Agricultural Policy in Germany

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The agricultural policy in Germany determines the framework conditions for agriculture in Germany . It is part of the common agricultural policy of the European Union . Crucial policy areas are shaped by the EU; the individual member country, e.g. B. Germany is responsible for the implementation.

  • Market and price policy : This is almost exclusively designed at the EU level. Implementation takes place at national level. The federal government has the function of setting framework regulations for implementation. The practical implementation takes place at the level of the federal states.
  • Agricultural structural policy : This area is also primarily shaped by the EU. The national implementation takes place at the federal level mainly within the framework of the joint task of improving the agricultural structure and coastal protection (GAK). This also means that the EU funding measures are co-financed by federal funds. At the level of the federal states, the EU regulations and the GAK are implemented in practical measures and z. Partly in turn co-financed.
  • Agricultural social policy : This policy area is designed at the federal level.

aims

The goals of German agricultural policy were laid down in the Agriculture Act in 1955 . Since the law is still in force today, these goals still apply today.

Then it is important

  • to secure agriculture with the means of general economic and agricultural policy - in particular trade, tax, credit and price policy - participation in the advancing development of the German economy,
  • to ensure the best possible supply of food for the population,
  • to enable agriculture to compensate for its natural and economic disadvantages compared to other economic sectors,
  • increase the productivity of agriculture and
  • to bring the social situation of people working in agriculture into line with that of comparable occupational groups.
  • the countries had to be able to support themselves again

In the annual agricultural report , the federal government sets out its short and medium-term agricultural policy goals.

Institutions relevant to agricultural policy in Germany

legislative branch

In the legislative area , the organs of the Bundestag and Bundesrat at federal level and the state parliaments at state level are agricultural policy decision-makers. For agricultural policy, v. a. the competing legislation is relevant. This applies in particular to laws of agricultural social policy (e.g. law on old-age provision for farmers ), but also framework regulations e.g. B. in the field of nature conservation.

Article 24 of the Basic Law empowers the federal government to transfer sovereign rights by law to intergovernmental institutions. The EC treaties transferred responsibility for agricultural market and price policy (since 1967) and for the basic orientation of agricultural structure policy (since 1972) to the EU institutions.

In the German Bundestag, matters relevant to agricultural policy are referred to the Bundestag Committee on Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture . The draft laws are examined and discussed in detail in the committee meetings, and experts from administration , associations and science are often interviewed. There is also an agricultural committee in the Federal Council that deals with agricultural issues.

executive

The federal and state governments as well as the ministries of agriculture at federal and state level with their subordinate departments are the executive bodies that are important in terms of agricultural policy .

Within the Federal Cabinet, the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture (currently Julia Klöckner) is responsible for all agricultural policy matters. In making his decisions, however, he is subject to the control of the other cabinet members, whose consent he needs for all important matters.

Logo of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture

The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) has the following tasks:

  • Monitoring of agricultural policy developments
  • Supervision of the proper implementation of the laws and ordinances issued
  • Creation of implementing regulations for legally binding laws
  • Preparation of draft laws
  • Coordination of the planned measures with other ministries.

The governments of the federal states carry out political leadership and management tasks at the state level. They are composed of the Prime Minister and the State Ministers. In a few federal states there are independent ministries for agriculture and forestry . Often these are in combination with nutrition and consumer protection or rural areas ( Baden-Württemberg , Bavaria , Lower Saxony), otherwise agriculture was combined with other areas, e.g. B. with environmental or nature protection, economy and transport or spatial planning (Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia ). Together with their subordinate agencies, the federal state ministries responsible for agriculture are primarily responsible for implementing EU regulations and federal laws. However, since these generally allow the countries a certain degree of leeway in the practical implementation, they can often take country-specific aspects into account, so that there are sometimes considerable differences in implementation. In addition, the state governments have the opportunity to take their own state political measures within their scope of competence.

Chamber of Agriculture

After the Second World War , chambers of agriculture ( LK Schleswig-Holstein , Rhineland-Palatinate, LK Bremen , Saarland, LK North Rhine-Westphalia , LK Lower Saxony ) or similar institutions (LK Hamburg, Berlin) were set up in most federal states based on the corresponding pre-war institutions . In southern Germany, however, the establishment of independent professional self-governing institutions (Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) was abandoned or these were dissolved again after a while (Hesse). No chambers of agriculture have been set up in the new federal states either.

As corporations under public law, the chambers of agriculture occupy a middle position between the state bodies and professional organizations: On the one hand, they perform sovereign administrative tasks on behalf of the federal states (e.g. implementation of funding measures, participation in landscape planning), but at the same time also act as self-governing agricultural institutions (e.g. advice, vocational training).

