he said.
