German report signals agrifood revolution

Germany’s farmers, food retailers and environment groups have backed a far-reaching reform plan to end ruinous economic and environmental practices in the country’s agrifood sector.

On Tuesday a government commission presented its 170-page report to Chancellor Angela Merkel, potentially ending hard-nosed, postwar price politics that gave the world the deep-discount retailers Aldi and Lidl.

Dr Merkel described the report’s presentation as an “important day” in the history of German agriculture and welcomed its proposals to help small farmers survive, improve animal welfare and boost plant and bee diversity.

“For the sake of sustainability, we need a comprehensive transformation process, which has begun and must be vigorously pursued,” said Dr Merkel.

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She set up the “Future of Agriculture” commission in 2019 after farmer protests brought Berlin and other cities to a standstill, warning that the price politics of German retailers were ruining their existence and causing huge animal suffering.

“The price of food has remained low . . . and for most [German] consumers price is the most important purchase criteria, followed by quality,” notes the report.

“Consumers who want to take sustainability factors into account have the problem that there is no transparency . . . the ‘true price’ is not known, which leads to a high level of food waste.”

Postwar German consumer priorities – large quantity, low cost – have begun to shift noticeably only in the last decades. The rise of the Fridays for Future movement, and a series of unflattering exposés about working – and sanitary – conditions in Germany’s meat industry all helped catalyse public demands for change.

All the major food retailers now have full organic ranges and, in recent weeks, discount market leaders Aldi and Lidl have funded expensive advertising campaigns promising a gradual departure from intensively-farmed meat.

Germany’s federal environment minister Svenja Schulze said the report was a landmark because all 31 groups involved saw “a chance for a new common start in agricultural policies”.

“There is broad consensus that the current agricultural model is neither economically or environmentally sustainable,” she said.

Rewards

A common thread through the report is the principle of nudging players towards change by rewarding behaviour that is environmentally progressive.

Kai Niebert, head of a leading German environment group, Naturschutzring, agreed: “For me it is a historic moment that we have found a unanimous result supported by agrochemical sector and farming sector through to environmental groups.”

Farmers should be encouraged, through national and European Union subsidies, to move away from intensive farming; German consumers, already eating less meat than ever before, could be encouraged to eat more healthily with lower VAT on vegetarian food options to offset higher food prices.

As well as national proposals, the report takes issue with the current EU subsidy payments system – introduced 30 years ago as a transitory measure with the rise of the World Trade Organisation – as “not just and in need of reform”.

For Germany’s agricultural trade press, the fact that all players remained in the commission to the end bodes well for the future.

“If environmental activists and farmers no longer view each other as enemies but as partners – that would be an investment of immeasurable value,” said the Agrarheute trade daily.

Dr Merkel admitted the commission’s report had come late – at the end of her fourth and final term of office – but could yet trigger the transformation of EU agriculture into a “large sustainability project, which at the same time secures food supply and environmental protection”.

For her successor in Berlin, Dr Merkel joked she had left “a nice package” of reforms: “They won’t be able to get around this report.”