Agricultural collective bargaining partners

The General Association of German Agricultural and Forestry Employers' Associations e. V. is the national umbrella organization of the agricultural state employers' associations in Germany. Through its membership in the regional associations, the general association represents the collective bargaining interests of agricultural and forestry companies with permanent wage labor. The central task of the general association is to negotiate nationwide, collective bargaining policy benchmarks with the union. The result of the negotiations is then presented to the state labor associations as a federal recommendation for resolution, so that the collective bargaining authority ultimately rests with the state associations.

The horticultural, agricultural and forestry union (GGLF) was the union of the workers in the production plants or in the agricultural administration until 1995. On January 1, 1996, she joined the IG Bau-Steine-Erden. Since then this has been called IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt. The union represents the economic and social interests of its members in collective bargaining with the employers' associations and the general public and thus participates directly and indirectly in shaping working conditions, working hours and wages in the green professions.

Agricultural interest groups

The agricultural interest groups try to enforce their goals vis-à-vis other groups in society by influencing the political will-making and decision-making process, without bearing direct political responsibility themselves.

The most important interest groups in Germany include:

historical development

In the Weimar Republic

Agricultural policy after the First World War was shaped by the Reich Settlement Act and Max Sering's policy . It stipulated that large landowners had to give up parts of their land. This served the establishment of settlement courtyards or the expansion of small businesses. The agricultural policy goal was self-sufficient farms ("independent field food"), the area required for this was set as the upper limit of the land subsidy. In addition, these measures should prevent a rural proletariat from developing.

In National Socialism

Richard Walther Darré, 1937

Agricultural policy in the National Socialist German Reich was shaped by extensive changes in agricultural production structures and the associated association structure and legislation.

As early as 1930–1932, the National Socialists had won large numbers of supporters and votes in the farmers' associations . The representation of interests, which was centralized in the Reichsnährstand from 1933 , was of particular importance. As a self-governing body under the leadership of Walter Darré , it should control the market and production of agricultural products. The requirements of the blood-and-soil ideology propagated by the Reichsbauernführer collided with the requirements for modernizing and increasing agricultural production. The officially propagated self-sufficiency and independence from imports was never achieved. The relatively good nutritional situation of the Germans by European comparison until shortly before the end of the war was ultimately only possible through the millions of forced laborers and the massive exploitation of the occupied territories, which Darré's successor Herbert Backe organized and linked to a ruthless hunger policy .

In the Federal Republic of Germany until 1990

In the Federal Republic of Germany, founded in 1949, the social market economy was chosen as the economic system. In it, the direction of agricultural policy was characterized by supporting interventions by the public authorities in the agricultural market and by targeted support measures for agriculture. The model for agriculture in the Federal Republic of Germany was the family farm that had to be preserved.

After the end of World War II, immediate protective measures were necessary to secure the food supply for the population and to maintain and promote local agriculture. The market regulation laws for grain, milk and fat, cattle and meat as well as for sugar came into being (1949/51). These market regulations were characterized by fixed prices for the most important agricultural products, which enabled the federal government to limit imports to the extent necessary to supply the population. In addition, a levy system was introduced for grain , through which the price of grain bought on the world market could be adjusted to the German price level. The considerable price fluctuations on the world market could therefore not have a damaging effect on the German market. The reconstruction of agricultural production made rapid progress.

However, in the economic upswing that was now beginning, agriculture was unable to keep pace with the development of the overall economy. There was an increasing disparity (inequality; especially income) between agriculture and the rest of the economy. The Agriculture Act of 1955 was intended to secure the participation in the progressive development of the national economy, the social situation of the people working in agriculture to be brought into line with that of comparable professional groups and at the same time the best possible supply of the population guaranteed. Thus began the direct support measures for agriculture.

In agricultural social policy , the law on old-age benefits for farmers from 1957 is the third important piece of agricultural policy. This was socio-political uncharted territory in that there was and is no statutory pension scheme for any other group of self-employed entrepreneurs. Federal grants were planned from the start.

With the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, a new era in German agricultural policy began. The treaty provided for a common agricultural policy, which was initially limited to market and price policy and then expanded to include agricultural structure policy. Thus the national agricultural policy was determined more and more by the agricultural policy of the European Community or the European Union.

In the German Democratic Republic until 1990

The agricultural policy in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was based on the model of the Marxist-Leninist agricultural system of the Soviet Union. Thus, in the GDR since 1952, as well as in industry, the “planned construction of socialism in the country” was enforced.

From 1945, as part of the land reform, agricultural holdings with more than 100 hectares of land as well as all holdings of people who were often wrongly accused of being war criminals or guilty of war were expropriated in their entirety without compensation and until the beginning of 1950 the land was mainly given to landless new settlers ( Refugees, farm workers). In addition, the first nationally owned goods (VEG) were created.

