"Circulation flood = income ebb", "Özdemir: loosen the animal welfare brake" or "The land between the seas soon without shrimp boats"? - Hundreds of farmers and fishermen protested again on Thursday in Büsum, Schleswig-Holstein, on the occasion of the Agriculture Ministers' Conference against agricultural policy and feared cuts in the shrimp fishery. Dozens of cutters were crowded in the small North Sea port, and there were numerous tractors on the shore - according to the police, around 400 tractors and 60 cutters came to Büsum on Wednesday. Among other things, the conversion of animal husbandry to fewer animals in the barn planned by Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Greens) and the ban on bottom trawls in protected areas planned by the EU Commission are causing many concerns.
The agriculture ministers will meet in Büsum for their spring conference until Friday. There is a lot of need for advice and the agenda is long: A total of 36 points are on the agenda - in addition to the planned ban on bottom trawls and the restructuring of animal husbandry, these include dealing with wolves and geese, grazing, killing chicks, saving food and the further development of EU agricultural policy.
Farmers want more support
The President of the Schleswig-Holstein Farmers' Association, Klaus-Peter Lucht, said at a rally in front of the conference hotel on Thursday morning that politicians must understand "that we, as farmers, are the economic engine of rural areas". Farmers are ready for change and want to go with them. "But then politicians must also be willing to support us."
He is tired of being a political plaything, said Hans-Peter Goldnick from the Schleswig-Holstein poultry industry association at a rally of the farmers' association. "Livestock is the backbone of agriculture." He urged ministers to listen to the expertise of the profession.
The demonstrators received approval from the Agriculture Ministers from Schleswig-Holstein, Werner Schwarz, and Saxony-Anhalt, Sven Schulze (both CDU). It is becoming apparent that a compromise can be reached on some points, Schwarz said to the demonstrators. But "solving all problems today and tomorrow" is not possible. "But I'm assuming that we'll make a step forward in many areas."
The future of agriculture
Schulze also pledged his support to the demonstrators. It's about the future of agriculture, the food industry "and we want people to listen to us in Berlin". You are ready to compromise. "But for us, compromises don't mean that people try to discuss things with us until we accept Cem Özdemir's opinion." That will not be the compromise.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture insists on a conversion towards fewer animals per barn. Schulze, Schwarz and their colleagues from three other Union-led ministries of agriculture fear that if Özdemir's plans become reality, meat will be imported from animals that are produced under lower animal welfare and environmental standards.
Another topic that triggered major discussions in the coastal countries prior to the conference and which hits a fishing port like Büsum immensely is the EU Commission's planned ban on bottom trawls in protected areas. Here the positions seem to be more similar, at least between the federal government and the northern German state governments concerned - they see the planned ban critically. "I don't think the proposed undifferentiated blanket ban on bottom trawls is the right way, because it would have serious consequences for the German shrimp fishery," Özdemir said recently.
