Every eighth farmer relies on organic farming, by 2030 it should be every third. But because the costs are exploding, the organic farmers have to fight.
“The real life of the cow takes place on the pasture” – organic farmer Bernd Schmitz in Hennef
Greta Thunberg, the figurehead of the global climate protection movement, was there. Luisa Neubauer, the face of Germany from Fridays for Future, too – of course. It was anything but a matter of course that Bernd Schmitz made his way to Lützerath last weekend to protest against the demolition of the small village for lignite mining.
But his 48 black and white spotted Holstein cows had to do without the organic farmer from Hennef near Bonn for a day. Because Schmitz does not let an issue rest, which was almost completely lost in the heated debate about Lützerath: In the small village in North Rhine-Westphalia, it is not only about Germany's efforts for more climate protection, but also about the agricultural turnaround in this country. Or to put it another way: not only about the coal underground, but also about the ground above.
Schmitz also relies on mother-bound calf rearing on his farm, so young animals stay with their mothers
“How can it be that we produce nonsensical products that take a lot of energy while digging away our food base? And how does it relate if we, as farmers, are required to not release carbon from the grass roots while in Lützerath many millions of tons of CO2 are blown into the atmosphere?”
More and more farmers are giving up
Perhaps only a few farmers would have asked themselves these questions a few years ago, but many farmers in Germany are on edge right now. Every day, six companies close in this country, mainly due to the exploding production costs. Farm deaths continue mercilessly, there are still 256,000 in Germany, and the trend is falling.
The Hanfer Hof, which was first mentioned in a document in 1850 and is run by Schmitz and his family in the fifth generation, is now the smallest farm in the area. All the smaller companies have given up in frustration. If you ask Bernd Schmitz how many more years he can hold out in 2022, he says: “One. I had to pay 50 percent more for fuel and electricity than the year before. We can't make up for that in the long run. With my daughters, who want to take over the farm, we have to consider whether this still has a future.”
Finally, there is also climate change, which does not stop at German meadows. In the meantime, Schmitz had to reduce his number of cows to 35 because his pastures were no longer providing enough feed for all the animals due to the drought. A vicious circle: no water from above, no growth of grass, falling yields due to fewer livestock. “In the past few years, we sometimes had no rain for three months,” complains Schmitz.
Conversion to organic farming is halting
A good one in eight farmers in Germany relies on organic farming. The 35,000 organic farmers are particularly affected by the record inflation as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For the first time in its history, the organic market shrunk in 2022. According to the German Farmers' Association, sales fell by 4.1 percent by the end of October.
Organic farmers rely on high-tech
For months, consumers have been turning every penny three times over and avoiding the organic supermarkets. Sustainable shopping yes, but please cheaper. So if it's organic, it's mostly from discounters now, and Schmitz milk is now also in the refrigerated section of Aldi. For the 57-year-old, the trade, which only thinks profit-oriented, is partly to blame for the crisis: “It cannot be that they get a moderate price increase from our dairy and then pass on a multiple of the price increases to their customers.”
The organic farmer gets 56 cents for a liter of milk from the processing dairy, it would have to be 14 cents more for Schmitz to pay, he says. Germany has actually set itself the goal of being a country where organic milk and pesticide-free honey flow. By 2030, the federal government wants to increase organic farming to a share of 30 percent.
Criticism of Ministers Lindner, Özdemir and Lemke
Many experts consider this ambitious plan to be illusory. On the one hand, there is the changed purchasing behavior of consumers, then the hitherto sluggish ecological conversion of the cultivated areas and finally also the lack of support from politicians. Bernd Schmitz criticizes: “If society wants a conversion, then you have to finance it. This also includes the finance minister, who makes petrol cheaper but at the same time does not provide adequate financial support for animal welfare. If this does not happen, the conversion cannot take place .”
“As an organic farmer, you despair of the regulation rage of the German authorities” – Bernd Schmitz
Not only Finance Minister Christian Lindner, but also the Green Ministers for Agriculture and the Environment, Cem Özdemir and Steffi Lemke, get their fat from the organic farmer. Neither would have delivered as well as they could have, for a changed agricultural policy, big things are now required instead of spills. It starts on a small scale, like in the Bundestag canteen, where far too few organic products end up on the plates of MPs.
Less meat consumption, but more imports?
The farmer criticizes that it is largely up to the free trade agreement. An EU alliance with the South American Mercosur states could perhaps come this year, and a new attempt at a TTIP treaty with the USA also seems possible after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The CETA agreement with Canada is enough for Schmitz: “We want less meat consumption in Germany in order to protect the climate, and at the same time ratify a contract that allows the import of 60,000 tons of beef from Canada?”
Also Schmitz is on the road this weekend, protesting together with thousands of other farmers and 130 tractors at the “We're fed up” demonstration in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin for an ecological agricultural turnaround.
Federal Minister of Agriculture Özdemir must expect a clear protest from the farmers. Organic farmer Schmitz says: “We demand a changed agricultural policy that not only rewards growth, but also quality production.”