The initially voluntary collectivization initiated in 1952 aimed at the transition of private businesses to large-scale cooperative-socialist production. However, due to the low response from the farmers, it was finally pushed forward with massive economic and political pressure. By the beginning of the 1960s, almost all family farms were forcibly transferred to collective management in an agricultural production cooperative (LPG).

In the years that followed, agriculture was restructured and plant and animal production were separated. Despite the more competitive structures, as has been shown since 1990, it was not possible in the GDR to establish a similarly productive agriculture as that in the FRG.

In reunified Germany since 1990

After reunification, the Agriculture Adjustment Act of June 29, 1990 created the legal basis for the full restoration and guarantee of private property in agricultural and forestry land, for equal opportunities in competition for all forms of ownership and economic activity in agriculture and forestry and thus for development a diversely structured agriculture in the former GDR. In addition, the LPG law was repealed on December 31, 1991 and the conversion or dissolution of the agricultural production cooperatives was regulated.

After the incorporation of the new federal states into the Federal Republic of Germany, the successor companies to the old LPGs had to secure their cultivation areas through lease agreements with numerous landowners. The landowners were granted claims to their old land ownership (restitutors). They acted alongside other farmers willing to lease as competitors for land and buildings. To handle the re-privatization of expropriated areas and businesses or to renovate companies, the state trust agency was created or its legal successor, the BVVG ( Bodenverwertungs- und -verwaltungs GmbH ). 1.9 million hectares of agricultural land fell to her. Of this, 0.6 million hectares were to be returned to federal states, municipalities and previous owners who had been expropriated after 1949 and were therefore entitled to return under the Property Act. In addition, about 1.3 million hectares were to be privatized from the land reform 1945-1949. The previous owners did not get their property expropriated under occupation law back, they could only file a claim for compensation through the burden sharing. The old debt regulation also caused major problems, as some of the agricultural companies were burdened with high debts from government obligations during the GDR era. To relieve the financial burden on the successor companies, the debt servicing for these liabilities was deferred or subordination of the capital providers was initiated.

As a result, there was a major structural change in the new federal states . The number and share of space owned by sole proprietorships and partnerships initially increased sharply (but is currently falling again at around 20,000 farms), while the share of space used by legal entities declined. The number of workers in agriculture, especially wage workers, fell accordingly. However, structural change is progressing throughout Germany: the number of farms fell by 1/3 from 1991 (around 541,000 farms) to 2006 (353,300 farms), and the number of people employed in agriculture rose from 1.53 million 900,000 from.

Furthermore, the family farm (based on history) represents the agricultural policy model in Germany. But the increasing price pressure on agricultural products - triggered by the increasing world market orientation and the reduction in agricultural protectionism - raises the question of whether this model is viable. A gradual transformation of the farms into commercial wage labor companies according to Eastern European or US American models (cooperatives, large farms) could also take place in Germany. In this context, environmental policy issues are playing an increasing role.

Since the 1990s, the promotion of organic agriculture has been a major goal of German agricultural policy. Especially under the red-green federal government (1998-2005) and Minister Renate Künast , the agricultural turnaround towards ecological agriculture was a core political issue.

In the Merkel I cabinet (2005–2009), Horst Seehofer was Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection until October 27, 2008 ; his successor Ilse Aigner held the office until September 2013. Since then, Hans-Peter Friedrich has been in charge of the ministry until the end of 2013. Christian Schmidt took over the office of the Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture.

Action Green crosses on arable land in winter cereals

In September 2019, the part-time farmer and former manager in the sugar industry, Willi Kremer-Schillings , started the Green Crosses campaign as an individual, without the various agricultural associations . Farmers' associations later joined the action. On November 26, 2019, several thousand farmers demonstrated with their tractors in the center of Berlin against the federal government's agricultural policy. The grassroots movement is protesting with Green Crosses against the federal government's agri-environmental package for more environmental and animal protection. This agri-environmental package has broken the barrel. For example, the package plans to reduce the use of glyphosate and completely ban it at the end of 2023. The use of other pesticides should also be restricted, particularly in protected areas and on the edge of fields and bodies of water. The Green Crosses campaign is against new regulations and demands more respect for their work. As a result of the planned restrictions, the farmers lost considerable land for cultivation, and in the absence of pesticides the yields would decrease and this without adequate financial compensation. The Green Crosses are intended to be a silent warning to politics and society and to encourage consumers to think.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Becker: Spaces of action of agricultural policy in the Weimar Republic between 1923 and 1929, 1st edition 1990. Boxed. ISBN 978-3-515-05449-2
  2. ↑ Tractor chaos in Berlin: Farmer's demo brings 20-kilometer convoys - Ice-cold reception for Klöckner , merkur.de on November 26, 2019, accessed on December 25, 2019
  3. ^ Silent protest in the fields at Tagesschau on October 1, 2019