In order to maintain the alpine economy in the future and to prevent the organic shelves from only being filled by foreign farmers, new funding structures are needed, says Daniel Zadra, agriculture spokesman for the Greens. In any case, capitulating to the agricultural lobby is not a solution.
The demand for organic products is increasing and increasing. More and more people want to be sure that their food is free from pesticides and comes from ecologically sustainable agriculture. So much for the good news. The bad: Vorarlberg is lagging behind developments in the organic share of farms. Abroad overtakes LändleFor Daniel Zadra of the Greens, this is a highly problematic circumstance – and homemade: “The amount of organic food on the market has doubled since 2016,” confirms the agriculture spokesman . “At the same time, the number of Vorarlberg organic farmers in the state is stagnating with 16.4 percent for farms and 18.8 percent for the area used.” Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, would aim for an organic share of 30 to 40 percent , in the Swiss canton of Graubünden this would already be 66 percent. Promoting species diversity Numbers like these are grist to Zadra’s mill, as he criticizes the buckling of the European agricultural policy in front of the “successful lobbyists”. What is urgently needed is a corresponding restructuring of the funding structures. This is the only way to help the local farmers. Such a restructuring of subsidies would also be necessary in order to maintain alpine farming. This is namely “not threatened by the wolf”, as Zadra says, but by the wrong agricultural policy. His ideal finance model: “The steeper a slope, the more species-diverse a meadow, the more compensation is needed.”
source site-12